Legal Drinking Age - Research Paper Example

Legal Drinking Age Introduction The minimum drinking age in most states in USA is fixed at 21 years. However, this has being raising hot debates in the past few decades with some people arguing that the minimum drinking age should be lowered to 18 with others advocating for the age to remain at 21. People support their arguments with various reasons with some being baseless while others seem to make sense. Making the drinking age be 21 by President Ronald Reagan was among the most prudent ideas the country has ever made. However, the big question remains to be whether attaining 21 years is the most appropriate minimum age for a person to be legally consuming alcohol or anything else less than 21. Setting the most appropriate minimum age for alcohol consumption has been a hot debate in USA. It has been a long journey which involved a lot of disagreements and pressurization from NGOs and other stakeholders to state governments before the law was signed by former President Ronald Reagan on July 1984. The age was raised from 18 years to 21 as a result of numerous negative effects that the society and the nation at large had experienced. This made lobby groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) among many others as well as legislatures who pressurized Reagan to sign the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (Ponicki and LaScala 810). However, some states disagreed with this law and continued to retain the minimum drinking age as 18 not until the congress refused to fund their highway (infrastructure) operations. This papers seeks to present an argument, counter-argument and refutation on the legal drinking age being set at 21 years. Argument in support for drinking age to remain at 21 Initially, the minimum drinking age in USA used to be 18 years. However, there was a dramatic rise of many negative impacts to a point that legislatures had to amend the law in most states. Some of the negative repercussions that were being associated with having a low drinking age of 18 included the numerous accidents that were happening as well as the rise of alcohol binges (Heather and Stockwell 39). Some other people strongly oppose the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18 years primarily because they believe that lowering the age is likely to make younger kids start drinking. Despite the fact that the drinking age is strictly at 21, some college students break the law and take alcohol meaning that making it 18 is even more likely to complicate the situation as younger kids may start taking alcohol (Heather and Stockwell 45). Another major reason that people use in arguing that the minimum drinking age should be 21 years is the issue of health. Alcohol causes health complications like heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver, as well as human brains damages especially if the individual taking alcohol is not fully developed. Persons below 21 year are not yet fully developed and taking alcohol can extremely be detrimental for the health their brains. Drinking alcohol at an age below 21 years directly affects the cerebellum negatively, a factor that ends up affecting individuals’ motor skills, body balance, and complex motions of the body (Ponicki and LaScala 809). Conducted researches have shown that human brains continue to develop up to the age of 21 years meaning that persons below this age are not yet grown up and alcohol taking can damage their brains development or make it malfunctions or even dead if they become alcoholics. David J Hanson PhD was quoted say that "Research indicates that the human brain continues to develop into a person's early twenties and that exposure of the developing brain to alcohol may have long-lasting effects on intellectual capabilities." Binge drinking is another key element that can be used in support for retaining the current drinking age at 21 (Bancroft 172). Statistics show that persons who start drinking at a lower age below 21 are likely to overdo it after their first drink (Hingson 65). This increases their probabilities of becoming addicted to alcohol in their later age. Similar studies have shown that persons who did not go to college and start drinking at a lower age than 21 years are even more likely to become addicts compared to those who continued with their studies. According to Andrew Plunk PhD “Binge drinking on college campuses is a very serious problem, but it's also important not to completely forget about young people who aren't on college campuses"." In our research, they had utmost risks of suffering the continuing consequences linked to lower drinking ages (Bancroft 172)”. Another solid reason that supports that the drinking age should not be anything less than 21 years is the aspect of decision making. As explained above, persons below 21 years are not yet grown up and their decisions are likely to be influenced by other factors like peer influence among others. Therefore, becoming an alcoholic may be a decision that has been prompted by other factors and not necessarily their decision (Bancroft 172). The most unfortunate part of it is the fact that these young adults who become alcoholics at that tender age (below 21 years) may become hooked up to alcohol for life or keep struggling with their efforts being always fruitless. Various studies have shown that people who became alcoholics at lower ager struggle in future trying to stop it especially if the habit gets to extreme levels like becoming completely addicted. Some end up joining rehabilitation centers as an effort to curb the problem. Letting persons below 21 years take alcohol is completely being irresponsible as a nation since this is allowing immature citizens make bad decisions that are not only affecting their lives, but the society and the country at large (Carpenter and Dobkin 176). Reducing accidents and fatalities among the youths is another supportive evidence that the drinking age should remain at 21 years. 