We do not hand, teenagers car keys without teaching them how to drive first, so why do we expect 21-year-olds to know how to drink responsibly for the first time. Law passed by congress in 1984 leaves America to be one of four countries left in the world with its drinking age at 21, while the rest of the country 's drinking ages are 16 or 17 or has no age limit at all. As a part of turning 18 you are now considered a legal adult and are allowed to make the decision to vote, marry, buy tobacco products, buy guns and join the military. With all the freedom you gain all at 18 year olds, you are cut short of being able to make the decision to drink an alcoholic beverage. So are you really a legal adult? With many American citizens’ starting to …show more content…
Prohibition, which banned most alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933, normalized the frenzied sort of drinking that occurs today at college parties. Now known as binge drinking the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time. For better understanding, it is when your blood alcohol content is at .08 g/dL, this is after four drinks for women and five for men in roughly 2 hours. Underage drinking is very dangerous because kids who partake in underage drinking do so behind closed doors, and drink an excess amount in a short period of time. The drinking age of 21 is very ineffective as kids are still able to get their hands on alcohol, but not always in the safest way. Underage kids seek out to others for fake IDs to get easier access to alcohol, or look for kids of age to support their needs, but in desperate measures they go to the extreme and steal from stores or family cabinets. Binge drinking has reduced with teens under the age of 18, but has still been a major problem for college students, as males binge drinking rates has remained nearly the same, but women 's has substantially increased over the years. "Some researchers have speculated that because colleges are made up of young, mostly unmarried people—with no parental control and no spouse to check in with—they may be more likely to drink to excess than people of the same age who live with their parents or have a spouse. Plus, most have easy access to alcohol because at least some of their peers are 21 or older," says Grucza. Lowering the age to 18 would lower the drinkers fear of legal consequences of getting hurt from alcohol related injuries. Like needing to go to the hospital because of alcohol poisoning and needing to get their stomach pumped, but fearful of getting in trouble with parents or cops. So in that case they do not do anything about the situation and hope for the
According to “Perils of Prohibition: Why We Should Lower the Drinking Age to 18” author Elizabeth M Whelan article which she argues that now a days in society prohibiting the sale of alcohol beverages to young adults specially teens creates a bad atmosphere full of alcohol abuse. She supports this article by explaining two points: First, American teens, rather than European teens, don 't train well to know how to drink in moderation, and second, compare her daughter 's problem with her own when she was a college student, to see their differences during that time of age.
Eighteen year olds are just not responsible enough to handle the freedom of being able to legally drink. S...
Many adults these days could tell stories from college about all the frat parties they've been to, all their high school house party experiences, and how many times they've been absolutely ¨hammered¨. And during these uncontrolled occasions, there is no adult supervision whatsoever. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible for police authorities to be able to monitor and know what is going on in an individual’s house. Besides, enforcing the drinking age isn’t really a priority for the police anyway. Many of them know it will continue, plus, when they do manage to catch and arrest someone for illegal drinking, it takes a great amount of time and effort for paperwork and processing. (ProCon.org)* And also because most youths view the age limit as arbitrary, which causes them to have a certain disrespect for the law. (Chafetz)* One main reas...
In the late 1960’s to mid-70’s the legal drinking age was 18 because the voting age of 21 was lowered to 18. However, in 1984 a bill was passed that every state in the United States was to change the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. Although this is a highly controversial topic, many young adults believe lowering the drinking age back to 18 is best because if they vote at the age of 18 then, they should be allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages. In an article “Should the U.S. lower its drinking age?” written by Brandon Griggs, he introduces the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age. Griggs explains two generations ago, young adults didn’t have to worry much about getting caught drinking or buying their way out to purchase alcohol.
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
On the other hand, adults aged 18 have their own rights to make a decision to whether consume alcohol or not. For example, once children turn 18 years old, they are mature enough to make their own decisions. Cloud states, “After all, in almost every other legal and cultural respect, you’re an adult at 18. You can vote, adopt children, sign up for Iraq or become a commercial pilot at 18. Treating alcohol differently helps turns it into a holy grail of adulthood.” (Cloud). Although, in the United States, 18 years o...
Also, 15.8% of underage males and 12.4% of underage females engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking has become a culture in the United States for people between the ages of 12-20 years old. This federal pressure has manipulated states into raising the drinking age so that they would not lose millions of dollars in highway funds. The reason that the drinking age was raised to 21 is because the government promised a 10 percent increase in highway funds to each state if they did so.
