Brady's paper

Brady Lakes
Rachel Robson
Formal Writing 1
January 18, 2009
Legal Consumption
One of the most controversial questions of this day and age is, “What should be the legal age to consume alcoholic beverages?” This has been asked many times and many people disagree on what the answer should be. The answer that pops into my head is the very important number, 18. The United States should lower the legal age limit on alcohol consumption because, at this age, people can fight and die for their country along with vote for the next president (Johnson 2007).
My belief is that since one can make a decision to fight for his or her own country, then that person should be able to make his or her own decision on whether or not he or she drinks and alcoholic beverage. Also, if a person is mature enough to vote for our nation’s next president, put his or her life at risk in the military, and exploit his or her own body in nude pictures or videos, than that person should be mature enough to choose what he or she will drink. The legal age for buying tobacco products are also 18, and there is no difference in harming one’s body by tobacco or alcohol.
According to Dr. Ruth Clifford Engs, the legal drinking age in the United States is too high. The United States has one of the highest legal consumption ages in the world. One of the arguments that Dr. Ruth Clifford Engs makes is that there are different laws for the consumption of alcohol in many of the states her in America. There are a tremendous amount of exceptions to the law. The exceptions include religion, medical purposes, private clubs, and in the course of a lawful employment. These are just some of the exceptions that allow persons under the legal age to consume alcoholic beverages (Hanson 2007).
I decided to take this away from studies already done and I went an interviewed a 19 year old student here at Morningside College. When asked on what he thought the legal drinking age should be in the United States, he said 18. I then asked him why he thought this and he then said “there would be less accidents caused by alcohol consumption because teens would not be afraid to call their parents for a ride home. The teens would then make better choices because they would not risk getting into trouble”. This comes from a teen that when asked how important alcohol was to him he laughed and said he rarely drinks. So a rationally thinking 19 year old who almost never drinks sees the bright side to lowering the drinking age. I believe that someone a little older and a bit more mature should be able to see the point that is being made, and that is, lowering the legal age to consume alcohol is not going to hurt this country, it is in fact going to help our country become more mature in making rational decisions (Miller).
There are many different arguments against changing the legal limit to consume alcoholic beverages but the arguments for changing the limit are much stronger. The legal age should be changed to 18 to avoid more accidents and more mature choices.

Work Cited
Hanson, Prof. David J. Ph.D. “Legal Drinking Age”. 2007. 18 January 2009 http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html.
Johnson, Alex. “Debate on lower drinking age bubbling up”. 14 August 2007. 18 January 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/.
Miller, Landon. Interview. 18 January 2009.

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