21 and above years old persons are more mature and they are likely to drink responsibly on top of making sound decisions (Carpenter and Dobkin 176). Initially when the legal drinking age was 21 years, there used to be numerous accidents that were happening in most states which were being induced by alcoholism among these ‘immature citizens’ (Pagliaro and Pagliaro 98). Statistics have shown that raising the drinking age to 21 years has significantly reduced the cases of fatality among the youths with the law saving more than 27,000 youths lives since the implementation of the law. As per 2009, over 5,000 persons below 21 years were dying annually due to alcohol related accidents like homicide and suicide. In 2008, roughly 190,000 persons below 21 years visited emergency rooms for alcohol related accidents (Padwa and Cunningham 53). Moreover, the law led to decrease in the number of accidents induced by alcoholism by more than 63% since 1984 not considering the high number of lives that have also been saved since innocent people are no longer hit by those immature alcoholic drivers. This can only be termed as an incredible achievement and raising the age to 21 years was a brilliant idea (Pagliaro and Pagliaro 98). The age set has proven to be saving and has dramatically reduced negative effects resulting from consuming alcohol at a lower age than that. Other risks associated with taking alcohol before the age of 21 years include the element of taking part in risky behavior like having unprotected sex, having sex with multiple partners, and driving vehicles while under the influence, among engaging in other risks one would have not engaged in was he or she sober (Alcohol Screening.org , para 4-13). As a result, there is a rise in the number of unprotected sex that leads to numerous unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) among the youths (Nagin para2-9). Alcohol consumption among these young adults also leads to cases of sexual assault, a factor that is contributed by either both the offender and the victim being drunk or one of them. In addition, studies have shown that persons below 21 years tend to be more violent while drunk and may engage in suicidal and other risky activities. According to such studies, 1 out of every 3 suicides committed involve a young person aged between 18 and 24 years who commit it under influence of alcohol. Counter-argument However, there exist a strong counter-argument about setting 21 years as the minimum age for drinking in USA. Some people argue that lowering the drinking age to anything less than 21 with 18 years being the most proposed age is likely to reduce issues of breaking the law (Engs para 1-4). Many people suggest that 18 years is the standard age at which many youths join colleges where they get introduced to alcoholism. This means that lowering the age is likely to reduce such cases of getting in the wrong side of the law. Others argue that anybody who is 18 years and above is an adult and should be allowed to make decisions on their own. After all, persons aged 18years are allowed to vote since the society consider them as adults while making electoral decisions, but consider them as immature when it comes to entertainment with respect to alcohol consumption. Refutation Nevertheless, the above counter-argument against having the legal drinking age at 21 can only be termed as baseless. It is not solid enough to outweigh the benefits discussed in the paper about retaining the drinking age at 21 (Peck 17). Claiming that persons aged 18 years are adults and that they make sound decisions is a controversial statement since this is the age group that has been reported to be engaging in irresponsible sexual behaviors among other risky activities as outlined in this paper. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been proven that setting the minimum drinking age as 21 years is a prudent idea whose benefits highly outweigh its demerits of merits of setting the age at anything below 21 years. Some of the highlighted benefits are the issue of giving the children more time to mature in order to make sound decisions. Persons below 21 years are not yet fully developed and are likely to make stupid decisions that they regret for the rest of their lives thus calling for a pressing need for the state and the society in general to be responsible over its immature citizens (Nagin para2-9). Other benefits include the aspect of reducing accidents and youths fatalities just to mention a few. Therefore, the drinking age should remain at 21 in order to give youths more time to mature and develop their brains mentally and physically for the benefit their own benefit, that of the society and the country in general. Works Cited Alcohol Screening.org. “Health Consequences of Excess Drinking.” Nd. Web. April 20, 2014. Bancroft, Angus. “Drugs, Intoxication, and Society. Cambridge” Polity, 2009. 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