Should the US Lower Drinking Age to 18 - Research Paper Example

?Should the U.S. lower the drinking age to 18? Every year, millions of American kids graduate from high school, throw massive parties and get drunk. Police end up arresting a lot of these kids, causing them legal trouble for months or even years. So, every year, there's a new debate about whether we should lower or even abolish the legal drinking age (Cloud). In America drink age is 21 even though a person gets voting rights at the age of 18. America is believed to be one of the most civilized countries in the world. It should be noted that in most of the European countries, the drink age is 18 whereas in America, the authorities are not allowing the people to drink until they reach 21 years of age. Smith (2008) pointed out that “teenagers have not developed the cognitive, social, and psychological mechanisms that are needed to make thoughtful and logical decisions about alcohol use” (Smith). In other words, people below the age of 21 may not be able to take sound decisions in their life and therefore they should not be allowed to drink. At the same time, many people argue that if an 18 year person is wise enough to elect political leaders, then he should be allowed to take drink at the age of 18. At 20 years old, an American can drive a car, buy cigarettes and pornography, vote for the next leader of the free world, and even die for his or her country by enlisting in the military. But that same person cannot order a beer with friends while watching the game at a sports bar. Because of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, some Americans can put themselves in front of terrorists with machine guns, but not a Heineken” (Blanche). In short, legal drink age is a controversial topic in America at present because of the various dimensions attached to this topic. So many arguments were cited in favour and against the lowering of drink age in America. In my opinion, drink age should not be lowered under any circumstances since lowering of drink age can generate so many social, physical and mental problems not only to the drinker but also to the family and society in which he belongs. Seaman Barrett (2005) in his article "How Bingeing Became the New College Sport" argued in favour of lowering drink age from 21 to 18 in America. He has cited many reasons for his argument. “Pregaming is a common thing in American college campuses which came into existence in the 1990’s. It usually involves sitting in a dorm room or an off-campus apartment and drinking as much hard liquor as possible before heading out for the evening's parties” (Seaman). Parker (2007) also supported the arguments of Seaman. In his opinion, “because of the ban, instead of drinking in bars or restaurants where there is supervision, it's happening in dorms and dark corners” (Parker). One of the major arguments cited in favour of lowering of drink age to 18 is that non-availability of drinks through legal channels may force the teenagers to get it from illegal sources. Supporters of these arguments are of the view that drinks from illegal sources could be more dangerous and poisonous than the drinks from legal channels. “Over 80% of adults believe that it is easy for people under the age of 18 to access alcohol in pubs and off-licenses” (Morrissey). It is a fact that antisocial elements can exploit these teenagers for various purposes. However, in my opinion, these arguments are illogical. It is the duty of the government to take necessary actions to punish those who supply liquor illegally. It is meaningless to lower the drink age instead of prohibiting illegal liquor supply. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning”(Alcohol Alert). Teenagers during their developmental stages many not be able to take sound decisions. They are not matured enough to take wise decisions for their future. Moreover, risk taking attitude is more below the age of 21. The influence of alcohol may increase the risk taking attitude further and as a result of that teenagers may create so many social problems. For example, violence under the influence of alcohol is growing day by day in America. Plenty of school shooting incidents in America were caused by underage alcoholism. It is difficult for even the adults to control their emotions under the influence of alcohol. The case is even worst in the case of underage people. It should be noted that teenage is a period in which a person develops so rapidly. The growth of sex hormones taking place during teenage. “Alcohol use during the teen years can not only lead to subsequent alcohol problems, it can also lead to risky sexual behavior and a greater risk of early childbearing” (Reproductive Dysfunctions and Alcohol Dependence Linked Among Women). The influence of alcohol may force teenagers to experiment unsafe sexual activities. Unsafe sexual activities may bring unwanted pregnancies as wells as sex related diseases like AIDS and HIV. Only after becoming pregnant, teenagers may realize the consequences of their actions in the past. It is impossible for them to tolerate the mental pressure caused by unwanted pregnancies. Society will treat people who are getting pregnant before marriage as second class citizens. In short, unsafe sex under the influence of alcohol can cause lot of social as well as family problems. Alcoholism may cause lot of physical problems also. Cancer, coronary problems liver problems, pancreas problems, epilepsy, alcoholic dementia etc can be developed as a result of alcoholism. Moreover, psychological problems like anxiety, depression, psychosis, schizophrenia etc are also found to be associated with binge drinkers. The body of the teenagers may not be strong enough to counter the negative effects of alcohol. The female