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Lowering The Drinking Age To 18 Essay

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Teens And Drinking There has been controversy for many years about should the drinking age be lowered to 18 in the United states like most of the world has done or should it remain at 21 like it always has been in the U.S. In 1999 New Zealand lowered their drinking age to 18 but due to an increase in teen car accidents it was then raised back to 21. Also some European countries such as France and Great Britain have been showing more concern about high alcohol among teens they conducted a study to be a role model for other countries but it has been seen that teens are drinking a lot more. Teen’s have been breaking the law for years by getting fake Id’s so they can get into bars or go and buy alcohol to go party with other underage drinkers. Although many people argue that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 many feel that …show more content…

In recent studies it has been proven that binge drinking in teens leads to slowing down the rate of which your brain develops. Since the 1990’s little progress has been made on lowering the limit of binge drinking teen’s. Even though colleges and communities could do a number of things to help they haven't and probably never will. Binge drinking has caused many deaths to college students. “ Binge drinkers consume a reported 91% of all alcohol used among the college population and frequent binge drinkers consume 68% of this amount with half of these frequent binge drinkers reporting 5 or more different alcohol-related problems”. Say’s Drew K. Saylor, BA. “ Such heavy alcohol use among American college students has received considerable attention because of high-alcohol related morbidity and mortality, and is widely considered a public health concern with serious immediate and long term consequences”. (Drew K. Saylor, BA) Not only does this affect college students physically it also brings down their grades it also would affect social relationships among

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In Beth McMurtrie’s article “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking”, colleges have been and are continuing to drop the ball when it comes to stopping binge drinking by college students. McMurtrie begins the article by explaining the impact that binge drinking has on the lives of students involved. Some colleges are beginning to overlook the problem completely. It appears that the whole problem has been purposely overlooked in many instances for many different reasons. There are those out there that believe that binge drinking and college life go hand in hand and that these that partake of such will get it under control when they are ready.

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When college students under the age of Twenty-one old drink, they are damaging their brain and their way of succeeding in life. Drinking five drinks in a row at a party in college can also lead to unplanned sex and even danger to their own memory. “Compared with students who binge drink one or two times in a 2-week period, those who binge three or more times are twice as likely to experience alcohol-induced memory losses (27 percent vs. 54 percent, respectively), not use protection during sex (10 percent vs. 20 percent, respectively), engage in unplanned sex (22 percent vs. 42 percent, respectively), and get hurt or injured (11 percent vs. 27 percent, respectively), and are equally likely to need medical treatment for an overdose (1 percent vs. 1 percent).” White also says, (White) “ Whereas binge frequency is associated with an increased risk of negative outcomes, additional research indicates that there is a relationship between how often a student binges and the peak number of drinks he or she consumes.”

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Professor David J. Hanson, the author of “Binge drinking: What is it? What is bingeing,” printed in the 1997-2015 issue of Alcohol Problems and solutions, gives the definition of binge drinking, the reasons for it, the extent of it, the effects of binge drinking, and some possible solutions for it. The definition that Professor David gives of a binge drinker is when intoxication leads to violent behaviors, when a person becomes intoxicated during a certain time, or when the person is fully intoxicated. The major reason kids are starting to binge drink is that they want to conform to norm in what they think kids are doing in college and this pressure makes them more likely to start drinking. The extent of who is being affected by this epidemic

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Teen drinking is a problem definitely to high school students who believe they need to drink because of their stressful lives. making the drinking age to Twenty-five might not diminish teen drinking but it might reduce it, a teen might still think since the age was risen that there might be a bigger consequence for under age drinkers. At this time there is someone in the United States becoming intoxicated To some people alcohol is like a drug and people who drink as a teenager are more likely to try actual drugs like marijuana or cocaine. " In some parts of Europe there is not a drinking age, why can't the US be like Europe.

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Mentioned earlier, several young adults are entering college at this point in their lives. John McCardell Jr, former president of Middlebury College, founded Choose Responsibly, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness of the dangers of excessive drinking and reckless alcohol consumption by young adults. His main goal is to lower the minimum drinking age by spreading awareness to the public (McCardell). He understands that the pressure to drink in college is very prevalent, and when we restrict eighteen to twenty year olds from drinking, it then creates the risk of an unsafe environment. This group is not allowed to drink in bars, restaurants, and other licensed locations, but this doesn’t stop them from drinking.

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If more students knew the consequences of drinking, they would be safer and acknowledge the fact that there are far better things to do than what they may have in mind. Being safe with drinking is something every human being should take seriously. Often, parents let it happen at home because they fear the consequences of their child going out and drinking whether they’re at a party or even out on the highways. Having a designated driver could also be a way to take precaution when going out with your peers. Experiencing liquor or beer for the first time is better when you are at home instead of being in college with new people where you may not be as safe.

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If they allow alcohol on campuses, dropout rate would increase and less teens would be pursuing their goals. At the age of eighteen, teens are viewed as adults that supposed to mature enough to purchase all the above wish list they have written down. Consuming alcohol at an early stage can develop alcoholic diseases such as destroying brain cells and also introducing diabetes and much more and most of all interfering with their success. Research has shown that the harmful effects of alcohol abuse are magnified in a teenager's still-developing brain. In the research Alcohol- related brain damage in humans, Amaia Erdozain states “, The production of toxic ethanol metabolites, and their post-translational modification (PTM) and damage of cellular proteins is one of the proposed mechanisms that contribute to neuronal damage”( 1), which other words, it destroys brain cells that would make a teen forget some memories that they used to know”.

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A way to resolve this issue would to be to actually lower the drinking age. This is because I believe if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18 then teenagers would learn their alcohol limit at a younger age. By lowering the drinking age, we are teaching teens their limit and how to control themselves versus them figuring out the hard way further on in life. “Teaching people to drink responsibly before they turn 21 would enormously enhance public health. Now, high school and college kids view dangerous binge drinking as a rite of passage,” says Gabrielle Glaser (ProCon).

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“They feel "liberated" when they arrive on campus. With no parents to stop them, they have a "let's make up for lost time" attitude. The result: binge drinking.” (Whelan) Said Elizabeth M. Whelan of Harvard School of Public Health. By educating youth on how they should consume alcohol and the effects of alcohol it will definitely help turn them into responsible drinkers.

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Alcohol is a factor in everyday life. Although it is popular in American culture, it tends to be abused by many people. At some point in time, teens will start to become interested about drinking alcoholic beverages. The legal drinking age is a highly talked about subject. The drinking age should not be lowered.

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Many teenagers either decide to drink or are pressured to drink before they turn 18 because they are revealed to alcohol every day. As a high school senior I have been invited to many parties hosted by individuals drink a lot. I grew up in a city where many activities are available so when I hear of all the parties being hosted, I think about cities that don't have many attractions. Just thinking about the endless amount of parties being hosted by people younger than 21 years old is overwhelming because the legal drinking age is 21. Adolescents are going to drink alcohol because society portrays that it is cool and hip to participate in such activities which is explained by, “Nearly half of all alcohol used reported by college students is among those who are underage, according to the Johns Hopkins Center on

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In some countries, like in Europe the drinking age is set at 18. Even though people in the US think this is insane, this set age has more positive effects than people think it would. It is known that binge drinking is a problem in the US since it has the highest rate in the world for binge drinking. In Europe, teenagers get their license at age 18, and some drinking ages are lower than that, they figure out how to control their drinking before the drive. Unlike in the US, kids drink and then drive because they either have to be home by curfew or they are too scared to call their parents for a ride, and admit they had been under the

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