Drinking Age in the United States - Essay Example

Drinking Age In United States, the current legal drinking age is 21 years old. Opponents may argue that it should be lowered to 18, but in my opinion, 21 is a good age to start drinking legally According to the article Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age, people who are against lowering the legal drinking age think that in doing so would increase the likelihood of harming themselves as well as others (2009). I don’t think the drinking age should be lowered because many 18 years old are not responsible enough to handle drinking. Our society has taught us that drinking is a part of everyones social life, and teens today already party way to much as it is. Lowering the drinking age will just cause many more problems to our society. Young adults seem to be bigger binge drinkers that those who are of age to legally drink. It seems to me that in our generation, partying is more and more acceptable which causes people to forget about their responsibilities. The U.S. Surgeon General’s office has reported that lowering the drinking age would cause more “death from injuries, will play a significant role in risky sexual behavior, and is associated with academic failure and illicit drug use” (Wallace, para. 3). Underage drinking is very common in today’s society. According to the article The Over/Under, the average teen starts experimenting with alcohol use as early as age 13. And that the statistic is that “nearly one out of every five teenagers has “blackout” spells in which he or she could not remember what happened the previous evening because of heavy binge drinking” (Wallace, para. 7). Many colleges today are pushing laws to lower the drinking age to 18 because they believe it will decrease binge drinking. However “the National survey on Drug Use and Health finds that 36% of 18-20 year olds reported one or more days of heavy drinking in the past month” (Barnett, 2008). However, over 130 college presidents and chancellors announced that they were fed up with the alcohol abuse taking place on the campus atmosphere. They want to lower the drinking age because they know 18-20 year olds drink anyways and have to try to do it secretly. They believe if the drinking age was changed to 18, they would be able to monitor the drinking and make moderate drinking the norm (Binge Culture, 2008). The argument against this proposal is that having the age be 21, the fatality rates are lower than they would be if they were 18. In 1984 when the MLDA was raised to 21, and about 25,000 lives were saved by reducing the alcohol-related traffic fatalities (Barnett, 2008). People who are in a favor of lowering the drinking age also argue that if an 18 year old can fight for there country they should be able to legally drink. Eighteen year olds can vote, buy cigarettes, and live on their own, so basically some people believe laws should lower the drinking age because 18 years old is considered to be adult. I don’t think that if the law lowers the drinking age that binge drinking would go down. I think if anything it would increase. Young adults will start partying more than they already are, making that their priority rather than going to class and starting their future because I think it’s already a problem with some 21 year olds. The chances of lowering the drinking age is very slim to none, I think. If the United States decides to change the legal drinking age to 18, it would be many years from now. In July 2007, a poll was taken resulting in only 27% people that are in favor of lowering the drinking age, while the majority of people are opposed to the idea, making up 77%, and only 1% of the population is undecided (Should the Drinking age, 2009, image A). This study shows that America simply isn’t ready for a lower drinking age. There are too many reasons that back up why the laws shouldn’t lower the drinking age. The people who want the age to be 18 may have their arguments but it still doesn’t compare to the reasons why congress shouldn’t lower the drinking age. In the past when some states allowed 18 year olds to drink, the fatality rates were higher than when they changed the legal age to 21. College presidents may claim that binge drinking will decrease, but I believe it will just make it worse. Eighteen year olds are just getting out of high school, and they are just learning about what it is like to be an adult. By the time they reach the legal drinking age, they will have matured a little bit more, and may learn how to drink responsibly. General Comments: The essay needs improvement in many areas, especially in the introduction. The author needs to introduce the topic and state specific problems before mentioning the opposition’s view. Similarly, in the conclusion also, the author needs to sum up the essay by restating the thesis and reiterating the main points in the body of the essay. There are some recurring errors like switch in tenses, use of contractions etc which needs attention. Sentence level clarity and word choices are other major concerns that must be fixed. Comments on the aspects of the paper that done well including content development, organization and sentence structure: Though there is still scope for specificity, the author has a clear thesis and the content has been developed fairly well based on topic sentences that clearly communicate ideas. The essay has been organized in a sequential flow, with a discussion of the cause and effects of the issue. The author has brought in relevant data to validate his claims. Besides, the author has also examined the argument of the opposite side, thus rendering the writing fairly unbiased. Most of the sentences are simple and direct, making their meaning clear, except for the few examples as commented above. Questions the paper raises in regards to content and organization: While the author’s stand on the issue is clearly stated in the thesis, he needs to be specific about the problems within the thesis itself. This way he will be able to convince the audience that he actually has a grip on the topic. The author may also want to then organize the paper, with a topic sentence discussing each of the issues. Besides, these issues again need to be restated in the conclusion, while summing up the essay. References Barnett, N. (2008, November). The minimum drinking age debate. The brown university digest of addiction and theory and application, 8. Binge culture. (2008, December). The christian Century, 7. Drinking age. (2009, November 24). Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age. Retrieved December 7, 2009, from http://drinkingage.procon.org Wallace, S. (2009, January/‌February). The over/‌under. Camping magazine, 71-74. Read More