The United States' federal rules mandate that the legal drinking age be 21 or older. In contrast to other western nations, the United States has adopted a strict stance against alcohol consumption, repealing the prohibition that would have been in place in 1993. Up until 1984, when the legal drinking age was established at 21, there were disagreements about the minimum age that should be set. From the time, American teenagers have not been able to consume alcohol until they attain the age of 21 and they watch others at 18 years from Europe and Australia enjoy legal glass of wine or beer.
The concern in these cases is that why does the American persist on banning full members who are already adults from consuming alcohol while the other age mates from other parts of the world are allowed to consume alcohol. The United States is in a situation that is not clear where those that have attained the age of 18 are allowed to carry riffles around but they are not allowed to buy and consume alcohol. I think this case is not logical and this essay will give some of the reasons why the minimum age for the consumption of alcohol should be reduced to 18.
The minimum age of 21 had never been and it should be reduced. In the part of the 20th century, there was no legal permitted age to consume alcohol. The government and the lawmakers in 1993 the realized that the position was unsustainable and they repealed eth provision that led to the 21st amendment. The amendment allowed each of the state to permit own minimum age. Most of the states at the time had a voting age of 21 and they set this as the minimum age for the consumption of alcohol. The minimum age of voting was reduced to 18 and the states lowered their drinking age to match the voting age until 1984 National Drinking Age Act was passed to make the age 21. The act then commanded the age to be 21 and states that did not comply with this would lose access to the federal transportation funding. The minimum legal drinking age hence has not been set to 21.
There are also many states that have allowed the some alcohol consumption under the age of 21. While it is indicated that the minimum drinking age is 21, it is not strict as it may appear. Many of the teenagers start the consumption of alcohol as low as 18 years and they should then allow consuming at this age. There are states that have managed to create some exceptions to make the minimum legal drinking age that makes them consume alcohol awhile at the same time still comply to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The exceptions should be considered and the age lowered. The exceptions are spread such that the underage drinking is in certain circumstances legal.
With the minimum drinking age asset at 21, it does not stop drinking. Those that have reached the age of 18 still get time and have alcohol. The minimum drinking age that is set at 21encourages dangerous drinking habits. One would argue that when the minimum age is set at 21, the consumption of alcohol among the teenagers increase. This is not the case. There is current underage drinking that take place in private house parties. The teenagers that are not yet the age of 18 may drive to the parties to have the experience. The parties encourage dangerous drinking habits. They make taking alcohol and getting drunk as a new experience and many of the teenagers would want to get the experience. The statistics concerning the consumption of alcohol among the teenagers are worrying. While most of the students who are below the age of 21 drink responsible, 445 of the college students are seen to get into binge drinking. The statistics shows that approximately 200 teenagers die from the injuries that they sustain while they are drunk. Alcohol is also responsible for 100,000 sexual assaults every year. When the drinking age is lowered to 18, responsible drinking will be encourage as the teenagers will not have to hold parties to get drunk and get the experience. In these cases, they will get the opportunity to drink under the watch of their parents and reduce the affects they might have hade when drunk irresponsible.
The truth is that most American teenagers do not learn to consume alcohol responsibly since it is something that they have to do secretly. Reducing the legal drinking age to 18 allows the parents to teach their children the positive attitudes and tis may also reduce some of the problems that are associated to binge drinking among the youth (Wechsler, 920). Economists have argued that a lower minimum drinking age would in some aspect help the economy. The legal drinking age that has been set to 21 could be harming the economy of the United States. The United States has a lot to offer in terms of tourism. The number of teenagers below the age of 21 would not prefer travelling to the United States as they view the country not giving the privilege that they would enjoy in their own country. Why would the teenagers spend their limited funds traveling to the destination where the rights that they enjoy in their own country are prohibited in the United States? They simply choose to travel to the other destinations where they will be able to enjoy the rights.
When the minimum age was set, the main argument was to protect the young Americans from health and social problems. The high minimal drinking age has not solved the social and health problems. The main argument in setting the age limit was that many of the young people are more exposed to the mind altering impact of alcohol. The argument is this regard was that the impacts of alcohol such as suicide, tendencies to depression, addictive tendencies and violence could be impacted in cases where the consumption are restricted to formative years. The arguments do not take parents into consideration. Maintaining the age high however does not solve these problems but leads to binge drinking that will in turn lead to some of the problems that the high minimum drinking age tries to solve.
