Drinking Age Research Paper

The drinking age in the United States is twenty one, and is a topic of debate today. In 1984 Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act which made the national drinking age twenty one across the nation. Before Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, the drinking age varied throughout the states between eighteen and twenty one. This caused many states to change the age and become what it is now. Reagan signed the act for drinking age requirements to be twenty one,this not only reduced the sales of alcohol but also made illegally getting alcohol a more popular act. By selling more alcohol, like anything in the states, you get more money off of taxes. The only reason every state abided by this law was because if they didn’t then they would lose highway funding from …show more content…
The reality is that even with the drinking age being twenty one, most teens under twenty one will still and can still buy or get alcoholic drinks. Most people want what they can’t get and that’s just human nature. If you can possess alcohol at a younger age then that would reduce the probability of you making rash decisions on overdrinking. "When we raise the drinking age to 21, which incidentally is the highest in the world, it makes drinking more attractive to young people," says David J. Hanson, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam. This quote from David J. Hanson explains that very well. Rather than limiting alcohol sales to people over the age of twenty one, we should be teaching people how to safely consume it. The fact that a person can buy lottery tickets, join the military, sign contracts, and own a house at the age of eighteen but can’t consume alcohol is mind blowing. At the age of eighteen is when one becomes a legal adult with actual responsibility, so why not give them the power to responsibly