fertility rate will be considerably reduced due to alcohol addiction. One of the major reasons for delayed pregnancy, infertility, menstrual problems, sexual problems and miscarriages are believed to be alcoholism. As children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have been associated with alcohol use. So in a sense, just being an adolescent may be a key risk factor not only for starting to drink but also for drinking dangerously (Alcohol Alert). Adolescence is supposed to be the most dangerous period of human life. Character building is taking place during this period. In other words the habits or characters developing during adolescence may make or break a person. Teenagers may show a desire to break the shackles of parental control during this period. Drinking is usually prohibited to the teenagers by their parents. In their thirst to get out of the control of the parents, teenagers may usually take shelters in the hands of antisocial elements. Antisocial elements make use of such teenagers for executing their illegal missions like sex trafficking, drug trafficking, conducting terrorist activities etc. According to a study conducted by Ogle, & Miller in 2004, alcohol addiction strongly associated with interpersonal aggression and violence. The details are given below. A sample of 82 participants (50% women) was randomly assigned to either an alcohol, placebo or control group. Participants completed a baseline assessment and a social information processing protocol. The protocol consisted of 12 videotaped provocation scenarios with gender of provocateur and level of hostility (hostile versus nonhostile) crossed (three scenarios for each combination). Analyses showed a pattern of results whereby intoxicated men evidenced a greater degree of hostile response representation, a greater proportion of aggressive goal selection, greater aggressive response generation and greater aggressive response selection than all other group-by-gender combinations. These results were found most often for scenarios where the intent was hostile and the provocateur was male. The pattern of findings was consistent with past research on the relationship between alcohol, social information processing and aggression as well as with behavioural studies of the alcohol-aggression link. The social information processing model used in this study appears to be useful for the study of cognitive processes in the causal link between acute alcohol intoxication and aggressive behaviour (Ogle & Miller). The findings of Ogle & Miller clearly underline the role of alcohol in building aggression among teenagers. School shooting incidents are growing day by day in America and majority of these incidents are caused by alcoholism among teenagers. Binge drinking is growing among teenagers in America at present and as result of that they are engaged in many aggressive activities. Crazy driving habit is another problem associated with underage drinking. Thousands of people are losing their lives because of driving under the influence of alcohol (Please see appendix for more details). It should be noted that vehicle accidents cause problems not only to the driver but also to other people. Even innocent people who were walking through the footpaths may lose their lives because of the crazy driving of an alcoholic person. Research substantiates the contention that the legal drinking age should remain at 21. Put simply, teenagers have not developed the cognitive, social, and psychological mechanisms that are needed to make thoughtful and logical decisions about alcohol use; in addition, their bodies have not finished their physical maturation process (Smith). One of the major arguments of the supporters of lowering of drink age is the fact that related to the voting age in America. It is a fact that voting age in America is 18 whereas drink age is 21. In other words supporters of lowering drink age ask the question that how a person matures enough to select his political leadership is immature to take drinks. In my opinions, these two factors should be viewed separately. It should be noted that politics may not cause any addiction whereas alcoholism may cause addiction. In other words, politics affect only the mental processes whereas alcoholism affects both mental and physical processes. Under such circumstances, there is no point in arguing for the equalization of voting age and drink age. In America, teenagers who cross 18 years can join military. In other words, people who crossed 18 years of age are matured enough to handle a machine gun like sophisticated weapons. Supporters of lowering drink age argue that if a teenager is capable to handle arms at the age of 18, he can definitely control his drinking habits. In my opinion, these arguments are illogical. It should be noted that teenagers who join army work under the control of matured military officers. They cannot use machine guns or other arms without proper instructions from the superiors. In other words, they are not taking decisions to operate weapons and therefore immature decisions to use weapons can be eliminated. In the case of alcoholic teenagers, the decisions are taken independently whereas in military the decisions are taken by the matured superiors. So, handling of guns in military and alcoholism by teenagers cannot be equated under any circumstances. Voting rights and military services are meant cultivating nationalism in the minds of the upcoming generation. It is necessary for the governments to construct a generation which are capable of handling politics and defence. Moreover, voting rights and military services are considered as the recognition of youth abilities whereas alcoholism may not bring any recognition to the upcoming generation. While binge drinking is a