When the topic of eighteen or Twenty one is brought up, most people understand the topic you’re about to speak of. However, there are the ones that don’t quite know what you’re referring to. I am talking about the debate of whether the age of alcohol consumption in America should be eighteen or twenty one. People bring this topic up on an almost day to day basis, where many of the participants in those debates provide solid and passionate examples and reasons on why the drinking age should be eighteen, not twenty one. This topic has been brought up time and time again; with the age changing several times throughout history. The drinking age of twenty one stemming from the end of the prohibition in 1933.
As a brief history, at the end of the prohibition in 1933 the drinking age was twenty one. During the height of the Vietnam war, you could be eighteen to buy yourself a drink. Then throughout the late seventies the drinking age would bounce around. Then finally in 1984 the federal government would side with MADD, which stands for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. When they sided with them, they would put in the universal drinking age within all fifty states to twenty one.
Later in 1987 MADD would state that they saved 17,000, by enacting this age restriction. However, many people felt as if MADD went too far and people would start to bring up the possibility to change the legal drinking age to eighteen. In 2004 former Middlebury College president John McCardell, was alarmed at the intensity of underage drinking, and would later found a non profit organization to spread the awareness of the dangers of excessive and reckless alcohol consumption by young adults known as Choose Responsibly. With this organization they argued that the current law has driven underage boozing underground and into dangerous territory. When you look at the public today and how society portrays alcohol as a bad thing, it can cause young adults to want to do it more without a good understanding and education about it. Which in turn leads it to being more dangerous. The higher drinking age has and will continue to not stop underage drinking.
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In my personal opinion, the parents that allow their children to drink underage and educate their children of the dangers and how to responsibly drink, produce better and more aware kids to their environment around them. Then the parents that are strict on their children and don’t teach them about the dangers and how to be more responsible around alcohol and simply just yell at them and tell them that it is bad, leads them to feel the need to try it and that leads them to be more dangerous when they consume alcohol. Which is kind of like the JUUl and vape trend that is happening, where it is just being forced down their throats to not do it, instead of trying to teach them why it is bad and the effects of it and how to be more responsible around it.
When looking at the CDC website they state that there were about 189,000 emergency department visits in 2010 by people under the age of twenty one for injuries and varying conditions that were linked to alcohol. Once again proving that there are too many children that are uneducated on how to drink responsibly. Which causes more harm than good. For those underage drinkers in highschool we can see that there were only six percent that drove after drinking alcohol, and only 17% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. That is a surprisingly low number. All drinking and driving is bad, but when looking at the grand scheme of things there is only a small minority that are drinking and driving in highschool.
This kind of goes without saying, but it’s inevitable that a young adult will drink underage. As hard as a parent may try to force a kid not to and enact enforcement against it. The child will find some way to disobey their parents. It’s almost in our nature for when a person tells us not to do something, it makes us want to do it more. This is especially true when it is under legal enforcement. Obviously this isn’t true for all things, but you should get the jist.
Taking a different look at it; not only would lowering the drinking age provide overall happier and more educated young adults, but it would also allow for the economy to grow. Where more bars, restaurants, and other licenced establishments would be able to sell their product to more customers. This would also allow for more Revenue to increase for private business owners, and there would be greater amounts of tax revenue to be collected by the government.
Going off of that, when we look at the age of recruitment for the military; it’s eighteen. In the military people fight and die for our country. At a young age, men and women are essentially told to kill or be killed. For simply this act alone, many feel that if you are old enough to kill and fight for your country, your freedom. You should be able to have a drink with your friends and family. Within the 160 countries in the world, there are only eleven that have the drinking age set to twenty one. Sixty one percent of countries out of 160, have their drinking age set at eighteen; and are better because of it.
When we go and look at the other side of things, we can see that there are a few things that when the drinking age is set at twenty one it benefits. One of them being that there are fewer motor vehicle crashes. According to the CDC, the reduction is actually sixteen percent less. We also see the amount of total drinking is decreased. After all states set the minimum legal drinking age to twenty one, we can see that people drinking at age eighteen to twenty declined from 59% in 1985 to 40% in 1991. There is also a decrease of people drinking from age twenty one to twenty five that significantly declined when states set the minimum legal drinking age to twenty one, from 70% in 1985 to 56% in 1991.
There are a few more reasons that aid the defence of having the legal age at twenty one; however, hardly of them are significant enough to matter. When we look at both the benefits and disadvantages of changing the legal age to eighteen, there are significantly more that sides with it. Including the amount of supporters for the change in the minimum drinking age. With there being various foundations and websites supporting the change from twenty one to eighteen.
Personally I think changing the legal drinking age to eighteen instead of twenty one will not only benefit young adults throughout the country, but I think that it will benefit the entirety of the public. By educating and allowing for communication to the young adults, instead of forcing information down their throats and yelling at them that it’s wrong; we will cause there to be a more aware, safer, and better equipped society. Even though there are drawbacks and problems that occur when it comes to overall alcohol consumption, the benefits of lowering the legal drinking age are substantial. Hopping through persistence and constant determination we will be able to lower the drinking age for all of the future young adults, allowing for better and safer opportunities and experiences through their young lives.
References
- Prohibition
- Drinking age – Wikipedia
- Prohibition – History.com
- Minimum Legal Drinking Age – CDC
- A Developmental Perspective on Underage Alcohol Use – NIAAA
- Drinking in the United States: Main Findings From the 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES)
- The Legal Drinking Age: Science vs. Ideology – Tripod
