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In our world exist a lot of things one should be concerned about to keep his or her body and mind fit and to be healthy. These include GM food, smoking, environment, and, of course, alcohol. In mass media we can meet intensive debates about the abovementioned issues. Among these problems alcohol is one of the most widespread and widely discussed because this substance is in free access. You can buy it almost in every shop. The good thing is that every civilized country has its own alcohol drinking age established by a law and shop assistants are not allowed to sell such substances to those who under the drinking age.
On that basis the main point of this essay is to show the advantages and disadvantages of increasing or decreasing of drinking age and prove why one is better than the other. In my opinion, the thing we don’t want according to the present social, finance, and politic circumstances is that the legal drinking age starts from 21-year old, and I will explain why.
All advocates of drinking age increase explain that these measures will help to deal with such problem as drunk driving. If people are not allowed to drink when they are under 21, the number of car accidents will go down; that is how they think. According to this point, I partly agree with advocates, but it seems to be that they completely forget to look into this problem more deeply. Drunk driving almost in all cases isn’t just about the drinking age. It is more likely about the combination of circumstances drunk drivers are living with. It is all connected with the education, parenting, psychological statement and traits of young person, so why instead of drinking age increasing government doesn’t provide proper care for its people. It can, for example, check candidates for driving licenses more thoroughly via special psychological tests and conversations. Moreover, government may spend some extra money on social and human services development in order to perform control over the troubled families and try to reduce negative influence on children received from their relatives. These are only two examples, and there is a whole bunch of others concerning social issues that show us that drinking age is only the smallest part of this puzzle. The researches of Prof. Engs confirm this statement. According to Engs, researches in USA from 1980s until present time showed that the number of cases involving drunk driving, as well as per capita consumption of the alcohol have decreased. All this started in 1980 and the new alcohol purchase law was adopted in 1987. The decrease of drinking and car accidents is appeared to be the outcome of many factors and not just the rise of drinking age. These include: education concerning drunk driving, designated driver programs, increased seat belt and air bag usage, safer automobiles, lower speed limits, free taxi services from drinking establishments, etc. (Engs).
A lot of people believe that increasing of drinking age or even prohibition of alcohol will help to reduce the consumption of it. Probably they don’t remember what happened in 1920th during the Prohibition law. It only caused other social problems and raise of bootlegging. That’s why it is very important to keep in mind such statement that the more something is prohibited the more you want this. Prof. Engs calls this a forbidden fruit, a badge of rebellion against authority and a symbol of adulthood (Engs). If person has a right to drink since 18, he or she probably will do this in small quantities and from time to time. The great example is Holland where the number of drug addicts is very low though soft drugs are legalized. Another interesting fact about Holland is that government allows using soft drugs only in special places. Why we can’t do such facilities for 18-years old people. Engs believe that young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments (Engs).
At the age of 18 young people are allowed to join military forces where they risk their lives on the battlefields and kill other people. Well, government tells me that one can legally kill someone at the age of eighteen while he signs up with the military and go to war, but one can’t have even a bottle of beer. (Harold). At this age youth are legal to get married and take responsibility for committed crimes. According to Harold, it is quite senseless situation because “if voting and military sign up is 18” and you are adult since that age, “why can’t we drink then?” (Harold).
Considering all aforementioned facts I strongly believe that those countries that have 18-years old as legal drinking age mustn’t increase it in case they don’t want any negative consequences. I would like to end this essay with the words of Prof. Engs. “The 21 year old drinking age law is not working, it is counterproductive”, we should change our present national drinking age law and teach those who decided to consume alcohol how to drink without forgetting about responsibilities.
Works cited
Engs, Ruth. "Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research." N.p. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html
Harold, G. "Drinking Age Should Be Lowered." N.p. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://www.teenink.com/opinion/drugs_alcohol_smoking/article/48104/Drinking-Age-Should-Be-Lowered/>.
