21 AS THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE
21 as the legal drinking age
The legal drinking age should be 21 because alcoholism has become a major health problem in the U.S. It bears to stress that excessive alcohol intake among the youth will result to more deaths among underage kids who are below 21. If the minimum legal drinking age will be lower than 21 years of age in the United States, there is a greater probability that the death toll will rise ever year resulting from drunk driving. Underage drinking has a direct connection to several social issues and health problems among minors. The drinking sprees can lead to some problems such as physical violence, driving under influence, poor school performance, sexual activity, unwanted pregnancies and smoking. Many students from high school resort to drinking as a form of merry-making with friends and to feel they are accepted within the group. They become intoxicated due to binge drinking that may result to more serious problems as they get older. Adopting an age below 21 years as the minimum legal drinking age will cause more trouble for the government. This will encourage the youth to consume alcohol earlier in life. It is of common knowledge that minors who engage in binge drinking while they are still in high school shall influence them to become binge drinkers as they turn to adulthood.
There is a need to establish the strong relationship between binge drinking and youth drinking. Binge drinking has been receiving a lot of media attention due to the increase in alcohol-related deaths inside college campuses involving college athletes and social organization members. Binge drinking among the youth in the United States refers to students whose ages range between 18 years or older. Binge drinking means the youth consumes five or more successive standard drinks at an instance. Due to the heavy drinking presently taking place inside the college campuses, there is no reason to lower the minimum legal drinking age of 21. It has become a public health issue due to high alcohol-related mortality rate. Hence, it is strongly recommended that implementing and keeping 21 as the minimum legal drinking age will prevent underage drinking and to avoid car-related accidents among underage youth in the future. As part of the drive to prevent underage drinking, the government must create laws that will intensify the ban on the sale of alcohol to minors in order to limit their access to alcohol.
Maintaining the age of 21 as the mandatory legal age is expected to decrease the rate of alcohol consumption among college students who are below the age of 21. On the part of the states, it is best that they enhance their alcohol control policies and impose heavier penalties to reduce the binge drinking incidents inside college campuses. Another way to prevent binge drinking among the youth is by escalating excise taxes on alcohol. With this strategy, it is expected that alcohol use will be controlled by increasing the payment of taxes to prevent the sale of alcohol to high school and college students below 21. The exposure of the youth to alcohol can be limited by minimizing the advertisement and marketing of alcohol. Other preventive measures include increasing the education and awareness programs to avoid alcohol-related traffic injuries among the youth.
The mandatory legal drinking age of 21 should be retained since it is the most effective underage alcohol control effort on the part of the government. Lowering the drinking age below 21 years shall pose serious consequences. By enhancing the mandatory drinking laws currently in place, underage drinking is under control since it prevented the use of fake identification, serving alcohol in open containers in public and to limit the minors to drink alcohol in party settings. Maintaining the mandatory legal drinking age to 21 will help save more lives. There has been an alarming increase in the number of alcohol-related vehicular accidents for the past years and the only way to avoid this is to remove the access of alcohol among the youth. Lowering the mandatory legal age will augment the exposure of the youth to alcohol and may even result to alcohol-addiction as they become adults. It is best for the government to keep the age of 21 as the mandatory legal drinking age to help the youth achieve a brighter future by shielding them from the harmful effects of alcohol at an early age. There should be a continued effort on the part of the government to enhance laws that will intensify the ban on the sale of alcohol to minors in order to limit their access to alcohol.
