Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Legal Drinking Age

Better Essays
1426 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Legal Drinking Age
The Legal Drinking Age
Kyra C. Lyons
Bryant & Stratton College
Phil 250
Mike Sulak
July 3, 2012

Increasing or decreasing the legal age at which people can purchase and drink alcohol has been a controversial issue for quite some time now. Some people say that it should be lowered because teens drink anyway, some say that it should increase or the stay the same due to health risk. There are many other viewpoints to both sides and in this paper we are going to explore both sides to the story
Some believe that the legal drinking age should be lowered and we are going to explore why. They say if a person can go to war, shouldn’t he or she be able to have a beer? They American society has determined that upon turning 18 teenagers become adults. This means that they can enlist into the military to serve, fight, and potentially die for their country. Most importantly at age 18 you become legally responsible for your own actions. You can buy cigarettes even though in time you know that they can give you lung cancer. You may even purchase property, sign contracts, take out a loan, vote, hold office, serve on a jury, or adopt a child. But strangely at 18, one cannot buy a beer. In most other countries, the age of majority coincides with the legal drinking or purchasing age. Lots of people drink before they turn 21, despite the current legal drinking age. Doesn’t that prove that the policy is ineffective? The trend over the past decade is that fewer 12-20 year olds are drinking, but those who choose to drink are drinking more. Between 1993 and 2001, the rate of 20 year old who reported consuming alcohol in the past 30 days decreased from 33.4% to 29.3%, while the rate for binge drinking increased among the age group over those same years, from 15.2% to 18.9%. (Teens at risk, 2009, p. 2). Furthermore, as compared to 1993, more 18-24 year olds who chose to drink in 2001 were drinking excessively. This was defined by frequency of drinking, frequency of drunkenness, and drinking to get drunk. The youth in other countries are exposed to alcohol at earlier ad engage in less alcohol abuse and have healthier attitudes toward alcohol. Don’t those counties have fewer alcohol-related problems than we do? Though the drinking age is lower in other countries, the United States has a higher rate for dangerous intoxication occasions than many other countries, also much higher levels of per consumption. Recent research published by the World Health Organization found that while 15 and 16 year old teens in many European states, where the drinking age is 18 or younger and often unenforced, have more drinking occasions per month, they have fewer dangerous, intoxication occasions than other American counterparts. (Teens at risk, 2009, p.3). How about if we educate teens about using alcohol safely starting at age 18, would that encourage responsible drinking? The effectiveness of alcohol education is a continuing debate. Various approaches to alcohol education have been developed and can generally be grouped into two sides, those that support abstinence and those that view abstinence as unrealistic. There is formal education through schools and institutions, and informal education through family and peers. While alcohol educations that advocate abstinence have been proven ineffective, interactive education programs have had greater success in not only the ability to educate drinkers, but also alter their drinking habits. (Teens at risk, 2009, p.4). Most evidence in support of moderate alcohol use comes from the cardiovascular research. According to alcohol researcher Eric Rimm, Sc.D., of Harvard’s School of Public Health, about 50 randomized studies show that when consumed in moderation, alcohol increases high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreases blood clotting and insulin resistance, all of which reduce the risk of heart disease due to diabetes, high blood pressure and previous heart attack. (Alcohol abuse, 2008, p. 2). Several studies also suggest that moderate alcohol use lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. One trial of almost 6,000 volunteers at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess <Medical Center found that when compared with abstainers, those who had one to six drinks per week had less risk of dementia. Also in Harvard’s famed Nurses’ Health study, women who drank about one alcoholic beverage daily had half the risk of the most common kind of stroke- from a blocked artery (Alcohol abuse, 2008, p. 2).Several large studies have found lower rates of diabetes , less likely to be obese, and slows cancer cell growth in those who drink in moderation. Now there are two sides to every story and there are those who feel that the drinking age should not be lowered. Why do adolescents drink? As children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Things like puberty and increasing independence, they are saying have been associated with alcohol use. So in a sense, just being an adolescent may be a key risk factor not only for starting to drink but also for drinking dangerously. Research shows that the brain keeps developing well into the twenties. Scientists believe that this developmental period may explain some of adolescent behavior, such as the need to seek out new and potentially dangerous situations. For some teens, thrill seeking might include experimenting with alcohol.
Intervention approaches typically fall into two distinct categories, environmental level and individual level interventions. (Teens at Risk, 2009, p. 5.). Environmental approaches can be raising the price of alcohol. A great amount of research has shown that higher prices or taxes on alcohol beverages are associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption and alcohol related problems. Increasing the minimum legal drinking age to 21 has been the most successful intervention to date in reducing alcohol related crashes among people under the age of 21. Enacting zero tolerance laws make it illegal for people under age 21 to drive after any drinking. The zero tolerance states showed a 21 percent greater decline in the proportion of single-vehicle night time fatal crashes involving drivers under 21. (Teens at Risk, 2009, p. 5). Individual focused interventions include school and family based prevention programs. The first- school based prevention programs were informative and often used scare tactics. These programs were ineffective. Today, better programs are available they follow social influence models and include setting norms, addressing pressures to drink, and teaching resistance skills. Setting clear rules against drinking, consistently enforcing those rules, and monitoring the child’s behavior all help to reduce the likelihood of underage drinking. Some say early drinking leads to alcohol dependency. Agrawal and her colleagues examined previously collected data on 6,257 adults, identical and fraternal, male and female Australian twins. They were comparing the AFD, which is the age of their first drink to AD which is alcohol dependency and they came to find that Earlier AFD was associated with a increasing likelihood of lifetime history of onset of AD symptoms. Compared to those with a later AFD appeared to be more susceptible to later AD problems. (Teen Drug Abuse, 2011, p.2). Alcohol influence on accidents and Violence is well connected. Alcohol plays a significant role intrauma by increasing the likelihood of both injury and severity. Heavy drinkers or alcohol abusers are more likely than others to be involved in a trauma event. A drinker is also likely to be hurt more seriously than a non-drinker. An estimated 27 percent of all trauma patients treated in emergency departments and hospitals are candidate for a brief alcohol intervention. (Alcohol Abuse, 2011, p. 3). When I first approached this assignment I didn’t really know what side I would be on but afterwards I feel I have a better understanding of the opposing views. I feel that the drinking age should be lowered because like they said teens are drinking way before 21 anyway and I think that with that legal age being there it only makes teens want to be sneaky and rebellious against it. I think they should promote Alcohol education would promote responsible drinking. They also point out that drinking in moderation can provide health benefits and all the other side is talking about is drinking excessively. Of course doing too much of anything can be bad for you. In the end I say if they are old enough to live on their own at 18, then they should be old enough to drink.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    [News Paper]World Snapshot Alaskan Bid to Lower Drinking Age for US Troops." 2 Apr. 2011: 43. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. < http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=105&sid=7ba3015e-fd17-458a-b4f8-087fd36fba3c%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=n5h&AN=201104021043216315>.…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Legal Drinking Age

