The Drinking Age: An 18-Year-Olds Right

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1) It can, however,
easily be argued that since these studies came out right after the drinking
ages had been lowered, they would naturally show that there was an increase
in death among teenagers. Anytime you change something dramatically it
takes a while for things to settle into a routine. If all of a sudden,
for instance, you allow 18-year-olds to drink alcohol when before they
couldn't, it's going to take a while before that becomes the norm, and
therefore less exciting and alluring. These studies would have been far
more accurate if they had been done after society had adapted to the change.

When the government found that many of the states were lowering the
drinking age to 18 and 19, it began to worry about the safety of teens in
those and neighboring states. One of the ways that the government tried to
discourage this was by offering increased highway incentives for any states
who maintained a minimum. The states were only too quick to volunteer to
raise ...

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of
illegal drinking on college campuses.
A minimum drinking age of ten obviously makes no sense because no
one would expect a 10-year-old to be able to distinguish between an
alcoholic beverage and a non-alcoholic one. However 19 as a minimum
drinking age is a much more realistic goal. The theory is that by 19 most
people have completed or are at least out of high school and are out
functioning in a world much older than that of their days in school. They
are expected to be more mature, and to act as adults in all other ways.
They can smoke, marry, have sexual relationships, have children, buy
lottery tickets, make contracts, and die, but in most states are still not
old enough to ...

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