serious problem, the data do not show that it has gotten worse since states raised their drinking age. As researchers John Schulenberg of the University of Michigan and Jennifer Maggs of Penn State point out in a 2002 Journal of Studies on Alcohol paper, "during the past two decades, despite many social, demographic, political and economic changes — and despite dramatic shifts in cigarette and illicit drug use — rates of frequent heavy drinking among those ages 19 to 22 have shifted little." According to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, the proportion of those 19- to 22-year-olds who reported consuming five or more drinks in a row in the two weeks prior to being surveyed actually fell from 40.7% in 1984 to 38.1% in 2006. And no researchers have documented an increase in the percentage of alcohol-poisoning deaths among college students, although the raw number has probably increased with the growing college population (Cloud). The above statistics or facts clearly suggest that keeping the drink age at 21 is definitely bringing positive results. All binge drinking related problems reduced a lot after drink age has been fixed at 21. Under such circumstances, there is no point in arguing for lowering of the drink age. No studies have ever proved any positive results associated with drinking. In fact all the studies which researched the consequences of drinking are unique in their results. In other words, all studies proved the negative consequences of drinking beyond doubt. If that is true, an elected government can never think in terms of framing policies which may cause severe physical and mental problems to the public. It should be noted that drinking, smoking and drug abuse can cause severe health problems as well as social problems. No governments can encourage these things in order to safeguard human rights. If alcoholism is a private thing, its consequences are definitely public. In other words, the consequences of a person’s drink habits may cause problems to the people surrounding him. It may cause problems in his family and in the society. For example, under the influence of alcohol, one can kill many people. It happened in the past, it is happening now and it may happen in future also. Under such circumstances, nobody can argue drinking as a private matter. To conclude, drink age should never be lowered to 18. It is fact that an 18 year person may have voting rights. Moreover he can join military and use weapons at the age of 18. However, voting rights may not cause any physical damage either to the person or to his neighbours. Same way, an 18 year person who is using weapons in military is doing so after getting instructions from his superior. In short, these things cannot be equated to drinking. A drinker causes lot of physical and mental damages not only to his own body and mind but also to the other’s body and mind as well. In other words, drinking cannot be considered a private matter when we consider its consequences. Plenty of road accidents are taking place in America because of underage drinking habits of teenagers. Statistics showed that drinking related social problems have come down after the drink age has been raised to 21. Under such circumstances, lowering of drink age may increase the drinking related social problems again. In short, American government should never think in terms of lowering of drink age to 18 even if it faces severe pressure from the teenage community. Works Cited “2008 Drunken Driving Statistics”. 2008. Web 26 May 2012. “Underage Drinking”. Alcohol Alert. Number 67, January 2006. Web 26 May 2012 Blanche, Aubrey. “Lower The Drinking Age — We’re Gonna Drink Anyways”. 2008. Web 26 May 2012 Cloud, John. “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”. TIME U.S. Friday June 6, 2008. Web 26 May 2012. Morrissey, Ed. “Should Minnesota Lower The Drinking Age To 18?”. 2009. Web 26 May 2012 Ogle, Richard L. & Miller, William R. (2004), The Effects Of Alcohol Intoxication And Gender On The Social Information Processing Of Hostile Provocations Involving Male And Female Provocateurs”. Web 26 May 2012 Parker, Jennifer. “Group Stirs Debate on Legal Drinking Age”. 2007. Web 26 May 2012 “Reproductive Dysfunctions and Alcohol Dependence Linked Among Women”.2008. Web 26 May 2012 Seaman, Barrett. “How Bingeing Became the New College Sport”. 2005. Web 26 May 2012 Smith, Nicole. “Argument in Favour of Maintaining the Legal Drinking Age”. 2008. Web 26 May 2012. Appendix Drinking and driving fatalities by state in 2008 (ranked by highest number of alcohol-related* deaths): State Total Fatalities Alcohol-Related Fatalities Number Percent Texas 3,382 1,463 43 California 3,434 1,198 35 Florida 2,978 1,041 35 Pennsylvania 1,468 578 39 North Carolina 1,433 500 35 Georgia 1,493 489 33 South Carolina 920 463 50 Illinois 1,043 434 42 Ohio 1,190 415 35 New York 1,231 409 33 Louisiana 912 404 44 Tennessee 1,035 386 37 Alabama 966 367 38 Virginia 824 365 44 Missouri 960 364 38 Michigan 980 331 34 Arizona 937 329 35 Mississippi 783 297 38 Oklahoma 749 274 37 Indiana 814 250 31 Wisconsin 605 250 41 Kentucky 826 226 27 Washington 521 225 43 Arkansas 600 205 34 Colorado 548 202 37 New Jersey 590 197 33 Maryland 591 186 31 Minnesota 456 161 35 Oregon 416 159 38 Kansas 385 157 41 Massachusetts 363 151 42 West Virginia 380 142 37 Nevada 324 121 37 New Mexico 366 118 32 Iowa 412 113 27 Connecticut 264 104 40 Montana 229 103 45 Idaho 232 93 40 Nebraska 208 75 36 Wyoming 159 75 47 Utah 275 55 20 New Hampshire 139 53 38 North Dakota 104 52 50 Hawaii 107 50 46 Delaware 121 49 40 Maine 155 47 30 South Dakota 119 41 34 Rhode Island 65 29 45 Alaska 62 24 38 Vermont 73 15 21 Dist of Columbia 34 13 39 National 37,261 13,846 37 Puerto Rico 399 162 41 (2008 Drunken Driving Statistics) Read More