Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of alcohol use in society by teens
Lowering the drinking age arguments
Lowering the drinking age debate
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of alcohol use in society by teens
The laws concerning the minimum drinking age in this country sometimes seem ridiculous and unnecessary. In this paper, I will discuss why certain laws are unfair and I will provide alternatives to certain problems concerning underage drinking and binge drinking.
Let?s face it, no matter what laws the government enforces to cut down on underage drinking, it is commonplace and happens everywhere from grade school through high school and predominantly in college. The government is looking to stop teen drinking rather than manage it. According to Time Magazine, half the students age 10 to 24 questioned in a 1999 study by the Centers for Disease Control said they had consumed alcohol in the preceding month.
If the minimum drinking age was reduced to 18, or at least made to be more convenient and logical, I believe a cut down on underage drinking would occur. In Pennsylvania, at the age of 16, anyone can get their driver's license after about 6 months of road time and studying rules and laws about driving. Next, at the age of 18, teens can smoke cigarettes until their lungs turn black, they can buy shotguns and handguns, and they can even be drafted into the military from the protection of their own homes. All of these privileges and responsibilities are opened on a teens 18th birthday, yet they can't sit down and have a few beers with friends and/or family. The fact that 18 year old men can be taken from the shelter of their own homes and forced to train for the military and go fight in a sometimes endless and merciless war, yet at the same time, cannot enjoy an ice cold beer simply baffles my mind.
The minimum drinking ages overseas are lower than in the US and allow for certain things like drinks with a meal in a restaurant and sometimes the ages are even separated into lighter liquors, such as beer and wine, and a higher age for spirits. One of the most similar laws concerning the minimum age of drinking is that of South Korea. The minimum drinking age in South Korea is 21 or a college student. This law portrays that the South Korean government believes that if someone is responsible enough to go to college or any other secondary school, they are responsible enough to drink. The US has one of the highest and unforgiving minimum drinking age laws in the world.
What makes the number 21 such a special age anyhow? Does th...
... middle of paper ...
...uct promotion, such as those with social responsibility messages ?may be scheduled in any network program whose audience is not composed primarily of children and teens.? This permits broadcasting such liquor commercials where 49 percent of the audience consists of minors.
All of these things contribute to underage drinking and the marketing of alcoholic products to teens. If the minimum drinking age was reduced to 18, drinking would be brought out into the open and underage drinking would not be as much of a problem as it is today. The most logical alternative would be to use the ?social-norms? approach and inform all college students that drinking is not as prevalent as they believe. This approach would let students know that it is cool to drink responsibly and would reaffirm that they are in the majority of responsible drinkers.
Works Cited
Kluger, Jeffrey. How to manage teen drinking(the smart way). Time; New York; Jun 18,
2001
Lester, Will. Teen Alcohol Use is Still Rampant Despite Nationwide Drinking Age. St.
Louis Post-Dispatch; St Louis, MO. Jul 6, 2001.
Califano Jr, Joseph A. NBC?s Drinking Problem. The Washington Post, Washington,
DC; Dec 18, 2001
In the contents of this paper, four points of view will be discussed on an extremely controversial issue that has an effect on a large percentage of citizens in the United States. The issue at hand is whether the legal age to consume alcohol should be lowered from 21 to 18, and will state a pro and con side, as well as 2 stakeholders for each side of the argument. The stakeholders on the pro side are as follows: Underage consumers of alcohol, businesses that sell and the companies that produce alcohol. The people on the con side of the argument that would want the legal age to remain at 21 include State and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, as well as the demographic of Parents that would prefer to keep their children from being exposed to alcohol at a potentially young age. As you continue to read the stakeholders opinions and arguments will be explained, after which the author’s personal opinion will be advanced. After doing my own in depth research on the topic, the legal age to consume alcohol should remain at 21 as set by the United States Congress when they passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA) in July of 1984. This act punished every state that allowed persons below 21 years of age to purchase and publicly possess alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by ten percent. (National Minimum Drinking Age Act) This caused all fifty continental U.S. states to set their legal drinking age to 21, and it has remained there for thirty years.
There has been debate on what age should people drink. Many think we should be able to drink at 18 or many people think we should be able to drink at the age 21 or older. Both cases makes some good points of why. There shouldn’t be any debate at all because bottom line the age limit on drinking is fine where it is for many reasons.
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not mature enough to handle it, lowering the drinking age actually teaches responsibility and safety in young adults, maintains consistency in age laws, and diminishes temptation.
Main, Carla T. “Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age.” Policy Review. June/July 2009: 33-46. Wilson OmniFile Full Text Mega Edition. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
Lawmakers should not consider lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. Despite the deep value this country places on freedom, personal liberties, and personal responsibilities, the data shows that public safety is greatly at risk if the drinking age were to be lowered to twenty-one. A variety of groups believe that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen deeming that the twenty-one law is unconstitutional. On the opposing side, people agree that the law helps to protect our young people and the communities where they live.
