Alcoholic Drinking Age - Research Paper Example

? Alcoholic Drinking Age Introduction The debate regarding the minimum alcohol drinking age has been in the limelight for the past few decades. The discussion here will take place with the view that “lowering the drinking age in the United States where the minimum drinking level currently stands at 21 years is the need of time and it is the only viable long term solution to the drinking problems”. Arguments would be presented in the favor of this proposition and will try to explore and counter the arguments presented against this proposition as well. After the repeal of prohibition in the “year 1933, many states in the United States set the minimum drinking age limit at 21 years and some states set the limit at 18 years for the purchase of beer” (Liddle & Rowe, 54-55). However, during the late 1960s and 1970s, due to drafting of young individuals to the war and the growing trend of liberalism, almost all states decreased the minimum drinking age to 18 years. However, the results on paper were not favourable. In the year 1982, President Ronald Regan decided to make a committee in order to provide solutions for these increasing drinking related incidents. The committee strongly proposed to increase the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21 years. The federal government passed a legislation forcing the states to do the same and by the end of the year 1948, 23 states had increase the minimum drinking age to 21. On July 17 of that year, the federal government passed a legislation, which allowed the federation to withhold funds of the 27 states that were not ready to increase the minimum drinking age limit in an attempt to force them to do so. Wyoming was the last state, which gave up to the pressure of the federal government in the year 1998 and raised its minimum alcohol-drinking limit (Saunders & Rey, 341-345). The debate about increasing the drinking age received media attention in the summer of 2011 after the twin daughters of President George W. Bush, Barbara and Jenna Bush, who were of 19 years of age at that time, were caught trying to use a fake ID for buying alcohol. However, the debate started because that was not the only event in this regard. In May 2001, Jenna Bush was fined 52 US dollars along with eight hours of community service and six hours of alcohol awareness classes since the authorities found her holding a glass of beer (United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, 24-26). This debate then received widespread media attention when former student council president from more than 100 reputable universities of the United States started a campaign to force the government to repeal the minimum drinking age from 21 to 18. They believe that the minimum drinking age limit of 21 years has been there for over a couple of decades and it has no good for the country. Teenagers continue to drink during their college and university lives, worse they drink in unsupervised conditions where in the absence of any regulator, adult or guardian, they end up crossing all possible limits and evoke long lasting health problems for themselves (Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein, 352-354). Discussion United States, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, India, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Palau, Solomon Islands, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Marina Islands, and Fiji are the only countries, which have raised their dinking limit to 21 years instead of 18 years. However, all other countries in the world the minimum drinking age is of eighteen years. Eighteen years is considered as the “age of majority” in law as well. In addition, 18 years is seen as the symbol of maturity at which age the person gets the chance to enter into legal contracts and the contract of marriage, join the armed forces, and vote in elections and other legal rights and duties (Liddle & Rowe, 54-55). One can get married when he or she reaches the age of 18, however, he or she would not be allowed to drink on their own wedding if their age is less than 21. The point here is that if eighteen years is really the age where the human brain is mature enough to take its own decisions then there is no point for the government and lawmakers to interfere in lives of its people. The United States of America has always championed the values of liberty and freedom and advocates of civil liberties have always seen United States as their safe haven. Therefore, if there is a consensus that at the age of eighteen, people develop the capability to make commitments and distinguish between right and wrong then why not allow them to make their own decisions about alcohol consumption as well. Furthermore, proponents of lowering the age of alcohol consumption also argue that adults between the ages of 18-21 can smoke cigarettes in the public despite the fact that the same has huge risks of cancer and other diseases. If the government and policymakers are ready to trust people between the ages of 18-21 with smoking then it only makes sense if the government is ready to allow them with making decisions regarding alcohol consumption as well (Wechsler, & Rabiner, 29-30). Additionally, the data from European countries, which have their minimum drinking age at 18, shows that they have lesser problems regarding alcohol consumption primarily because of lower drinking age, parents, educational institutions, and elders get a chance to regulate and monitor the drinking patterns of young drinkers (Bonnie, O'Connell, & National Research Council United States, 98-99). In fact, one does not need to any away but to the Northern neighbor of US, Canada that has the minimum drinking age of 18 and 19 depending on the state and the country has lesser alcohol related incidents. Furthermore, this would also allow the educational institutions and other watchdogs to educate these children with the help of proper platforms (Wilson & Kolander, 14-15). Alcohol Awareness Programs in School would play an important role and the administration of school and colleges would get the responsibility to regulate the drinking habits into their students thus teaching them the values of responsibility in drinking at their early age. Supporters of decreasing the drinking age blame the steps of the federal government to push states for increasing the minimum drinking age have increased the excitement with drinking to even greater levels. Forbidden fruit is the most desirable for the teens and by increasing the drinking age, these lawmakers have certainly made it look more “cool” for the young people to consume alcohol (Wechsler, & Rabiner, 29-30; Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein, 352-354). Statistics indicate, “11 and 13 are the ages when boys and girls respectively” (Wechsler, 241-243) have their first drink on an average. Furthermore, by the age of 14, over 41 percent of the children in United States, regardless of their background have had at least one drink. Surprisingly, 15.9 years is the average age by which American teenagers start drinking regularly (Wechsler, 241-243). The law enforcement agencies themselves admit that only two out of every one thousand instances of alcohol consumption by the minors comes on to the scene (Marcovitz, 37-38). This clearly indicates that uselessness of the law. Furthermore, there have been cases in United States over the past few years where various teenagers have suffered from near