The Minimum National Drinking Age should remain at 21
I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the
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2. Teens with 18 year old friends can easily obtain the alcohol from them and possibly get into cars with these people
VI. A. When teens drink alcohol, they are more likely to binge drink than people above the age of 21. 1. A 2007 by the substance abuse and mental health services administration found that 19 percent of 16 and 17 yea olds binge drink on alcohol each month. 2. 35 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 20 binge each month.
VII. A. When Teens are not taught to drink in moderation they end up binge drink when they drink alcohol. 1. Many colleges aim to educate students about alochol consumption. 2. Alcohol Edu was installed in 450 colleges to instruct incoming freshman about the dangers of bingeing. VIII. A. Binge Drinking can lead to many car crash fatalities. 1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that binge drinking accounted for more than half of the 80,00 annual deaths associated with ecessive drinking 2. In 2011, 85 percent of all alcohol imapired driving arrests or accidents involved people who also reported binge drinking
IX. Argument in support of position: The Institute for Creative Research ( ICR ) found hat 84 percent of teenagers suport keeping or raising the current drinking age. They are supportive of legislation that
In 1984 Ronald Reagan proposed a new law that declared that the legal drinking age must raised up to 21 instead of the age of 18. The law was forced upon the states by threatening them by stating that the government will reduce their highway funding until the states passed the law. Of course all the states eventually change their legal drinking age to 21. Some critics believe that this law’s results have been very successful, however the law possesses many insecurities, but certain programs can be arranged to help educate teenagers on alcohol.
Since 1997, binge drinking has increased each year (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo. 2010). Binge drinking is no stranger to San Jose State University as well as college campuses nationwide (Police Department, n.d.). Binge drinking has been on epidemic on college campuses and continues to grow over the course of time with alarming numbers of incidents that occur while under the influence. Since binge drinking is common on most college campuses, about 60% of students nationwide have stated that they have binge drank during their college years (College Drinking Fact Sheet, 2015).
“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.
In Henry Wechsler’s, “Getting Serious about Eradicating Binge Drinking”, he discusses the issue of binge drinking. Binge drinking is an extensive problem on college campuses. The majority of colleges merely focus on the student, rather than what encourages students to drink. Fraternities, sororities, and athletics are huge sources of the students on campus who drink. There are many approaches colleges can take to decrease the problem, and many colleges are already getting a head start. It is also important to not ignore how often colleges indirectly encourage students to drink (20).
When it comes to an alcohol safety policy, the United States has never attracted more research and public attention than the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA). In the U.S., the legal drinking age is one of the highest worldwide. The MLDA of 21 is to control traffic fatalities, protect young teens from killing themselves while driving under the influence, and prevent damage medically to a developing brain of a young adult. Many Americans believe that the drinking age of 21 has not stopped teen binge drinking events in uncontrolled environments; however, studies have shown that teens have not yet reached an age where they can handle alcohol responsibly, thus the drinking age should remain at 21.
Most people would concur that alcohol should not be given to teenagers. Despite the fact that we concede to this essential truth, underage drinking is still a noteworthy issue in our nation. Since adolescents need development and information with regards to liquor, they put themselves, as well as others in incredible danger when they decide to consume. Regardless of the risk, there are individuals out there who believe that the drinking age should be lowered.
In addition, these underage drinkers do not know when they will be able to obtain alcohol again. As a result, underage drinkers are more likely to drink irresponsibly than drinkers of age. In fact, thirty-two percent of underage drinkers have been involved in heavy drinking compared to the twenty-four percent of legal drinkers (Engs 1).
These statistics’ prove Engs theory that because Alcohol consumption is illegal for young adults tend to consume alcohol and abuse alcohol more often. If their theory was true the binge drinking rate for 21 to 25 years olds would not be 45.5% in 2010. Another statistic that proves Engs “forbidden fruit theory” wrong is the statistic noted by the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, they found that a proportion of those 19- to 22-year-olds that binged drank two weeks prior to their surveyed in 1984 was 40.7% and their current study in 2006 found that only 38.1% binged drank 2 weeks prior to the recent survey, Which; proves that the 1984 act has decreased binge drinking by 2% in America. This drop in binge drinking rates may only be a small drop in binge drinking rates. Which, convey that Americans do have a high percentage of binge drinkers. This problem brings up another argument that supporters of lowering the drinking age bring up.
If one is charged with a crime then the eighteen year old is no longer tried in juvenile court; he is tried as an adult. In reality, an eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year old can do just about everything that a twenty-one year old can do, except legally consume alcohol. Who is to say that en eighteen, nineteen, or twenty-year old is not mature enough to properly consume alcohol? Previous research suggests that when there is a more strenuous alcohol policy there will be lower alcohol abuse and consumption among teens (Grube, Kypri, and Paschall 1850). This actually causes teens to feel the need to rebel instead of the thought of teens abusing the privilege. This is a rather immature personality trait to have as a teenager, but there might actually be a reduction in drinking because teens are no longer being rebellious and breaking the law. The whole point of “becoming an adult” is to give them the ability to take responsibility for their own actions, so why should we not let them?
Without a doubt, the United States has been facing serious national problems with underage drinking. Depending on personal ideologies, some people might not agree that the current minimum drinking age of twenty-one is based on scientific facts rather then ideology of prohibitionism. For example, since 1975 over seventeen thousand lives have been saved since the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was changed to age twenty-one (Balkin 167). This shows that even over a short amount of time, a higher MLDA helps decrease the risk of teen suicides, accidents and overdose deaths. However, this widely debated topic has inevitably brought attention to the plethora of supporting and opposing viewpoints. The minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one
A very controversial argument amongst Americans is determining that the current legal drinking age which is 21 should be lowered to eighteen or not. Researching the following propaganda made me understand the dangers to the youth and people in America if the drinking age were to lower. Therefore i will argue with whoever disagrees with me that the drinking age should be lowered.
Others claim that the younger the MLDA is, the more likely young adults will irresponsibly drink by drinking and driving or binge drinking, which is for men having five or more alcoholic drinks in a row, and for women, it is four (Dying to Drink xiii).
According to Getting Stupid the reason why so many adolescent kids binge drink is because when they are drunk, dopamine is released in the prefrontal cortex, which gives you a feeling of pleasure. Teens want this pleasure to reoccur, so they drink again. After a long period of usage a tolerance is built and more alcohol is needed to receive the same pleasure, which leads to binge drinking (Wuethrich, p.62).
Research has supported the observation that young people in America consume alcohol regularly; this prevalence of use increases rapidly during adolescence, as well as a few years afterward (Wagenaar and Wolfson 37). This has come to be a problem among college students. It has been shown through extensive quantitative and qualitative research that those under twenty-one years of age are able to obtain alcohol, which allows them to binge drink. Binge drinking holds many problems for college students: alcohol poisoning, DUIs, traffic accidents, and even fatalities.
3. (a) One in every four high school students engage in binge drinking every month.