Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered - Essay Example

Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age? Introduction: The issue of minimum drinking age and its legal justifications has attracted the attention of the Media and social workers in recent years. Majority of people believes that it is better to fix the drinking age limit in 21 while another considerable number demands the lowering of legal drinking age from 21 to18. Proponents of this view have formed a perspective that lowering of minimum drinking age permits youths to consume alcohol in a responsible manner. But in the existing social status, majority of college students under nineteen have used alcohol in an irresponsible and adventurous way. As a highly controversial issue, it has both positive and negative sides if the drinking age is lowered. Researches have documented the fact that alcohol abuse is the one of the major problems among the adults. It has paved the way for various problems such as increasing of alcohol related crime and antisocial activities, traffic violation resulting in accidents, health problems, socio-economic disturbance etc. Lowering of drinking age is acceptable only under strict legal supervisions. The problem mainly relate to adult people who are subjected to crucial physiological and psychological changes. Lowering of minimum drinking age from 21 to younger age will entail severe social and health problems among the youth and it needs effective legal monitoring to ensure its positive results. While in any other issue, in the context of lowering of drinking age also there are two groups of people. One group supports the lowering of drinking age from 21 and the other who does not want to lower this age. Each of these groups has their own opinion to support their stand and to oppose the other view. Arguments to support the lowering of drinking age: Even at this stage, when the legal drinking age is 21, teenagers do drink under less restricted surroundings causing them to indulge in life threatening behaviors. The age of 18 bring youngsters the civil rights and entitle them to vote, get wedded, sign bonds, join the armed forces, etc. which show their accountability towards their life and death. So, this age is important for them to make their own decisions regarding drinking habits also. Richard Wilson and Cheryl A. Kolander comment that; “This movement was also supported by the state of the art in prevention at that time, which suggested that keeping alcohol consumption forbidden to those younger than age 21 created an aura of “forbidden fruit” that made alcohol even more appealing as a symbol of adulthood and created much more destructive drinking practices on the part of the adolescents” (Wilson & Kolander 34). Setting the age 21 is unfairness against adults who are in the range of 18-21 years. When this kind of adults drinks secretly, they will end up with a life having no control; so it is healthier to instruct them to drink conscientiously and to proceed in public. It is not a successful approach to lessen the traffic losses by making the drinking age at 21. Lowering this age will make the adults to enjoy without breaking the laws, as some of the youth are getting pleasure from breaking the laws. The segregation of youth from bars and hotels will compel them to consume in the unofficial places as in house parties or in other furtive venues. One of the main things happening in the current world is that when an adult gets injured in alcohol-linked accidents, he will close the eyes to the health check as he is afraid of the legal consequences that he must face. Sometimes, it may be a cause for the younger ones to show their maturity by drinking at the earlier ages, as they think the drinking age of 21 corresponds to maturity. Thus, lowering of this age will eject this mistaken belief. It is proven that the consumption of alcohol moderately including peoples at the age level of 18-21 is good for health. They also argue that implementing the rule to make the drinking age at 21 is costly and ineffective and it would be further helpful on enlightening the youth about the alcohol than to pay out on the enforcement of rules. Therefore, allowing the youngsters the liberty to drink in a responsible manner is better than offering them to drink secretly by making the age as 21. Arguments against lowering the drinking age: The people who oppose lowering of drinking age from 21 argue that at this stage the youth have not reached an age where they can ingest alcohol maturely and will hurt themselves or the public by an elated stage that encourages unruly behavior. They argue that a lot of accidents can be avoided if the minimum drinking age is set to 21 and in some places where the drinking age was 21, people have suffered a lot due to alcohol-related accidents. “The main concern against lowering the drinking age comes from Mothers against Drunk Driving. MADD has statistics to back up their claim that a lower drinking age yields more drunk driving accidents.” (Sinnott-Armstrong & Fogelin 103). Previous studies and news reports have documented the fact that accident rates become highly increased all over the world especially in Western countries because of the drinking habit of drivers under age 21. In case of adults under 21, alcohol consumption motivates them to seek more thrills and pleasure in driving and it leads them to fatal accidents. The book entitled the substance abuse problems, Volume 1 clearly discusses drinking related accidents among the youths. Sidney Cohen states that; “In