what is the right drinking age? Essay -- essays research papers fc

American society believes that lowering the drinking age back to eighteen will lead to a domino affect of bad premonitions like rampant drinking binges, raving alcoholics, and more traffic accident deaths upon the entire nation. Realistic Alcohol Laws for Legal Youth (RALLY) is one of many major organizations dedicated to rectifying these faulty perspectives that Americans hold. Due to the irrelevance on the number of alcohol related car accidents in the 1970?s, the parents obligation to teach responsible drinking, and the fact that eighteen year olds have the same constitutional rights as all adults, I believe that the legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered to eighteen. Whatever our personal opinion may be, we can not denounce that alcohol has been embedded with every major civilized society from the Greeks to the Romans and even American society as it was stated in the book Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol (Barbour 25-32). Drinking has been part of the social element since colonial America. According to the book Alcohol: Teenage Drinking, alcohol was viewed as ?God?s Good Creature (Lang 25).? The view of alcohol then changed during the Prohibition period when it became known as ?Demon Rum?. Despite this ?Demon Rum? perspective, society rebelled astoundingly against the 18th Amendment to the Constitution (Prohibition) emphasizing the idea that American people wanted their liquor. Tough restrictions on alcohol and the general concept that alcohol is wicked exist to this day. The controversy lies in that the government literally blackmailed states into increasing the legal drinking age. The nationwide legal age limit was enforced with the threat that President Reagan would not give money to states for roads until they increased their drinking ages. When Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, the country went dry to everyone under 21-legally, that is. Now, some young adults are opting to reverse that decision. We must take into account that alcohol and teens are very well acquainted. The book, Teenagers and Alcohol: When Saying No Isn?t Enough, asserts that high school surveys in the last decade show that ninety-two percent of its students have tried alcohol (Vogler & Bartz 4). Former Senator Baker says, in Teenagers and Alcohol: When Saying No Isn?t Enough, that alcohol is the ?bloody monster that defiles i... ...cohol and not simply hide, ignore, and misunderstand it. Works Cited Barbour, Scott, Bruno Leone, and Brenda Stalcup, eds. Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998. Castaà ±eda, Carol J. ?La. Drinking-age ruling rekindles debate.? USA Today 22 Mar. 1996: 3A. Chafetz, Morris E. ?Teach responsible drinking.? Editorial. USA Today 30 Oct. 1997: 14A. Chwat, John. ?Education, not laws, will make roads safe.? Interview. USA Today 7 Apr. 1989: 10A. De la Cruz, Hector. General Motors. Clark Chevrolet Representative. Interview. By JM. Kelly, Rachel. ?The real answer is abstinence.? Interview. USA Today 7 Apr. 1989: 10A. Lang, Alan R. Ph.D. Alcohol: Teenage Drinking. New York: Chelsea House, 1992. ?Medical Examiner.? University of North Carolina. Online. AOL. ?Statistics.? American Cancer Society. Online. AOL. Vogler, Roger E. Ph.D., and Wayne R. Bartz, Ph.D. Teenagers and Alcohol: When Saying No Isn?t Enough. Philadelphia: The Charles Press, 1992. Wells, Melanie. ?Coors chief: Consider lower drinking age.? USA Today 10 Sept. 1997: 4B. ?When were the best muscle cars made Motor Trend. With Bob and Neil. TNN 31 July 1999.