The police do not enforce the minimum drinking age law and makes it pointless. Many of the teenagers feel free breaking the law since the enforcement is not done as it is in other laws. Underage drinking is bot victimized crime in the United States. Allowing the teenagers to break the law makes then break the others with contempt. The teenagers will in some cases get face identity cards to get into the drinking hub, since the United States is currently exposed to terrorism, funding fake IDs makes the situation worse.
One would look at the regulation of the minimum age of taking alcohol at 21 to be unfair when 18 is the legal age of majority in all the aspects of life. Most of the states have set the minimum for most of the aspects at 18 and this has made it an important milestone in the life of the youth in the United States. The age in these cases should also be the minimum drinking age. Once the teenagers reach the gage of 18, they are considered to be old enough and they are allowed to make decisions such that they are been allowed to get into marriages. They are even allowed to join the army. They are allowed to smoke and risk not only their life but even the life of the other people around them. This assumes that at the age of 18, they are mature enough that they are able to make their own decisions. It is time that it is also assumed that when they reach the age, they are mature enough such that they are able to face judgment over the actions that they might have done when they are drunk.
The minimum drinking age was developed as a reaction to a problem of fatalities that had started declining when the law was brought in. It is however true that the number of deaths increases at the time that an age group reached the set minimum drinking age. This would not change or get worse when the age is set at 18 than it is now when the age is at 21. The countries where drinking at the age of 18 has been allowed have not reported high rates of fatalities related to alcohol consumption among the youth as compared to the United States (Hingson and Ralph, 160). Most of the Americans enjoy a drink most of the time and alcohol industry is in its growth stage in the United States and the youth relaxing with a glass of beer in an appropriate manner has been seen as accepted.
When the pleasure is denied to the adults, it makes it makes alcohol look more desirable mainly to those that are at the age of 18 than it is in reality. This has made the youth be criminalized of drinking something that most of them enjoy. The main effect of this is to encourage them break the laws and engage in dangerous and irresponsible drinking that in the long run leads to binge drinking culture. Because the laws that were passed to govern minimum drinking age are mot strict, the law is seen as being contentious among the youth. It hence becomes a matter of concern when they start to believe that they are able to select the parts of the law that they think really applies to them. In these situations, I prefer to see the minimum drinking age harmonized to 18 so that the majority of the youth who become legalized to carry out other activities at this age enjoy the drink without having to worry that they might get prosecuted for the act.
Annotated bibliography
Working thesis: Since the current law on minimum drinking age that is set at 21 is not properly enforced, the focus should be on reducing the minimum age to 18 where Americans who attain the age will be free to enjoy their drinks without the fear that they might get prosecuted for their acts.
Hingson, Ralph W., et al. "Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among US college students ages 18-24." Journal of studies on alcohol 63.2 (2002): 136-144.
In this article, the numbers of the United States students between the age of 18 and 24 who experience alcohol related death were estimated. In the report, there was the examination of the social problems that are likely to be related to alcohol among those age group, traffic and unintentional deaths. From the analysis, it was determined that over 1400 college students who are aged between 18 and 24 and are already enrolled in the collages die in a year from injuries that are alcohol related such as motor crashes. From the research, it was concluded that there is need to put up the right strategies through which these deaths that are related to alcohol abuse among the youth is reduced.
This article was written by Highson RW who had a concern on the number of college students that die as a result of alcohol consumption related incidents. He chose the age between 18 and 24 as he believed it is at this age that the consumption of alcohol is high either legally or illegally. Hos argument provides the information on the issue that is in my argument. From his research, he determined that the number is high, I argue that since the minimum age of the alcohol consumption is at 21 and the laws governing the regulation are not fully enforced, most of the students at this age involve in irresponsible and dangerous binge drinking. I will use this article to argue on how lowering the minimum drinking age would reduce the deaths among the youth which are alcohol consumption related.
Moskowitz, Joel M. "The primary prevention of alcohol problems: a critical review of the research literature." Journal of studies on alcohol 50.1 (1989): 54-88.
In this article, the study evaluating the effects of policies and programs in the reduction of alcohol use are critically reviewed. From the review, there are four main preventive incentives that are determined. The first incentive are the policies that affect the economic, social and the physical availability of alcohol which looks at the minimum legal drinking age, the formal social control on the behaviors that are related to alcohol consumption, primary prevention programs and the environmental measures. The research in mainly supports three main policies through which the alcohol related problems might be reduced. The policies include maintaining the minimum legal drinking age at 21 in all the states, increasing the taxes paid on alcohol and enforcing the laws on drinking-driving. The author in his research looked at the previous literature on the policies that have been proposed or implemented in controlling the consumption of alcohol. He does this with as specification on how the policies could be used in reducing these problems.