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alcohol is the number one drug problem in the United States. Americans spend a slightly under 100 billion dollars on alcohol each year. Just a little fewer than 50% of Americans have either experienced or knows someone in their family that have experienced alcoholism (Drug Rehab.org). “Alcoholism is when the body becomes physically dependent on alcohol.” According to World Health Organization, “there are an estimated 140 million alcoholics around the world!” Addiction is very hard to break out of and may even be part of their lifestyle for the rest of one 's life. Since alcoholics usually cannot control their behavior after drinking, they often have problems in their home and workplace (AlcoholAddiction.info). About 12% of alcoholics are unemployed (Drug Rehab.org). Statistics show that a person who consumes alcohol before age 15 is at a higher risk of becoming addicted later in life than a person who start to consume alcohol at a later age (AlcoholAddiction.info). These reasons show that leaving the legal drinking age at 21 would be more beneficial to the United States than to lower it to 18, and risk teenagers of having a higher chance of getting addicted to alcohol.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age to 18

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the United States at age 18, a person is legally allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married, enlist in the military, and work in a bar, among other privileges. However, in most states, he cannot legally drink champagne at his own wedding or have a beer with his fellow comrades. 18 is the age of adulthood in the United States, and adults should have the right to make their own decisions about alcohol consumption. Turning 18 entails receiving the rights and responsibilities of adulthood, which involves making one’s own decisions and reaping the consequences of one’s own actions. It should not be up to the government to tell legal adults what they can or cannot put in their bodies, especially when alcohol itself is not dangerous unless consumed in extreme amounts. When the 18th Amendment was repealed – allowing alcohol once again to be sold and distributed – the federal government left this responsibility of choosing the drinking age to state governments. It was during this time that the majority of state governments democratically lowered the drinking age to 18. However, these states were later essentially bribed by Congress – which used fiscal blackmail and threatened to retract funding for highway construction – to pass the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which forced all states to change their legal drinking age to 21. In the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it is stated that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property." If the Constitution clearly declares that the States cannot discriminate in any way that will deny a person his civil rights, why is the government allowing states to create another second-class citizen in the millions of people aged 18 to 21 unable to drink like the rest of the adults in the country? This demographic has been demoted on notions based solely on medical research; what’s next – that people with low IQs can’t vote? Some may claim that the purpose of a higher drinking age is…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The most common argument is that the age of adulthood is eighteen, so the drinking as should be eighteen as well. Eighteen is the age when you get the right to vote, marry, sign contracts, purchase tobacco, and join the military. A vary valid argument is that if you are legally allowed , and sometimes even obligated, to join the military you should be allowed to legally consume alcohol. This is argued because this includes risking your own life and putting other people’s lives in your hands. If someone is old enough to kill another human being they are old enough to make the decision to drink. It is argued that, If someone is old enough to get married they should be old enough to drink a glass of champagne at their wedding.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The drinking age was moved from 18 to 21 for a reason. The higher drinking age of 21 has saved many lives, helped reduce the amount of underage drinking, and therefore should not be lowered. Many studies from a large variety of sources have proven higher drinking ages have a positive effect on society.…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every single person in the United States has their opinion on what the legal drinking age should be. The consumption of alcohol has created many debates amongst different groups of people. The legal drinking age of 21, is one of the strictest laws in the U.S. From only letting “true adults” drink which causes a riot among many young citizens to go against the law. However, numerous forms of evidence can prove why the drinking age 21 is preposterous. The drinking age should be lowered for various reasons including that 18 year olds are considered adults, it makes the drinking environment safer and more controlled and the U.S. is among the few countries to have a drinking age of 21.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the U.S. the age of adulthood is 18. And with that comes many responsibilities and decisions that can now be made without consents. But there is still one thing a now young adult can’t decide on their own and that is if they will consume alcohol. The legal drinking age is not until you are 21 years of age. People argue that it should be lowered for it is an individual decision and 18 is old enough to make that decision. The legal drinking age should remain as is because the brain of a young adult is not fully developed till the age of 21.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    i. Alcohol Problems and Solutions states, “The minimum drinking age of 21 in the U.S. appears to be not only ineffective but actually counter-productive. Although it…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Synthesis Essay

