Whether the Drinking Age of Alcohol in the US Should Be Lowered from 21 to 18 Years - Article Example

Everybody in the US is aware that the legal drinking age is 21 years. This is the recommended age for all the states in the US. However, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, more than 80% of the people in the US including high school students have access to and consume alcohol. The decision to consume alcohol solely lies with the individual and it is a vital decision that each individual have to make at a certain point in life. Effects of drinking alcohol can either be bad or good depending with the amount of alcohol consumed and how regularly it is consumed. This article discusses whether the drinking age of alcohol in the US should be lowered from 21 to 18 years. Alcohol is made when fruits, grains or vegetables are fermented. This process uses yeast or certain types of bacteria to convert the sugars used in the foods into alcohol. This process means that alcohol is a natural product that should not raise concern on the need for its use to the people. Alcohol that is taken is absorbed in the bloodstream of the individual and thus affects the central nervous system that includes the brain, and the spinal cord. The central nervous system is important since it controls practically all body functions. At 18 years, the human brain of the teenager is still in the developing stage, which means that drinking at this stage can have severe effects in the future of the individual. Alcohol is a known depressant and at the age of 18 years, it slows the functioning of the central nervous system. At 18 years, alcohol consumed actually blocks some of the messages trying to get to the brain. This in turn changes an individual's perceptions, sentiments, movement, hallucination and hearing (Cima 2). United States recognizes 18 as the official adult age. At this age, people should be allowed to make their own decision about alcohol consumption. When an individual turns 18 years, they are allowed to receive the rights and responsibilities of an adult such as voting, smoking cigarettes, serve on adjudicators, marry or get married, sign legal contracts, can be prosecuted as grown person, and are allowed to join the military that takes into account risking an individual’s life. Lowering the recommended drinking age from 21 to 18 years would allow more people especially those between the ages of 18 to 20 years to take alcohol in a safer manner in regulated environments without supervision. When the government prohibits this age group from drinking in public places such as restaurants, bars, and other licensed locations, they will drink in unrestricted places such as fraternity houses or house parties, places where they may be exposed to binge drinking and other unsafe behaviors. Taking alcohol in fraternity houses is dangerous since people in these social places tend to engage in games such as excessive alcohol drinking games, speedy drinking of alcohol that puts persons at risk of acquiring alcohol poisoning which can be fatal (Cochran 2). Most road accidents occur during the first few years of legal drinking regardless of the drinking age. According to the traffic act of the United States and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, the age bracket between the ages of 21-24 years had the most number of involvements in road accidents while drunk. Majority of the victims had blood alcohol concentrations of more than 0.08, comprising of more than 35%. In order to offset these traffic accident fraternities by 21%, the legal age for drinking alcohol should be lowered from the ages of 21 to 18years. Comparative research shows that countries with the recommended drinking age of 18 years have lower number of traffic accidents caused by drunken driving (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University 1). If the recommended alcohol drinking age were lowered from 21 to 18 years, it would make consumption of alcohol less of a taboo for grownups’ that are newly joining college and the workforce. Moreover, it would help take away the thrill in which many young people have from doing against the law. In addition, it would make alcohol consumption a further standardized activity done in self-control. The law restricting people to take alcohol at the age of 21 years is a huge failure due to the large number of teens who continue to consume alcohol. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse approximate that the number of teens taking alcohol accounts to 17.5% using close to $22.5 billion of consumer spending (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University 1). High non-acquiescence with the legal drinking age of 21years encourages overall disrespect and non-acquiescence with further areas of US law and emboldens teenagers to obtain and use made-up identification documents to acquire alcohol. When taking into consideration the high number of terrorism activities targeting the US, illegitimate immigration, and more nationwide security concerns, it is preferable to have less fake Identifications in circulation and further respect for the law. Statutory obstacles, resource limitations, discernments that punishments are insufficient, time and effort required for processing and paperwork, are some of the major factors that causes the legal drinking age to be 21 years to have low priority or to be ignored by many law enforcement agencies. Many people have a notion that lowering the legal drinking age to be 18 years would increase suicide and criminal activities by youngsters, the higher 21 age group is not statistically related with lower rates of, homicide, vandalism, or suicide (Cassidy 4). Cassidy (4) continues to argue that, social drinking is an enjoyable activity for majority of the people. People at the age of 18-20 years should not be denied the freedom to enjoy this pleasurable activity when other people in the same age bracket in other countries are enjoying it at the age of 18. Moreover, lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years would lessen the number of individual persons that are wounded from alcohol-related injuries or accidents because of fear of legal concerns if they pursued medical attention. According to Hunter (2), it is also important for the government of the US to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years to reflect the exceptional legal context, demographics and history. Consumption of alcohol is a fundamental part of college campus life. Alcohol consumption enables students to reach advanced heights of inebriation faster. The Uniform Drinking Act is an instance of federal government outwit into state affairs to lower the legal drinking age from 21 years to 18 years. By lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years, would be good for the economy of the country. This is for the reason that more people would be allowed to legally consume alcohol in designated areas such as restaurants, bars, and other licensed establishments. This would raise revenue through collecting more taxes for the government, and creating more sales revenue for the bar and restaurant owners. However, lowering the legal alcohol drinking age from 21 to 18 years would attract some negative effects. One of the main reasons being that lowering alcohol drinking age from 21 to 18 years will let young persons to drink in the bar and nightclubs, which are not safe places. Moreover, it would give would give high school and middle school students the chance to access to alcohol. For instance, freshmen students in universities can drink from their hostel rooms if they find someone who would buy for them. In addition, lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years would be medically irresponsible for the reason that the brain's frontal lobes of the teenagers that is vital for tasks such as emotional regulation, organization, and planning, continue to grow through teenage years and young adulthood. This would appear to be neglect of health and intellect concern for its citizens (Hunter 2). Works Cited Cassidy, Martin B. "Activist: Drinking Age should be lowered." McClatchy - Tribune Business News: 0. ABI/INFORM Complete. Oct 05 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Cima, Greg. "Should the Drinking Age be lowered to 18 from 21?" McClatchy - Tribune Business News: 0. ABI/INFORM Complete. Sep 16 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Cochran, Diane. "Montana Educators Debate Whether Drinking Age should be Lowered." McClatchy - Tribune Business News ABI/INFORM Complete. Sep 28 2008. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Hunter, Amy. "Local Consensus is to Not Lower Drinking Age." McClatchy - Tribune Business News ABI/INFORM Complete. Aug 31 2008. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. "The Commercial Value of Underage and Pathological Drinking to the Alcohol Industry." A CASA* White Paper (2006): 1-9. Read More