I find this article important in my research since from the reviewed literature, I will determine some of the factors that the authors considered when they recommend the legal minimum drinking age to be maintained at 21 in all the states. The article will also be useful to determine the problems that have been observed in those states that the minimum drinking age is at 21 and compare them to those that have lowered the drinking age to 18. Doing this will help me make my arguments on why the minimum legal drinking age should be 18 and not 21.
Kandel, Denise B., and John A. Logan. "Patterns of drug use from adolescence to young adulthood: I. Periods of risk for initiation, continued use, and discontinuation." American journal of public health 74.7 (1984): 660-666.
This article looks at the patterns on drug use in the perspective of the time the adolescence get into the use of the drugs, the continued use of the drugs and the time that there is a decline observed in the use of the drugs. The research was mainly done on the adolescent in New York and looked at the initiation in to the use of drugs such as alcohol and cigarettes. The research mainly was conducted among a population between the age of 18 and 20. From the study, it was determined that the initiation in these drugs occur at an early age of 16. At this age, the adolescent may be initiated into the use of these drugs which then they continue to use legally or illegally as they grow into adulthood.
In this journal, Kandel and Logan are mainly concerned about the age that they think the adolescent get initiated into the use of drugs and how they continue using the drug into their adulthood. The researchers chose the age between 18 and 21 as they thought this was the time that most of the adolescent are initiated into the use of drugs which many of them continue to use in their adulthood.
This article will be important for my research as it will help me gather the data on the adolescent who use alcohol before attaining the minimum drinking age limit of 21. The data will be used in comparing the effects and the problems that the age group may experience when they start to use the drugs before 21 years of age.
O'Malley, Patrick M., and Lloyd D. Johnston. "Epidemiology of alcohol and other drug use among American college students." Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14 (2002): 23-39.
This article mainly provides the information on the extent of alcohol and other drug use among American college students. In the article, five different data sources are examined and the estimation of the current level of alcohol and other drugs is done. From the results, it was determined that the rates of alcohol consumption among the college students are very high with two out of five of the students being heavy drinkers.
The researchers in this article aimed at determining why there is increased use of alcohol among the college students and how this could be reduced. In the research, age factor was one of their main considerations. They wanted to also determine the age at which most of the college students start the consumption of alcohol.
I will use this article to argue out my thesis as it will help in providing the number of the college students that are currently under the consumption of alcohol. From the data, the ages of the college students will be determined. It will be used to compare the rate of alcohol consumption between the students at the age of 18 and those at the age of 21.
Wechsler, Henry, et al. "Correlates of college student binge drinking." American journal of public health 85.7 (1995): 921-926.
This study mainly examined the individual correlates of students who are in collage to binge drinking. From the research, it was determined that 44% of the college students binge drink. There are several factors that were determined to encourage binge drinking. Some of the factors included the prior upbringing in high school and the adoption of party-centered style of life. Most of the students who were found to binge drink started the consumption while still in high school.
The authors of the article were concerned on the effects of binge drinking among the youth and carried out research on some of the factors that encouraged the behavior. From the study, it was evident that most of the college students who binge dink start the habit while still in high school, at this time, they have not attained a minimum drinking age.
This article will help me relate the age of the adolescent and the factors that could have influence the behavior. I think most of the students who binge drink in collage formed the habit when they were still in high school and they had not attained the minimum drinking age. I will argue considering that when the age is reduced to18, the problem of binge drinking will be reduced since most of the students will have attained the age to consume alcohol legally.
Works cited
Hingson, Ralph W., et al. "Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among US college students ages 18-24." Journal of studies on alcohol 63.2 (2002): 136-144.
Kandel, Denise B., and John A. Logan. "Patterns of drug use from adolescence to young adulthood: I. Periods of risk for initiation, continued use, and discontinuation." American journal of public health 74.7 (1984): 660-666.
Moskowitz, Joel M. "The primary prevention of alcohol problems: a critical review of the research literature." Journal of studies on alcohol 50.1 (1989): 54-88.
O'Malley, Patrick M., and Lloyd D. Johnston. "Epidemiology of alcohol and other drug use among American college students." Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14 (2002): 23-39.
Wechsler, Henry, et al. "Correlates of college student binge drinking." American journal of public health 85.7 (1995): 921-926.
