(Alsaab) 5 Mohammed Alsaab ENG 1225 Professor Lee Hinds 4 March, 2015 Should MLDA Be Lowered to 18? The History of MLDA (Minimum Legal Drinking Age) Most countries around the world have adopted MLDA laws for the purchase and /or possession of alcohol as a protective policy for the youth. Scientific evidence indicates that the lower the drinking age, the earlier the youth begin to decrease alcohol (at least in the United States). MLDA laws are vital components of any effort to control the production, marketing, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages (Philip, 528). Several studies have indicated that more accidents occurred as a result of lower drinking age. As a result there has been advocacy for restoring MLDA to 21. Due to such advocacy campaigns, 16 states increased their MLDA between September 1976 and January 1983. The US government also incrased this age to 21 too. Globally, many of the states who hold the minimum drinking age laws have been initiated for decades and they have never been changed at all except for one or two countries. One of the exceptions is the US. The minimum drinking age laws are much effective in the US. After the repeal of Prohibition in the US in 1993 the MLDA laws were established (David & Jon, 54). Many countries at that time sat the MLDA at the age of 21. Most countries lowered the drinking age to 18 from 21 in the year 1971 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. As a result of an increase in alcohol-related crashes which involved many youths between the age of 18 and 21 many countries that lowered the drinking age to 18, returned to an MLDA of 21 years. The earlier findings were later supported by other researchers that a raise in the drinking age resulted in a reduction of crash fatalities and other traffic crashes. As per David & Jon (62), a consequence the National Uniform Drinking Age of 18 was adopted by the US congress. As a result this was adopted by other countries since it provided an important financial incentive. MLDA saves about 800-900 lives according to the US department of transportation in a year over traffic fatalities only. Underage drinking is still very prevalent in the US despite the country laws and the federal incentive rising the drinking age to 21. Underage drinking causes a lot of injuries and deaths annually. Other legislations to address the underage drinking have been put in place to ensure a reduction in the deaths and injuries that are associated with underage drinking. This is to ensure that the drinking age law is strengthened. Social host laws are being adopted by the US and the laws targets the hosts of parties that allow underage drinking. Another law that deter youth from underage drinking is the zero-tolerance law which makes it an offence for youth drivers aged 20 and below to operate any vehicle with any trace of alcohol in their systems. Sanctions are now instituted for the youth who are going against the MLDA laws. With the two laws that are core, ...