Over the past few decades, there has been much discourse regarding the drinking habits and behavior of college students. Since the passage of the Uniform Drinking Age Act of 1984, federal regulators have determined that the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) should be 21 years old instead of 18. Since then, there have been a plethora of scientific studies to determine whether this was an effective means of combating irresponsible drinking habits. The aim of these studies was to determine the overall impact of the reduced drinking age in a ‘cause and effect’ way. However, the primary means of support for the MLDA being 21 was that drinking and driving as well as overall consumption among minors was reduced. These studies, however, neglect other
According to the CDC, underage drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths per year, but why? Most teenagers are uneducated and unsupervised when it comes to consuming alcohol and its effects. If one doesn’t teach about the effects of alcohol, then it could become disastrous for not only the user but others too. Most teenagers may only know a fraction of the effects based on experience or from seeing it in movies or television. I believe that if the drinking age was lowered, teenagers could be better educated to drink more
In the article “College Presidents Seek Debate on Drinking Age” the issue of lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 is strongly discussed by college presidents and various organizations and Universities. Even though both parties agree that alcohol abuse in colleges is an extensive problem in schools around the country, college organizations are debating with lawmakers to lower the drinking age. With the intention to reduce driving accidents and deaths due to alcohol abuse, the drinking age was elevated to 21, creating the rejection of many college students and administrators in the country. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would not have much impact in the attitude of young people since there is no much difference in maturity in 3 years. This statement is supported by a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower.
Furthermore, one can infer that the more a teen is exposed to the campaigning of liquor companies, the larger chance of them drinking. As commonly known, drinking under the drinking age of twenty one is illegal, and one can be fined for doing such. Another hypothesis Snyder presents is that is relationship comparing “environment[s] with...greater or fewer alcohol advertisements”(Snyder 2). This acknowledges the fact that since alcohol advertisements lead to more drinking and drinking can lead to negative effects stated, places with more alcohol campaigning will be less safe that environments
When the government decided to lower their drinking age from 20 to 18 years old in 1999, they correctly predicted that there would not be an increase in alcohol abuse because many teenagers already drank alcohol they obtained illegally from adults (ICAP, 2002.) This supports the philosophy that it is better and healthier to allow young people to drink at a lower age so that their habits can be controlled, and that this can be done without increasing dangerous behavior. Statistics from around the world also suggest that a decreased legal drinking age creates healthier drinkers in the long run. A study on the percentage of people older than 15 years old with an alcohol use disorder reveals that 5.48% of Americans are affected, compared to 1.07% of people in Spain and 0.5% of people in Italy (WHO, 2004). Analyzing this data shows that the rate of alcoholism is significantly lower in countries including Spain and Italy where the drinking age is lower, likely because citizens drink responsibly throughout their entire lives.
Today in the United States about 4,358 people under the age of 21 years old die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and even drowning. More than 190,000 people under the age of 21 visited an emergency room for alcohol related reasons in 2008 alone. Alcohol related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and non-fatally injure someone every two minutes. That’s a lot of people gone because they wanted to go out and party and not think about the consequences ahead. In this essay I’m gonna give you information to why Underage Drinking is very very bad for you.