death experiences and some of them have even died due to excessive alcohol consumption or alcohol poisoning. The important element of these stories is the fact that their friends did not take them to hospitals or even did not inform their parents thinking that it would obviously have legal repercussions (Maisto, Galizio & Connors, 85-89). Also important here to consider are the economic benefits associated with decreasing the minimum drinking age. The law enforcement agencies spend too much of their time and resources trying to chase a drunken kid who is a lesser threat to the peace and order of the community as compared to a serial killer, drug dealer of mafia gang member. By decreasing the drinking age, the law enforcement agencies will have to spend less time handing out tickets to minors, calling their parents, crowding their prisons with these minors and waste the resources of tracking or instead, they would be catching criminals that need to be caught (United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, 24-26). However, one argument against decreasing the alcohol drinking age concerns the experiment, which the US policymakers did during the Vietnam War, of decreasing the minimum legal drinking age. Several thousands of adults (over the age of 18) were being drafted for war and the federal government thought 18 is mature enough age to be drafted for a war and drinking as well (Liddle & Rowe, 54-55). However, statistics indicate that this move turned out to be disaster and thousands of drunken driving accidents came onto the scene in the next few months, killing various innocent citizens, with a 18-20 year old drunken male or female as its central character. Furthermore, death rates amongst people under the age of 21 due to alcohol consumption increased from “10 percent to 40 percent” (Saunders & Rey, 341-345). Furthermore, supporters of the 21-year drinking limit believe that by accommodating the people who want to decrease the age to 18, we will unleash a series of complain to abolish the minimum drinking age altogether. For example, today arguments are appearing on the scene to decrease the minimum drinking age to 18 but this will not be the end of it (Wilson & Kolander, 14-15). After a few years, there are chances that there would be talks to decrease this age limit to 15 or 16 years because most of the teenagers start drinking around the ages of 14-16. Advocates of the current drinking limit also believe that this higher than usual drinking limit suits United States because of its attitude towards civil liberties and personal freedom. United States is not like many other European countries where the public remains under strict scrutiny (Maisto, Galizio & Connors, 85-89). The downside of these arguments and this approach is that these people fail to deal with the problem itself but are trying to fight with the symptoms of the problems. The real dilemma here is not that how high the drinking age should be but the issue is that how to instill the values of responsibility into the young teens. The problem is the fact that our teens and children receive the incorrect information about alcohol and its consumption (Holder, 52). One way to make the kids more responsible would be to decrease the drinking age and allow the teenagers to make their own decisions. This would allow them to drink in the open and rather than hiding from the teachers, parents and other adults, they would be able to drink in the public places and would get some scrutiny and advice from the elders as well. This would ensure that the drinking takes place in moderation (Kiesbye, 103-104; Peck, 26-27). Another reason to believe the same is the fact most teenagers and children drink before the age of 21 since they have started believing that drinking would make them look more mature. With the lowering of drinking age, one could expect that this thrill and perception would fade away. As far as the argument of liberty and freedom is concerned, this is a self-countering argument because if liberty is such as essential element of United States than it would be better to abolish the drinking age limit altogether. The United States is not an alien country and decreasing the drinking age limit to 18 years, like the other countries, in order to cope up with the problem of alcohol consumption is a viable and practical solution (Maisto, Galizio & Connors, 85-89). Conclusion Without any doubts, when the government, in the year 1984, increased the minimum drinking age, its intentions were to reverse the trend of increasing alcohol related incidents amongst the young people. Furthermore, if these accidents were only causing harm to their own lives then the government would not have stepped up but it had to step up because young drunken drivers were not only killing themselves but they were also costing other innocent citizens their lives as well (Bonnie, O'Connell, & National Research Council United States, 98-99). However, studies over the years suggest that there has been little impact on overall drink, alcohol related suicides, deaths and driving accidents. The cost benefit ratio is important here to consider. Rather than spending millions of dollars in order to ensure that people under the ages of 21 do not drink, the ban should be repealed and more funds should be devoted towards educating the youth about the dangers of alcohol consumption (United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, 24-26). Keeping minimum age for alcohol consumption can only be a short-term solution to the problem; however, in long term, only plausible solution would be to educate the teenagers, trust them with the responsibility of deciding their alcohol consumption level at the age of 18, and ensure that parents stay along with their children to monitor them (Dasgupta, 106-108). Decreasing the minimum drinking age limit will not only take away most of the thrill and excitement and drinking but at the same time, with the passage of time, it will reverse the perception of teenagers and young adults that alcohol consumption represents maturity. References Bonnie, Richard J., O'Connell, Mary Ellen., & National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking. Reducing underage drinking: a collective responsibility. National Academies Press, 2004. Dasgupta, Amitava. The Science of Drinking: How Alcohol Affects Your Body and Mind. Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Hanson, Glen R., Venturelli, Peter J., & Fleckenstein, Annette E. Drugs and Society. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Holder, Harold D. Alcohol and the Community: A Systems Approach to Prevention. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Kiesbye, Stefan. Should the Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered? Greenhaven Press, 2008. Liddle, Howard A., & Rowe, Cynthia L. Adolescent substance abuse: research and clinical advances. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Maisto, Stephen A., Galizio, Mark, & Connors, Gerard Joseph. Drug Use and Abuse. Cengage Learning, 2010. Marcovitz, Hal. Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered? Referencepoint Pr Inc, 2010. Peck, Garrett. The prohibition hangover: alcohol in America from demon rum to cult cabernet. Rutgers University Press, 2009. Saunders, John, & Rey, Joseph. Young People and Alcohol. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Timken, David S., Wanberg, Kenneth W., & Milkman, Harvey B. 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