RSP - eng PDF

Preview

Summary

eng...

Description

Keenon Cole Professor Rivers Comp 2 9 November 2021

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?

In the United States, lowering the drinking age to 18 would make more sense. It would be better for the college-age students who drink. Restaurants, taverns, bars, and formal school and university celebrations should all allow young adults to drink in supervised circumstances. Role modeling and educational initiatives might be used to teach appropriate drinking in these scenarios. It would overall make young adults mature faster. Reducing the age of drinking would reduce the amount of trouble young adults get in related to drinking as well and create better drinking habits. Other countries around the world that have their drinking age under the age of 21 are doing just fine. And lastly, I believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because at the age of 18 you are allowed to do so many things and I just don’t see why consuming alcohol isn’t one of these. In this essay, I will furthermore explain my reasoning while providing research evidence to back me up.

The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because It’ll reduce the thrill of breaking the law as well. And according to Kynslie Otte from UMKC “Lowering the drinking age would also reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents among underage drinkers. Many underage drinkers will not seek medical attention, no matter how severe injuries maybe, because they fear the legal consequences of their actions.” (Kynslie Otte Tuesday, November 16, 2021) This can lead to safer drinking because young adults won’t have to worry as much about getting in trouble. Early drinking introduction is the safest strategy to decrease juvenile

alcohol consumption, according to research, and college students under the age of 21 drink as well. Despite the fact that the legal drinking age is 21, the majority of college students under the age of 21 use alcohol in a reckless way. This is because drinking is viewed as a tantalizing "forbidden fruit," a "badge of revolt against authority," and a mark of "adulthood" by these young people. We have tried prohibition laws twice in the past to address irresponsible drinking concerns as a country. This happened during the 1920s National Prohibition and the 1850s state prohibition. These rules were eventually removed because they were unenforceable and produced additional societal problems as a result of the backlash. We are currently repeating history and committing the same mistakes as in the past. Prohibition did not work then, and it does not function now for young people under the age of 21. It's exhilarating for teenagers to break the law. They'll get hooked to the excitement of breaking the law once they start breaking it. They'll want to keep violating the law simply to keep their cool. When they break the law, they believe that because no one else will, it will be cool to break the law and appear horrible. Furthermore, lowering the drinking age would keep teenagers out of trouble since they would no longer have to risk their futures by obtaining and using fake forms of identification merely to drink. Many underage drinkers may consume huge volumes of alcohol in a short period of time before going out, rather than drinking over an extended period of time. Kynslie Otte from UMKC also says “Lowering the drinking age to 18 would allow 18-to-20-year-olds to consume alcohol safely in regulated environments, with supervision. Since the drinking age is 21, underage college students often consume alcohol in unsupervised spaces, such as house parties, where binge drinking and other drug use occurs.” (Kynslie Otte Tuesday, November 16, 2021) If students could buy their own drinks, underage drinkers would be less likely to try to have older people buy them drinks. But by not purchasing their own drinks, they become more vulnerable to having something placed in the drink. It just creates safer drinking habits.

I also think that the United States should take a look at all of the other countries that have their legal drinking age under 21 a see that they are doing just fine. There have actually been some improvements in their way of life, for instance, According to Dani Heba from The ticker newspaper “In the United States, 31% of car accidents result from driving under the influence, or DUI, the third-highest rate in the world. In Germany, where the legal age to drink is 16 years old, and in Russia, where the legal age to drink is 18 years old, this rate is 9%. China, which has no minimum drinking age, sees its rate at 4%, according to Sand Law, a law firm in North Dakota.” (Dani Heba April 22, 2021) So what this tells me is that the problem isn't with the legal drinking age. Culture may have a role in how normalized drinking is and how drunk driving is seen. Drunk driving can be reduced if appropriate drinking is encouraged from an early age and driving while intoxicated is monitored. Germany, Russia, and China are only a few examples. Some also believe that drunk driving rules in the United States are not stringent enough in contrast to those in other nations.

If teens are 18 and old enough to vote, they should be able to drink because saying they can vote, is calling them responsible and mature enough to pretty much do anything that they please to do. In the united state at the age of 18 you can Vote, Join the military, Donate blood, become an organ donor, Work full time, Play the lottery, Obtain special driving permits, and Purchase and use tobacco products (in some states). And these are just a few. Those are all pretty big decisions you can make in life so why can’t drinking be one of them. I truly believe that being able to use tobacco products at 18 is a huge reason what you should be able to drink at 18. They both essentially make you feel different and in a different mindset. There is actually a study that shows tobacco is worse for youre body than alcohol. Dan Wagner of deserthopetreatment center says that “Cigarettes are not psychoactive like

alcohol (that is, they do not affect perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior), but they are very addictive. There are over 4,000 chemical substances found in a single cigarette; some of them, like nicotine, are what make cigarettes as addictive as they are. Medical News Today explains that when a cigarette is smoked, the nicotine reaches the brain within 15 seconds of the first inhalation. Nicotine is so important in how cigarettes work that it is responsible for the success of the entire tobacco industry. It is one of the most addictive drugs in the world, coming in third after heroin and cocaine and above alcohol.” ( Dan Wagner Deserthopetreatment center November 3, 2021) Also, stopswithme.com says that “Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined”. So why is tobacco legal at the age of 18 and not alcohol when it is proven that it kills more?

So like I said before I really believe that the legal drinking limit in America should be reduced down to 18. It would just create so many more positive drinking habits than there are now and normalizing teen drinking wouldn’t make it cool or the thing anymore and this also would drive young adults to do dumb things as they do now. Young adults would be much more mature about it. And why is something that has a better chance of killing you legal at the age of 18 than something that doesn’t? Change needs to happen is just makes more sense that way. In the United States, lowering the drinking age to 18 would make more sense. It would be better for the college-age students who drink. Restaurants, taverns, bars, and formal school and university celebrations should all allow young adults to drink in supervised circumstances. Role modeling and educational initiatives might be used to teach appropriate drinking in these scenarios. It would overall make young adults mature faster. Reducing the age of drinking would reduce the amount of trouble young adults get in related to drinking as well and create better drinking habits. Other countries around the world that have their

drinking age under the age of 21 are doing just fine. And lastly, I believe the drinking age should be lowered to 18 because at the age of 18 you are allowed to do so many things and I just don’t see why consuming alcohol isn’t one of these.

Work Cited

Heba, D., 2021. Lowering the legal US drinking age just makes sense. [online] The Ticker. Available at: [Accessed 24 November 2021].

2021. [online] Available at: [Accessed 24 November 2021].

The Badger Herald. 2021. Why the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. [online] Available at:

[Accessed 24 November 2021].

Desert Hope. 2021. Cigarettes vs. Alcohol: Comparing Physical &Psychological Harm. [online] Available at: [Accessed 24 November 2021].

Mandal, S., 2021. Reasons to Challenge the Drinking Age - NYRA. [online] NYRA. Available at: [Accessed 24 November 2021]....