Abstract
The legal age for alcohol consumption and the wisdom that applies to this choice has for some time been a topic that has been subject to vast research and scrutiny and this has been so because the reasons why we had taken the step to raise the drinking age to 21 do not seem to be coming true with the choice that we have made. This means that there has come a time again where we look at both sides of another choice but this time we make a decision about the lowering of the legal age for drinking rather than increasing it even further. In this paper, we are going to argue on both the sides of the idea of lowering the age for drinking and then use the same arguments to reach a consensus on the matter.
Lowering of the legal drinking age: a good idea?
Introduction
It was since the year 1984 that our country thought right to impose a restriction on drinking of every individual under the age of 21. This population of people has also included youth in between the ages 18 and 20 who are regarded as adults under the eyes of the law in all other respects. The intention of such restriction may have been to counter the negative effects of drinking, but the problem is that these restrictions do not seem to be working as much even if they had once upon a time. (McCardell, 2010, p.2)
Studies present evidence which leads us to believe that 50 percent of the youngsters between the ages 18 and 20 do in fact consume alcohol on a regular basis. To supplement the problem even further, we lose very close to five thousand lives each year as a result of the drinking effects of those below 21 years of age. (McCardell, 2010, p.2)
Thesis Statement
These figures tell us that the approach that we have so far been taking is not working because underage drinking has persisted and the effects of the violation of that law have still surfaced. This means that we need to employ a more effective strategy where we train our youth on alcohol consumption rather than take them away for it. This right here is enough reason why the age for consuming alcohol should be lowered which means it is the time we take action on the idea.
Reasons that support the lowering of the legal drinking age
First Argument
The first very compelling reason why the legal drinking age should be brought down is the current trend of very high prevalence of binge drinking. A recent Harvard study has concluded that 43 percent which nearly pushes to half of all college students entertain the habit of binge drinking. What constitutes as binge drinking? Many of us may be wondering at this point. Binge drinking is a word used to describe a trend where an individual very regularly downs around four to five drinks amongst very potent categories of liquor and becomes immediately drunk.
What links binge drinking to the legal age of drinking is the fact that the rise in this trend was coupled with the US law increasing the legal age for drinking to 21 years. With the implementation of the law, moderate use of alcohol has mostly vanished amongst the youth who are not of drinking age.
If we can legalize drinking for the youth more than 18 or 19 years of age, we could serve alcohol to them in controlled environments like restaurants, bars, and official parties and under supervision. We could also educate these youngsters regarding the benefits of control. We have to decide that setting the legal drinking age too high has driven our children to drink in secret and without supervision and in an environment where illegal drinking seems to prevail amongst the young men and women, outcomes are likely to show us a very dark side to the consumption of alcohol.
Second Argument
Even with the problem of binge drinking aside, the increasing of the legal drinking age has also lead to an overall increase in the statistics which show irresponsible drinking on the part of students. For instance, the cutting of class amongst college students because of intoxication rose from 9 to 12 percent since the law announced the increase in the legal age of drinking, missing class due to hangovers rose from 26 to 28 percent, the lowering of grade because of drinking rose from 5 percent of the students to 7 percent. (Engs, 1997)
These are all factors which have prevailed amongst college students, but we cannot control these variables because they are happening because of illegal behavior. The college faculty cannot question the students regarding these occurrences because they are not very likely to admit to drinking from the fear of action against an illegal act. If we can lower the legal drinking age for these college students, we could implement policies which could cater for the trends of irresponsible drinking. We could hold the students more accountable and create a safe environment for them where they can drink and not let that habit affect their college education. Not only could this help control their habits of drinking during college, but rather this type of education could also teach them the responsibility that could extend to the rest of their lives.
Third Argument
There is yet another argument that the activists in favor of lowering the drinking age want everyone else to understand. This argument uses 18 as the legal age and argues on the significance of that age. The law considers a person as having grown up enough at this age to enter into a contract of marriage, to decide upon the responsibility to vote, to join the military and even to serve on the jury. All of these trends give the 18-year-old a right to live life to the fullest and to take on responsibility as big as that of a family. Yet, all of these responsibilities do not involve that to regulate one’s own use of alcohol. This law does not follow the trend, and this makes it flawed. We have seen the effects of not being able to educate the youth regarding the right way to consume alcohol because at the current rate, they are binge drinking more, and they are also consuming alcohol in a careless manner.
We have always taught our children the correct way to drive and only then do we hand them the keys to a car and issue them driver’s license. It is because of the same approach that our children drive more responsibly and get into less trouble. Yet, the case in alcohol consumption is the complete reverse. We forbid our young ones to go even near alcohol until they have become 21 years of age and just like that, in a matter of a single day, we expect them to learn control and handle alcohol consumption with responsibility. These are all factors which present us with a clear indication that our decision to set the legal drinking age to 21 is failing and now is a time as better as any other to make amends on that miscalculation.
