Legal_Age_to_Drink

Should 18 Be The Legal Drinking Age February 8, 2010 Part I: Thesis What should the legal drinking age be' When do we consider our adolescents adults' We have so many different stages to becoming an adult, which to most people is when you turn eighteen years old. We are responsible enough to receive our driver’s license and get a job at sixteen years old. We are responsible and considered an adult at eighteen years old. When we turn eighteen we can buy a car, register to vote, serve on jury duty, purchase a house, and join the military. That being said, you can do all these things yet you cannot legally drink alcohol until you are twenty-one years old. Does this make any sense' No! In today’s society we have so many different standards for what and when we are considered an adult and this at times seems to be confusing and a little mixed up. Why is it that for the most part and for most things we are considered an adult at the age of eighteen except for having the ability and option to drink alcohol' To legally drink alcohol we have to be twenty-one years old. Is this right' I do not think so. This seems to be a little hypocritical to me; we are telling our youth that they are considered adults at eighteen yet we will not let them drink alcohol unless they do it secretively and illegally. This is a touch subject for me. Our adolescents are legally considered an adult at eighteen years old and we allow them to do many things: we allow them to vote, buy a car, serve on jury duty, purchase a house, and most of all join the military yet we will not allow them to drink alcohol. Why is that' Why is it ok for eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year olds to join the military and risk their lives defending this country and other countries yet they cannot legally drink a bottle of beer' This to me is a very contradicting fact. Why do we trust these young adults to fight for our freedom and risk their lives in the process, yet we will not trust them to drink alcohol' Going off to war and defending our country is more dangerous than these young adults drinking a beer. I feel that with all the things that our young adults are responsible for and allowed to do when they turn eighteen, they should have the freedom and option to drink alcohol also. Part II: Anti-thesis With allowing eighteen year olds to drink comes many dangers, if welower the legal drinking age there will be an increase in drunk driving accidents. “Mothers Against Drunk Driving argues that an estimated twenty-five thousand lives have been saved by maintaining twenty-one as the minimum legal drinking age. They remain vehemently opposed to lowering the legal drinking age” (Soliman, 2008). When you lower the drinking age, you are going to increase the chances of deaths caused by alcohol, that is a given. “According to Mothers Against Drunken Driving, a 2008 study found that adults aged eighteen to twenty-two enrolled full time in college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full time to use alcohol and binge drink” (Atkins, 2009). These things alone are enough of a concern for us to keep the drinking age twenty-one. What happens when we lower it and we start to see these types of things happening more and more with twelve and thirteen year olds. When will the cycle ever end' Part III: Synthesis There are many reasons that I feel the legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen. Let me explain by starting with turning sixteen. When teenagers turn sixteen we allow them to go through driver’s education and get their drivers license. This is a major stepping-stonein becoming an adult. We are allowing our youth the freedom and privilege to drive a vehicle, which I might add,is a huge responsibility. This is a sensitive age where peer pressure is a major factor and a time when many teenagers are starting to experiment with alcohol. We are allowing teens to legally drive cars at the age when they have just begun experimenting with alcohol and possibly drugs. Is this a wise decision' Maybe not but we need to teach our youth responsibility and sixteen is a major starting point. Yes we teach our kids from the beginning responsibility but this is their first chance to show what they have learned and to show us how responsible they are. Is sixteen considered an adult' No, this is just the first step towards becoming an adult in my eyes. This is when we really need to teach our teenagers responsibility and expect that from them. If we do not teach them responsibility, then how will they ever learn and make it in society. Once our youth turn eighteen, we tell them that they are adults and responsible for themselves and their actions. Eighteen year olds are allowed to vote, buy a car, serve on jury duty, purchase a house, and most of all join the military. Why should we trust them to do all these things yet tell them they are not responsible enough to drink' Why is that' “The jagged patchwork results in this question: Why do we trust eighteen year olds to own cars, drive tanks, adopt children, have abortions, vote for president, get married, fly airplanes, serve on juries and file lawsuits but we don’t trust them to legally buy Miller Lite” (Anonymous, 2008). By telling eighteen year olds that they are considered adults yet they cannot drink makes drinking all the more intriguing. It gives alcohol that forbidden excitement that we get when we are not suppose to do something so we do it just to see if we can get away with it. We allow eighteen year olds to go off to college where drinking has always been a huge part of campus life, yet we are telling them they cannot drink. In July 2008 Dr. John McCardell founded the Amethyst Initiative. “So far 135 colleges and universities have signed the Amethyst Initiative which calls for a renewed national debate about the drinking age, which they say has contributed to an epidemic of binge drinking and other alcohol abuses that are responsible for myriad safety and health issues among their college students” (Wright, 2009). Colleges across the nation have seen an increase in binge drinking and believe this is because of the twenty-one year old age limitto drink. Drinking is a part of college life and when we tell the students that they cannot drink till they are twenty-one then they feel the desire and the rush of seeing if they can do it without getting caught. This causing more and more students to binge drink in their dorm rooms before going out to parties, since they cannot drink legally. These students are not only risking their lives by binge drinking, but then many of them get behind the wheel and drive to the party and risk the lives of many. We need to teach our young adult that with the privilege of drinking comes many responsibilitiesand if we do this we can hopefully show them the responsible way to drink. I think the thought of drinking being illegal and forbidden is a major reason that many teenagers choose to do it. The thrill and excitement of doing something illegal is a huge factor in underage drinking. Should eighteen year olds be allowed to drink' Yes! I think if they are allowed to serve on jury duty, allowed to vote for who they want to be president, able to buy a car orpurchase a house, but most of all I feel that if they are allowed to join the military and risk their lives to protect our country they should be allowed to drink alcohol. An anonymous source states,“I keep going back to the statistics that one-third of U.S. Soldiers killed in the Iraq war have been 18-21 years old. They lost their lives fighting for freedom in a foreign country” (Anonymous, 2008). “The Marine Corp recently lowered the permissible drinking age from 21 to 18 for Marines on liberty overseas and those taking part in official on-base command functions” (Anonymous, 2008). I think we should really take a minute and think about that statement. If the Marine Corp trusts these your adults to drink in foreign countries and at on-base functions then why do we not trust them to drink at home' References AHMED SOLIMAN. (2008, November 20). Maintain higher minimum drinking age. The Record,A.15. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1599363821). Drinking age debate doesnt address legal inconsistencies. (2008, September 15). Daily Herald,13. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1616466681). Jerome Wright. (31 May). OPINION: Is 18 old enough to drink': National debate growing over reducing legal age for alcohol. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1736105441). STEPHEN WALLACE, & MS ED. (2010, January 15). Dithering on drinking puts youth at risk. Republican & Herald,A.9. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1940447791). Study: Teen Drinking Can Have Lifelong Effects. (1 February). Talk of the Nation. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from ProQuest Central. (Document ID: 1953621051). Taylor Atkins. (2009, March 16). IS LOWER AGE THE ANSWER'Underage and excessive drinking in college have some officials asking if law should be changed. Topeka Capital Journal,1. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1664239861). THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. (2010, January 22). Drinking age debate returns to Vermont. Charleston Daily Mail,A.6. Retrieved February 3, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1945397061).