Minimum Legal Drinking Age Debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Minimum Legal Drinking Age Debate - Essay Example They are therefore at a higher risk of harming or even killing themselves and other people by engaging in drinking before age 21. In this paper, I will be arguing that MLDA21 has been effective and therefore should be maintained. Minimum Legal Drinking Age is a controversial topic in the United States. The MLDA in the United States is set at the age of 21 whereas 90 percent of the countries around the world have set lower MLDAs. Interestingly young adults in the countries that have lower MLDA seem to consume alcohol in a more proper way while binge drinking and alcohol poisoning continue to present as serious issues in America. This phenomenon has raised a growing public concern with groups like Choose Responsibility beginning to call for lowering of the MLDA to 18. On the counter argument is Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) who proposed the MLDA 21 in 1984 back with the federal government’s support. The original purpose of setting MLDA at the age 21 was to curb the rise drunk driving presented which was a serious issue at the time. There are more hidden benefits of this law that have been realized along the way of its implementation. MLDA 21 has been effective in preventing not only drunk driving but also reducing the spread of drug use to lower age groups and thus lowering the MLDA may cause spillover effects through the introduction of alcohol-related issues to younger populations. In July 2008, more than one hundred university and college presidents signed the Amethyst Initiative, calling for public debates and reconsideration of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age. As a voice of those who demand to lower the MLDA continued to get louder and louder, Jeffrey A. Miron, a senior lecturer of Harvard University, wrote an article on Forbes discussing the background factors.