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The minimum drinking age articles “Tempest in a Bottle”, by Shari Roan, “The Perils of Prohibition”, by Elizabeth M. Whelan, “The Minimum Legal Drinking Age: Facts and Fallacies” by Traci L. Toomey, Carolyn Rosenfeld, and Alexander Wagenaar, “De-Demonizing Rum: What’s Wrong with “Underage” Drinking?” by Andrew Stuttaford, are articles that represent why underage people shouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol beverages.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Drinking Age Laws

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Alexander C. Wagenaar and Traci L. Toomey, "Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analyses of the Literature from 1960 to 2000," Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 2002…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cited: Dr. Morris E. Chafetz. “ The 21-Year-Old Drinking Age: I Voted for it; It Doesn’t Work.”…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "This law has been an abysmal failure. It hasn't reduced or eliminated drinking. It has simply driven it underground, behind closed doors, into the most risky and least manageable of settings,"(Debate) said John McCardell of “Choose Responsibility”. Choose Responsibility is a non-profit organization that is for lowering the drinking age to 18. Young adults can vote, fight and die for their country overseas, and purchase tobacco at age 18, but why cannot they have a beer? Drinking among the youth in the United States has escalated to dangerous levels such as binge drinking, reckless parties, and even death. The average age when kids take their first sip of alcohol is a staggering 14 years of age (Debate). The legal drinking age of twenty-one is not working. The government needs a solution to fix this problem before it continues to get out of hand. Therefore, age should not determine when someone can or cannot drink. As well as, lowering the drinking age to 18 could fix the youths drinking habits and dangerous alcoholic environments they face today.…

    • 2550 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lowering the Drinking Age

    • 1568 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The legal drinking age has been a continuously debated subject in the United States since its establishment. The national legal drinking age of twenty-one years old was placed in 1984 and still holds to the present, but many have begun questioning whether twenty-one is still an appropriate age for our current society. Much of this debate starts with college campuses and binge drinking. As a senior in high school, and soon-to-be freshman in college, I began wondering if the drinking age is still suitable for present times, and if it should be altered. According to University of Michigan, approximately 80% of high school students have tried alcohol before graduating, and 60% have gotten drunk. With these statistics, it seems evident that the legal drinking age is not efficiently doing its job, and should be reviewed. So the question arises: Should the legal drinking age be changed?…

    • 1568 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s your 18th birthday and your finally a legal adult. Immediately you can smoke cigarettes, vote, be a jury member, even join the military and fight for your country. But don’t think about a having a beer at your going away party the night before you depart for the Middle East. No, you will have to wait until your 21. As an American citizens we are given many responsibilities at the age of 18. One of them not being the ability to consume alcohol. So I believe that at the age of 18 should come the responsibility of legally partaking of alcohol.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Minimum legal drinking age

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) has been an ongoing debate over the years. Many states in the past have continuously lowered their MLDA to 18, 19, or 20. However, The National Minimum Legal Drinking Age Act of 1984 required that every states MLDA must be set to 21 years of age. Max Nelson stated that "Beer is the third most popular drink in the world, after water and tea" (“The Barbarians Beverage” 1), the minimum legal drinking age is a very popular discussion because of the importance and popularity that alcohol has in the united states. Although, in the past each state would fluctuate their MLDA, they would always revert back to the age of 21 after statistics proved it was the safer choice between 18 to 21. The Minimum legal drinking age is for the prevention of underage drinking and exposing teens and young adults to the dangers of alcohol.…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays