Argumentative Essay on Changing the Age of Liquor Laws

Introduction

There exists a Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) which determines the legal age at which an individual can buy or publicly drink alcoholic beverages. In the United States, the MLDA has been set at 21 years (DeJong and Blanchette 2014). The MLDA was set at 21 after the enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 and before this, the legal age of alcohol purchase and consumption differed in each of the states. The law in the United States defines alcohol as any beverage in liquid form which is made up of not less than one-half of 1% of alcohol by volume.

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Over time there have been several debates on the minimum legal drinking age since the enactment of the drinking act in 1984. For instance, in 2008 several university presidents renewed the national debate on the established drinking age. There have also been a lot of debates in the different states on this minimum drinking age. The debates are always centered on reducing the minimum legal drinking age from 21 years. I think it is time the legislators came together and reviewed the established minimum drinking age. The minimum legal drinking age in the United States needs to be reduced from 21 years to 18 years.

First of all, the legal voting age in the United States is 18 years. The voting age was lowered from 21 years to 18 years after the 26th amendment of the in March 1971, and President Richard Nixon signed the amendment into law in July of the same year (DeJong and Blanchette 2014). One of the main reasons for the amendment of the voting law was the World War II. During the war, President Franklin Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for joining the military to 18 years. The argument that was used during the 26th amendment was that if the 18-year-olds' were old enough to fight then they were old enough to vote. Therefore using the same argument if people are old enough to go to war and exercise voting rights then they can as well as be allowed to purchase and take alcohol. If at 18 years the nation considers one old enough to go off to war, I believe that at 18 years an individual should be allowed to purchase and consume alcohol. The same applies to election whereby 18-year-olds are considered adults old enough to choose their preferred leader which also means that they can also be left to make sound decisions on whether to take alcohol or not.

Many states in the United States offer exceptions to the minimum legal drinking age. These states make up at least three dozens of all the states and the offer exceptions to the drinking practices which are applicable in private residences or with a parent. Some states such as Texas allow underage individuals to consume and be in possession of alcohol if they are in the company of a parent or guardian. The states stipulate that the guardian must be over 21 years old and entrusted by the parents. In states such as California minor below 21 years are allowed to consume and possess alcohol when in private locations (Crost and Rees 2013). Therefore, it is possible to find teenagers drinking in bars and restaurants accompanied by their parents or a guardian. Some other states also allow minors under the age of 21 to drink alcohol for health and religious reasons. With these exceptions in place, I can comfortably state that the regulations are not entirely against minors drinking. I think the 21 years minimum age limit has been set so as to regulate the alcohol drinking by minors. Therefore, I think the law should just be clear on the minimum age limit for alcohol with no exceptions. In order to efficiently achieve this the current minimum legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 years to 18 years. Based on this, only individuals above 18 years should be allowed to purchase and consume alcohol.

Conclusion

In most of the countries, they have set the minimum drinking age at 18 years. A survey of the minimum legal drinking ages in 190 countries established that 116 countries have set their minimum drinking age at 18 years (World Health Organization 2012). The survey also established that 18 years is the age in which one is considered an adult and issued with an identification card in most countries. Therefore, if the youth in most of the other countries in the world are allowed to take alcohol 18 years then the United States will not be attempting something new if the lower the legal drinking age to 18 years. The 18-years-olds' have been able to drink responsibly in the stated countries with very few countries raising the minimum legal drinking age from 18. Consequently, we can trust that at 18 years, the teens in the united states will be able to drink responsibly just like their counterparts in the rest of the world. Lowering the minimum legal drinking age to 18 years will also save the United States a lot of time and money which is spent implementing the drinking laws on the young adults. Instead, these resources can be channeled into educating the youth on safe and responsible practices of taking alcohol.

Works Cited

Crost, Benjamin, and Daniel I. Rees. "The minimum legal drinking age and marijuana use: New estimates from the NLSY97." Journal of health economics 32.2 (2013): 474-476.

DeJong, William, and Jason Blanchette. "Case closed: research evidence on the positive public health impact of the age 21 minimum legal drinking age in the United States." Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement s17 (2014): 108-115.

World Health Organization. "Alcohol in the European Union: consumption, harm and policy approaches: Final report, Copenhagen 27 March 2012." (2012).