The controversy on the proper drinking age is one that has been repeatedly discussed and researched over the years. Its common to hear the argument “If someone is old enough to take a bullet for their country, they should be allowed to drink alcohol.” But is that enough justification? Some would say no. “According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) it is estimated that in 2004 there were more than 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 696,000 assaults annually associated with excessive drinking” (Fennell 247). Given these numbers, would lowering the drinking age really be the best thing for America’s youth?
Greek tragedy incorporates female characters that symbolize women in Ancient Greece. Through the portrayal of Antigone in the playwright, Antigone in Antigone by Sophocles and Penelope in the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, these two women play opposing roles depicting how they appear to society through their actions. In both of these stories, they embody the ideals of passionate women who are very loyal and brave. Through other female characters in each story such as Penelope and Ismene, we can construct a better view of traits illustrated by Antigone and Penelope.
There has always been controversy as to whether the drinking age should be lower from 21 to a younger age, like 18. Though there are drawbacks to lowering the drinking age such as, one It may cost for use of illicit drugs. two Its easier to access other drugs, and alcohol. tree it may decrease unsafe drinking activity’s. The benefits would be that it would one get rid of feelings increasing , two people should have freedom of choice and tree, it is wrong to drink at such a young age.
Unsupervised, underage drinking has become an epidemic throughout the world, but in the Americas more than anywhere else. Even the president’s 19-year-old daughter has been arrested for underage drinking. America has the highest legal drinking age in the world. In fact, only four countries in the world have a legalized drinking age of 18. When we turn 18 in America we are supposed to be adults, but then what is the 21 age mark it is like we get an adult trial version for three years without some freedom but with all the consequences.
Including both Homer’s works, the Odyssey and Iliad, he echoes his cultures conception of women as being either helpers of men or hindrances or restraints to them, however essentially insubstantial in their own right. Yet the only exceptions to this rule are immortals such as Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, who function by a different set of guidelines because they are goddesses. For instance, they are allowed to have more independence then flesh- and-blood women because they are already symbols of some random abstract virtue or perhaps a principle, or beauty, and therefore they instantly have their own role to fill. As we know Iliad and Odyssey are poems relating adventures surrounding the Trojan War where both poems women are common and important in Greek culture. In fact women are included in a plethora of roles however it seems to be a testament to the importance of women in the Greek culture of that time.
In the Iliad, we are only exposed to a handful of women; however in the Odyssey, many more women become integral parts in the story but with little character development. This is expected because in times of war, the only women that these men were exposed to were concubines or their wives which both had little significance because they were preoccupied with battle. When the men returned to their homes, women began to have a larger role because the men were not solely focused on war. Many of the women have either a negative or positive connotation associated with them with little variation between the two. We have the vengeful seductresses Calypso and Circe to the unfaithful wives Helen and Clytemnestra. These women represent the traits that were abhorred by the society
The Iliad takes place in a “male-dominated world” during a war zone. Women are objectified and portrayed as nothing more than possession of men. When Chrysies was kidnapped she was considered a war prize for Agamemnon, who was willing to trade her for Briseis, the war prize of Achilles. Women being objectified give them more of an insignificant role. H...
Women did what the men in their life wanted them to do. They did what they were told. When Helen is believed to have left to be with a Trojan prince, she is considered a Spartan whore. Andromache is viewed as the opposite of Helen. She would do anything her husband Hector asked. Chryseis and Briseis are no more than sex slaves to be taken and traded as needed. Thetis is a goddess of the sea, but more importantly, she is the mother of Achilles. Thetis would have done whatever was necessary to keep her son happy. Athena was a peacemaker within the Greeks keeping Achilles from killing Agamemnon. Athena and Hera both took the side of the Greeks. The goddess Aphrodite took the Trojan side. She was the goddess that promised Helen to Paris in the beginning. The women in this poem seem to have just as much influence as the men. They were meant to help the men of the story, nothing more. “Yet in the background are a myriad of women who are used as pawns by these men in order to assert power (Umich.edu).” The goddess interfered whenever they could, but in the end the outcome was still the
Young people grow up seeing their parents and other adults make toast of wine and champagne at special occasions, as well as casually enjoying a few beers at a picnic. Today alcoholic beverages are frequently as common at business lunches as they are at college frat parties. Underage drinking is a huge problem which everyone must face. Underage drinking not only has devastating effects on those who drink but also on our society. "Young people illegally consume almost 3.6 billion drinks annually which is 10 million drinks each day."
Even though water is constantly being recycled, people should limit the amount of water they consume as we are simply running out. The problem is that we don’t do much about the thousands of gallons of water we lose to factories and nature, not to mention that we spend gallons through consumer uses, and a large portion of fresh water are frozen in the ice caps. I believe that our supply of fresh water is running out and it’s up to us to do something about it. I believe people do a lot of good but also do a lot of harm when it involves water. I should say that water is a basis to survival and we’re running out. While some of the problems are a little bit more in nature’s hands then our, we still have a big impact on water conserves. Nature can play a huge role when it comes to