Lowering Drinking Age to 18
In 1920 eighteenth amendment was passed which is generally referred to as prohibition. In essence it prohibited drinking or manufacturing alcoholic beverages. Supporters of prohibition thought that it would bring stop to social problems associated with alcohol consumption. Soon it became clear that prohibition was a failure, it achieved nothing, since drinking was still rampant. It created many other problems like the growth of organized crime, increased disrespect for law, unregulated and dangerous beverages, increased violence, the loss of tax revenue, corruption of law enforcement and other public officials, increases in binge drinking, and many other serious problems.. It was repealed in 1933. In 1984 MADD (Mothers Against Drinking and Driving) have succefully changed public opinion and raised the drinking age to 21. That is how we got here today. There are a lot of different opinions on what the drinking age should be however there are 2 radical opinions that push the legislators. The first is that there shouldn't be a drinking age. The other one is that alcohol as a whole should be outlawed. Those represent the radical left and right of the spectrum. The more common views are that drinking age should be l
Another "fact" that neo-prohibitionist say is true, is that the older is the person when he drinks the less are chance of him becoming an alcoholic. However, today irrefutable scientific evidence supports the fact that the early introduction of drinking is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse. Teenagers in France, Spain, and Argentina rarely abuse alcohol. They learn how to drink within the family, which sees drinking in moderation as natural and normal. Young people in these societies rarely embarrass themselves or their families by abusing alcohol. In Portugal and New Zealand there are no minimum drinking age requirements. In Belgium, most of Canada, Italy, and Spain, young people of sixteen years may consume in restaurants when with parents or another adult. Australia and South Africa have an 18-year minimum. Sounds sort of like parents today, don't it? Similar thoughts are expressed thru out ages. The main conflict is that old people don't understand young people. Even though young people, 18-21, have the power to vote, many chose not to use it. Young people as whole, doesn't matter what generation are not united, if there is not some great cause for that (ex. Vietnam). Before Vietnam voting age was still twenty one. There is no great conflict for this generation, therefore we(young people) are not united. If the younger generation is not united, the older people get to make all the choices. This brings us back to the conflict of trust. There are as many solutions as there are opinions. First and the most prevalent among dominant culture is not doing anything. For a lot of people something that doesn't affect them directly, doesn't concern them. As far as people like that are concerned, either they don't remember when they couldn't drink under 21 or the drinking age was 18 when they were young. Also there are the conservative activists that believe that drinking should be illegal but since they know that nobody is going to agree with that they try to raise the age limit even steeper. On the other side of the issue we have the liberals activist who believe that it should be 18 or below. Then there other alternatives that conservative or liberals will never accept like the drinking permit and drinking license. The only practical solution that I ever see happening is change of education about alcohol, centering on moderation. This shoul
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Approximate Word count = 1609
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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