The arguments of the opposition
The most major concern which had also pushed us earlier towards the raising of the legal age of drinking is the increase in motor vehicle accidents because of drunk drivers and the causalities that result from such incidents. We have been held back lately from lowering the drinking age once again because we have been busy worrying about the impact that the measure could have on the motor vehicle accidents out on the roads. We are afraid that when we bring the legal drinking age back down, the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents is going to increase, and that is an outcome that we are not yet ready to face because of the vigorous efforts we have engaged in to bring the number of mortalities down to the current rate. (Dobkin, 2011, p.138)
The evaluation of our results has revealed that seven years after we increased the legal drinking age to 21, there was a remarkable decline in the number of 18-20-year-old youngsters dying in nighttime motor vehicle accidents. (Dobkin, 2011, p.138) This is one reason that much of the opposition presents against the decision which may move us to reduce the drinking age back down.
Critiques also oppose lower age for legal drinking because they are of the view that if alcohol is made available to the young generation early on, they are going to drink earlier. Binge drinking results from peer pressure, they say, and there isn’t peer pressure anywhere as much as there is in high schools. So those who are for the legal drinking as of 21 years worry that the children are not going to act responsibly once alcohol is made openly available to them. People who oppose the lowering of the legal age for drinking in the United States also say that the law may not be working on a few underage youngsters, but it does, in fact, deter the others from the use of alcohol.
Refuting the arguments of the Opposition
Despite all of these reservations that we have regarding the implications of reducing the legal age of drinking, we can still be assures that the change is going to be positive all in all. One of the reasons for this is that it is not difficult for us to prove that our concerns regarding the increase in motor vehicle accidents do not have a lot of evidence backing it up. Because yes, there may have been a decline in the night time deaths from drunk driving between the ages 18 and 20, but this decrease is not as abrupt as the reduction in the number of people who can drink between the ages 18 and 20. This very clearly implies that there have always been other variables involved. (Dobkin, 2011, p.139)
We could attribute this decline in the overall number of deaths from drunk driving accidents to the more restrictions that have been placed on the laws against drunk driving. This is reassurance enough for us to understand that there is no clear link between drunk driving casualties and the legal drinking age or at least that even if there is a link between the two variables, it is not strong enough to have us worried about the effects of lowering the drinking age on mortality amongst young, drunk drivers.
Alcohol may be holding back a few of the law abiding citizens from jumping into the habit, but we cannot ignore the fact that those who want to drink despite the law have nothing holding them back. Joseph Bui is one of the university students from the United States, and he shares his experience regarding the law against underage drinking. He explains the situation in pretty plain and simple words when he says that there is and has for some time been somewhat of understanding in between the police and the students under the legal age because the police often see many of the students drinking and yet they are left alone. This is not a theory or an argument rather this trend which is based on the practicality of what happens on college campuses.
Since the current trend does not seem to be working as well as we would want it to, there are a number of college students who are of the view that lowering the legal age for drinking could be a solution to a number of our difficulties. We could use the same resources that are being employed to stop underage drinking and divert them to areas that require our attention more urgently. We could save many of these resources from being expended in areas where they may not even be making very huge of a difference anyways.
Conclusion
We had raised the legal age for alcohol consumption because we wanted to take control of the number of traffic accidents that involve drunk drivers out on the roads. We never wanted our youth to act recklessly like that, so we decided that abstinence was the solution for them. We have now been successful in lowering the number of deaths that occur because of cases of drunk driving especially amongst the youth, but we could give credit to the drunk driving laws that we have been adapting to suit our needs as we could accredit the law that sets the legal drinking age at 21 years. The law for drunk driving saw success because it had evolved and changed until it had catered for our needs.
The law against 18 as the legal drinking age also has to evolve in the same way so that it could suit our needs better. We still need to fight against the increased cases of binge drinking and the resulting incidences of sexual assault and alcohol poisoning and we also have to counter the effects of our children using alcohol irresponsibly. These are amongst the few reasons why it is necessary that we think once again about changing the legal age for alcohol consumption.
List of References
Dobkin, C. C. (2011). The Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Public Health. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 133-156.
Engs, Ruth C. (1997, 2014). Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based on research. Indiana University: Bloomington, IN. Retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17594
Glaser, G. (2015, February 10). Return the Drinking Age to 18, and Enforce It. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/02/10/you-must-be-21-to-drink/return-the-drinking-age-to-18-and-enforce-it
Hitt, J. (1999, October 24). The Way We Live Now: 10-24-99; The Battle Of the Binge. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/24/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-10-24-99-the-battle-of-the-binge.html
McCardell, J. (2010). Yes, the U.S Legal Drinking Age should be Lowered. Insights On Law and Society, 10(3), 18-21.
Wilson, J. (2008, August 21). Old enough to vote, serve in the military and drink? Retrieved from CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/08/21/drinking.age/index.html?iref=24hours
