The Repeal of the Prohibition in 1933 - Research Paper Example

Drinking age is defined as the minimum age in which an individual is legally allowed to consumethe alcoholic beverages. ‘With the repeal of the Prohibition in 1933, the states were able to set their own rules regarding the minimum drinking age under the authority established by the Twenty-first amendment to the Constitution.’ (Williams, Elizabeth M, and Stephanie J. Carter. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011.) There are the majority of the states which have kept the dinking age at the 21 years whereas on the other hand, there are some which have reduced the underage drinking to 18-20 years. In the 1970s , the drinking age was reduced to 18 , as this was followed by many of the states so that the individuals be given the right under the Twenty Sixth Amendment passage. There are some states which give the permission to the 18 year olds to be present in the places where alcohol beverages are consumed , even if they are not consuming the beverages themselves and sometimes even give them the permission to work as bar tenders , serving the beverages. Whereas there are some states which give the permission to the 21 year olds to consume the alcohol beverages on the private property with the permission or the supervision of a family member. (Williams, Elizabeth M, and Stephanie J. Carter. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011.) Despite the specific changes made by the federal law there are about thirty states within the United States which give the permission to the individuals of the 21 years age or over to consume the alcohol under the supervision of a family member or with the consent of their parents. Lowering the drinking age to 18 can give rise to social short term and long term problems due to which I believe that the drinking age should not be lowered any more than 18 years of age. ‘Some states tied the continuation of their change in the drinking age to the federal law with a automatic repeal if the federal law is repealed.’ (Williams, Elizabeth M, and Stephanie J. Carter. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011.) There have been many arguments and the debates that the minimum age of drinking should be reduced so that so that the individuals have the responsibility and staring at an early age will broaden their horizon to the responsible drinking. Amethyst Initiative , which are one of the groups of college educators, have agreed and given the advocacy of the underage drinking. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism College Drinking Task Force, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving , on the other hand have urged and they advocate rigorously against the reduction of the underage drinking so that the fatal consequences such as the alcohol related traffic incidents , alcohol related traffic deaths and alcohol related sexual assaults can be reduced and it can only be done with the help of the minimum drinking age laws enforcements on the campuses and the schools. For the policy makers in the United States, the underage drinking has been a well debated issue in the country and there have been various laws introduced and changed over the past many years as well. Due to the increase in the drunk driving fatalities , the United States government increased the drinking age from 18 years to 21 years so that the fatality rate could be decreased. There have been arguments put forth which question that what reasons have resulted in the underage drinking to be reduced to 18. There are some critics who criticize the current drinking age which differentiates and arbitrarily discriminates between the individuals who are 21 years old and the individuals who are 18 years old. In the country like United States, the individual who is 18 years old is regarded as the legally adult, and hence has the freedom to join military , have the capability and ability to handle the serious situations such as voting , contract , marriage and so on. Hence there is a thin line drawn between the ‘unjustification’ and the ‘arbitration’. ‘Eighteen year olds are capable of making adult choices. In fact US law assumes that 18-year olds can handle serious responsibility in other contexts including military service , jury service, marriage , voting and contract formation. The decision to drink is arguably less weight than these important responsibilities.’ (The Debatabase Book: A Must-Have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2003.) However on the other hand , it can be argued that although USA government has given freedom to the 18 year old in different respects such as voting, military and others but the past trends and reports have shown that the consequences of the underage drinking have been detrimental due to which the laws at federal and state level have been introduced so that these dire consequences can be avoided. The government of United States is very much interested in prevention of such costs to the society and so that these disastrous consequences can be barricaded. Some have been objecting the reduction of the drinking age to 18 because the it can not be very effective since the law can not be enforced , due to which the effectiveness of the law can be questioned. The culture of fake Ids or asking older friends to get alcohol is a common norm and hence this is what will hamper the effectiveness of the under age drinking law in areas such as the university and college campuses, public areas, high schools and middle schools, which are the places having the most population of individuals from the age of 18-22 year olds socializing. ‘The current age restriction is not a very effective deterrent because it can never be fully enforced. Those under the age of 21 often use fake Ids and/or have older friends purchase alcohol for them. The law is often more difficult to enforce in on college campuses where young people from 18-22 years old often socialize together and students regularly purchase alcohol that is consumed by young people.’ (The Debatabase Book: A Must-Have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2003.) If the drinking age is lowered, it makes the youth more cautious and gives them a sense of responsibility towards the alcohol and drinking which can play a vital role in the reduction of the alcohol problems. In Europe , the youth has the freedom of consuming the alcohol in the early stages of their lives and if the same practices are observed in the United States , then a more responsible behavior will be observed among the youth of the United States and will avoid the binge drinking attitude as well. However current law can be termed as being very effective since it makes it difficult for the under age individuals to obtain alcohol, and a law properly enforced does not mean that the law should be upheld as well. The underage alcohol consumption has given rise to the dangers and the consequences associated with the underage drinking are great where countless lives have been lost due to this norm. The underage drinking law introduced at the federal and the state level has been very effective in saving countless lives and this shows that the partial deterrence plays a more important role than the there being nothing at all. ‘If American youth are allowed to consume alcohol earlier in their lives, as is practiced throughout the Europe , they will avoid more destructive behaviors such as binge drinking. Such a culture also ensures that parents have greater oversight of and input into their children’s drinking habits.’ (The Debatabase Book: A Must-Have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2003.) There is a misconception amongst many who state that the underage drinking can bring more awareness among the individuals and this will bring responsible drinking. Studies and statistics have proved and shown that the lowering of the drinking age will not make the young individuals responsible about drinking. ‘Studies have shown that the students who starting drinking at the younger age tend to drink more heavily in the colleges and have more drinking problems generally. Studies have also shown that the relationship between the younger age drinking and other serious problems such as drug abuse and depression.’ (The Debatabase Book: A Must-Have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2003.) This is nothing more than a middle class myth that giving the children the permission to drink at an early age are more responsible drinkers. England has become the victim of the binge drinking which has now become a nation wide problem, where the underage drinking has become a very common problem. The lower age drinking problems do not make individuals the responsible drinkers but makes the problems of the drinking even worse with the detrimental consequences. The teenage drinkers results in the problems of the teenagers and the alcohol problems. The individual states have been denied the rights of the decision to determine their own laws of the underage drinking and the states which violate the federally stated laws are denied the rights of the federal highway funds. Hence , United States has introduced some really stringent underage drinking laws. Therefore this lets the states governments to make decisions which are best for the state residents since federal highway funds are too important to forego. Underage drinking and the threats it impose to the society is a very well constructed arguments with solid point in favor or against the issue. The United States of America is one of the countries which is a victim of the highest number of underage drinkers, and the country. When there are laws introduced for the underage drinking, it gives rise to the level of curiosity amongst the adolescents and they engage in the underground activities. This leads to smuggling, the fake identification cards, stealing etc ., and the steps which are taken to barricade the activity instead backfire on the other hand. This is the responsibility of the parents and the academic institutes to bring awareness among the individuals and they should be given reasons with logical explanations that why drinking is bad for health. American Academy of Pediatrics stated that the underage drinking should be discouraged through the following methods such as the adolescent patients should be screened from underage drinking. Moreover the hazards of the underage drinking should be discussed with the teenage patients and how it adversely affects the important parts of the body, especially the liver. Parents are the role models of the children and if the exemplary parents set an example for the children, this can also be an effective way to stop the underage drinking. (Hanson, Glen, and Peter J. Venturelli. Drugs and Society. Boston, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 1998.) There have been many underage drinking laws which were introduced in the United States but despite the introduction of such laws, there are many statistics which prove that almost many young people in the country start using the alcohol before they have even entered the age of 21. And the ones who are indulged in drinking tend to be heavy drinkers in comparison to the regular drinkers. Taking a look at the college drinking patterns, a recent report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, has cited that four in every five students have engaged themselves in drinking and half of them are labelled as the heavy drinkers (NIAAA 2002). A recent Harvard School of Public Health Survey indicated that while the percentage of the abstainers increased between the years 1993 and 2001, ( Wechsler et al., 2002b) the frequent heavy drinking and drinking to intoxication increased at the same time. The trends in the past decade or so observing the college drinking depict that heavy drinking is somewhere at the rate of 44 percent and nearly half of all the alcohol consumed by students attending 4-year colleges is consumed by underage students. (Bonnie, Richard J, and Mary E. O'Connell. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003) Under age drinking has dire consequences, all which have been taken in to consideration by the government of the United States and the underage drinking has acute consequences such as the poor school performance , death or injury alcohol and drug abuse or fractured relationships. There are many adults who have assumed that maybe the consequences of the underage drinking are more or less same as the adults but research has shown and proved that the dangers of youth drinking are more dangerous, acute and dire. ‘In 2000, 36.6 percent of the youth (underage 21) traffic fatalities involved alcohol, a rate slightly lower than the rate of the adults which is 41.7 percent. However, when the denominator is the number of licensed drivers, drinking drivers under age 21 are involved in the fatal crashes at twice the rate of the adult drivers as per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2002. (Bonnie, Richard J, and Mary E. O'Connell. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003) There is a direct relationship between the underage drinking and the violence, risky sexual behavior suicide , fatal crashed and poor school performances etc. Apart from the dire consequences which are imposed on the individuals , there are some costs which are imposed to the society as a result of the underage drinking and some of these costs involve lost lives, the loss in the level of the productivity and increase in the health care costs as well. These are the short terms consequences of the underage drinking but at the same time , the long term consequences have to be taken under consideration which are directly inflicted on one’s personality. The heavy use and abuse of the underage drinking is associated with the low self esteem, depression , conduct disorders and the anti social behaviors. Chronic health problems due to the heavy use of the alcohol are not observed or taken in to the consideration because they take more time to accumulate and show their results. ‘Recent research shows that drinking during puberty may have deleterious effects on bone density development for young women, failing to develop maximal bone density during adolescence puts them at risk later in life for osteoporosis. (Bonnie, Richard J, and Mary E. O'Connell. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003) . WORKS CITED Williams, Elizabeth M, and Stephanie J. Carter. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011 The Debatabase Book: A Must-Have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2003. Bonnie, Richard J, and Mary E. O'Connell. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003) Hanson, Glen, and Peter J. Venturelli. Drugs and Society. Boston, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 1998 Read More