According to Main in ¨Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age” from the Policy Review, lowering the drinking age to eighteen from twenty-one would increase the harsh effects that are currently impacting our society and our military. Main insists that the United States should not get rid of the laws that set 21 as the mandatory minimum age for drinking, known as the ¨21 laws.¨ Although there are laws and severe consequences for those who drink under the age of 21, underage drinking is a huge concern, especially at college. When the undergraduates binge drink, drinking five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion, they not only have the potential to hurt themselves, but also their peers. For example, over 474,000 students have unprotected sex,
An issue that has yet to be solved is “Should the minimum drinking age be lowered from twenty-one years to eighteen years?” People have been in controversy over this topic since the late 1900s. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984, which required states to raise the legal age to purchase and possess alcoholic substances to twenty-one. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991 after the Act was passed, the rate of alcohol consumption among people eighteen to twenty years of age dropped from fifty-nine percent to forty percent; the rate of alcohol consumption among people twenty-one to twenty-four years of age dropped from seventy percent to fifty-six percent (www.cdc.gov). More than fifty scientific
According to the CDC fact sheet regarding the legal drinking age, after all states adopted an age of 21 as their minimum legal drinking age, drinking during the previous month among people from age 18 to 20 years old declined from 59% in 1985 to 40% in 1991. The fact sheet also states that drinking among people age 21 to 25 also declined when states adopted the age 21 year old minimum legal drinking age, from 70% in 1985 to 56% in 1991. These statistics are significant due to the large decreases in the percentages of people drinking. This indicates that the law is effectively lowering the rates of teens and adults alike that are drinking. Less drinking overall has been a general goal of the government for a long time, and this minimal legal drinking age is helping make that a
Alcohol abuse and alcoholism seems like an issue that keeps getting increasingly worse each year in the United States. According to USA Today and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both say that approximately 6 people die from alcohol poisoning, caused from binge drinking, each day, which amounts to roughly 2,200 people each year. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that “In 2013 an estimated 697,000 adolescents ages 12–17 (2.8 percent of this age group) had an [alcohol use disorder]” (“Alcohol Facts”). Something has to stop and something has to change from preventing this more because 6 people dying each day from binge drinking alone is a lot, not to mention that 12-17 year olds are having alcohol problems at such a young age. Lowering the drinking age will enforce this act even more, promoting more drinking in fact.
Many studies have been able to provide evidence as to why these inaccuracies
But while it has succeeded in that, it is also believed that tougher rules, such as DUI rules and seatbelt safety rules have also played a part in this decrease. However, this higher drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking, its only “driven it underground,” Gabrielle Glaser states in her NY Times article. It has been driven underground to the riskiest settings, high school parties and frat parties that are unsupervised. This age raise segregates the drinking away from adults that can model moderation in drinking. If an 18-year-old high school senior is shown by his/her parent(s) how to drink responsibly and in moderation, I believe that it would greatly help in reducing the chance of making bad decisions by overdoing it, such as driving while drinking.
However, “90% of drunk driving deaths in the United States were found in the over 21 age group” (Gruenewald). For this reason, drunk driving is not directly correlated with the drinking age. In addition, the percent of drunk driving deaths in the United States has reduced at a slower rate than European countries where they have their legal drinking age at eighteen. This suggest that if lowering the drinking age was a success in Europe, it may also be effective here in the United States to diminish the amount of drunk driving deaths. This is because people that become injured due to alcohol or alcohol poisoning are afraid to report their injuries to the hospital or authorities out of fear of illegal consequences for underage drinking.
In some countries, like in Europe the drinking age is set at 18. Even though people in the US think this is insane, this set age has more positive effects than people think it would. It is known that binge drinking is a problem in the US since it has the highest rate in the world for binge drinking. In Europe, teenagers get their license at age 18, and some drinking ages are lower than that, they figure out how to control their drinking before the drive. Unlike in the US, kids drink and then drive because they either have to be home by curfew or they are too scared to call their parents for a ride, and admit they had been under the
Over the years, the legal drinking age in the United States has been heavily debated. Some argue that the legal age to drink should be 18 or 19 because people at that age are recognized as adults; others argue that the drinking age should be 21 because people who are able to drink should be more mature and have their lives better planned out. Although people are legally adults at 18, they are not yet mature adults; in fact, according to NRP, “emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don’t reach full maturity until the age 25” (“Brain”). Before earning the right to legally drink, people should allow their bodies to fully develop and gain a better knowledge of how to organize their lives. The drinking age should remain
One of the most contraversal topics talked about among teenages and young adults in the United States is the drinking age. At 18 years old you can sign a contract, vote, get married, pay bills and join the army. You can achieve all this but can’t have a beer to celebrate your accomplishments. Individuals ages from 12-20 years old drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United