another study, the rate of alcohol-related fatal accidents was compared for those over 21 and for persons 18 to 20 years of age, those older than 21 showed a 9 percent increase for the first six months and an 8 percent increase for the second six months after the law change.” (Cohen 326). As the younger generations under 21 still are subject to bodily transformations, stress and new circumstances; alcohol consumption will lead them to worse habits like drug misuse and result in unplanned life with violent behavior and hopelessness. Besides, the proponents of retaining age 21 for drinking purports that if drinking is allowed at an earlier age it will make youngsters alcoholic on their later ages, making them to suffer from serious physical ailments and damages. Another important issue these people have is that early drinking will spoil academic performance of the young students. It is better to make drinking age at 21 with the proper instructions to the teenagers to handle the alcohol usage and make them aware about the disorders or damages arising with the alcohol consumption. “Programs and practices that include reducing alcohol availability to young people, increasing alcohol taxes, establish strong school policies on underage use of alcohol, restricting alcohol promotions and the use of enforcement compliance checks have all demonstrated success, particularly when supported by a strong ‘community coalition’ whose mission is primarily prevention of underage alcohol use.” (Timken & Wanberg 118). Various perspectives towards the problem should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age? Many states are allowing for lowering the authorized drinking age as of 21 to 18. The drinking age 21 has effectively displaced alcohol use from public observation and public places. In US the drinking age is the single exemption to the permissible age of maturity. Some people argue that the legal drinking age should be lower than 21. This view allows drinking at younger ages to alleviate young desire for alcohol as a forbidden fruit. It will provide chances to understand drinking habit and that way reducing problems, and will bring the age at which youth are allowed to drink into arrangement with the age at which point they can join the military, vote, and contribute in other parts of adult life. “In a survey of college administration and security chiefs on enforcing the minimum drinking age laws, most officials anticipated a host of negative consequences if enforcement of the age 21 limit were lessened.” (Hyde & Setaro 34). They fear that there would be more students drinking, a drop in the colleges image, parental displeasure, and a refuse in educational work in their institutions. Public welfare and health are important areas in an administrative system. Because of this reason, one cannot support the concept of lowering of the drinking age from 21 to younger age. If a person starts drinking at lower age, in later ages he will increase it at some point and will become a subject of alcohol disorder. The results of lowering the drinking age are evident on car accidents that have been observed. The words of Sidney Cohen underline the seriousness of lowering minimum drinking age. “An increase of 119 percent in alcohol-related collisions among 18 to 20-years-olds was found when pre law and post law periods were compared”. (Cohen 326). Lowering of the drinking age will also entail some social and legal problems. It is not a good idea to encourage younger generations to drink at earlier ages of adulthood as they will misuse the freedom they get by this and will become addicted to the habit. Maturity will not come within those age period. Rising of the drinking age will help people to act responsibly and experienced people will only follow the responsibilities. Lowering the age makes 18-year old people to buy alcohol in front of their parents and this will influence their younger generations to follow. Conclusion: After evaluating the arguments for and against the issue as to whether drinking age should be lowered from 21 to a younger age, it becomes evident that lowering of drinking age from 21 to younger has both positive and negative implications. It promotes the formation of responsible and structured drinking habit among young adults if drinking age is lowered to 18, but at the same time, it will pave the way for alcohol related violence, accidents and stresses. A legally controlled monitoring is essential for this issue. Public health and welfare are more important than any other thing to a nation. Therefore, the endeavor should be to lower drinking age, but to create more awareness in young adults so that they are encouraged to remain responsible with their drinking and attitude. Works Cited Cohen, Sidney. The substance abuse problems, Volume 1. Routledge. 1981. Print Hyde, Margaret O & Setaro, John F. Alcohol 101: An Overview for Teens. Twenty-First Century Books. 1999. Print. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter & Fogelin, Robert J. Understanding Arguments: An introduction to Informal Logic. Cengage Learning. 2009. Print. Timken, David S & Wanberg, Kenneth W. Driving With Care: Education and Treatment of the Underage Impaired Driving Offender: An Adjunct Providers Guide to Driving With Care: Education and Treatment of the Impaired Driving Offender--Strategies for Responsible Living and Change. SAGE. 2010. Print. Wilson, Richard & Kolander, Cheryn A. Drug Abuse Prevention: A School and Community Partnership. Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2010. Print. Read More