Engs,Professor at Indiana University has been studying the topic of lowering the legal drinking age for the past twenty years. He has found that “a majority of the college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing “forbidden fruit” (Why the drinking age should be lowered,1). This is not the first time that this policy has been discussed. During the National Prohibition in the 1920s these laws made every state change their MLDA to 21 years old. But these laws were repealed because they were unenforceable and caused other social problems. Facts show that young adult underage are more likely to be “binge” drinkers. 32% of heavy drinkers were underage while only 24% were of legal age (Why the drinking age should be lowered, 1). Research from the 1980s reveal that there has been a decrease in drinking and drinking among students before the law that made every states MLDA 21 years old. But many other factors may have decreased this rate. “There has been an increase in other problems related to heavy and irresponsible drinking among college age youth. Most of these reported behaviors showed little change until after the 21 year old law in 1987. For example from 1982 until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50% after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after drinking" jumped from 9%
During the last decades, college drinking, the toll binge drinking which is taking on college campuses. Highly publicized reports have raised public awareness about the high rates of heavy drinking among college students. Also, Wechsler, Nelson and Lee JE, experts of researching the phenomenon of college drinking, have concluded that binge drinking is the most serious public health problem facing US colleges. The State had a controversial discussion about steps that can be taken to take action against the binge drinking that has become part of the so-called
As one of the major social problem, underage drinking can cause negative affect on both teenagers themselves and the whole society. Based on the research, approximately 190,000 youth under 21 visited emergency room for alcohol related hurts, even I accompanied one of my friends to ICU for alcohol poisoning nearly month ago. Annually about 5000 individuals under 21 die from it, not including other mature people directly or indirectly killed by them. Meanwhile, child’s brain and emotional developments are still in process until 20s so that taking alcohol will produce great damage on their body health. For example, alcohol can interfere with children’s capacity to build new, short, and lasting memories of information because it shrinks hippocampus about 10
The current drinking age in the United States of America is 21. There are some people who agree with the current drinking age even some who think it should be raised. On the other hand, a number of people feel that the current drinking age produces more problems than it prevents (“Cross Fire”). The United States has unsuccessfully tried prohibition legislation not once, but twice in the past. These laws were eventually done away with due to the inability to enforce and the repercussion towards them that ended up causing even more trials and tribulations (Engs). “Prohibition demonstrates beyond a doubt that drinking and the problems caused by drinking cannot simply be eliminated from the United States” (Olson). In the present day, the government is still reiterating the same mistakes that they made in past attempts (Engs). Research from the early 1980’s until present-day shows a decrease in per capita consumption instead, there has been an increase in other problems involving excessive and negligent drinking amongst college students after the twenty –one year old law in 1987 (Engs). The current drinking age of 21 is not effective and is causing other social problems. (Engs). This calls for us as a nation to change our existing drinking law.
Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations in which anyone can be or be placed. Drinking and driving is a serious offence that can cause someone to be physically harm or even killed. Not only are you putting yourself at risk but you are also risking the lives of passengers in the car as well as any other car and occupants sharing the road with you. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a compelling role in cutting down the occurrences of driving under the influence. However, while harsher DUI laws will look effective on paper, they will not make a significant step in the fight against drunk driving. Although there is a law enforced for drinking and driving in the
Underaged drinking has become an epidemic within the United States. Starting to consume alcohol at a young age damages the brains developmental process and also leaves behind long term drinking problems for that individual. According to the case file between Heisenberg vs. the State of Missouri, the national average underaged drinking begins at fifteen years of age. Curiosity allows students under the age of twenty-one to want to experiment with toxins like alcohol. These dangerous decision then create the unsafe action to drink and drive. The government should create laws that not only reinforce the existing laws but also alter them, so than young adults are restricted. The legal drinking age of twenty-one should be increased to twenty-five because underaged drinking causes a delay in brain development, it would decrease a young adults curiosity to perform dangerous behaviors and it is also the main cause for car crashes.
Alcohol has been in the world for many centuries and has become a pain but also somewhat of a solution to society. It can be viewed as something to be a social gathering that brings friends together or it can be taking as destruction to someone. Over the years alcohol has played many roles in the world but it plays an even bigger role in substance abuse. Doctors have made several points that it is okay to have a drink every now and again but people need to realize when one drink has become too many. The ideal of having a drink with friends or going out and having an occasional drink is acceptable; However, is it still acceptable when a person find their selves having a drink first thing in the morning or runs to a drink to solve their people.
The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.