Alchohol
A lower age for consuming
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Opinion
In a country where at 18, a person can vote for our next leader or defend this land, the ability to drink alcohol at a lower age should be legalized.
"If you can take a shot on the battlefield, you ought to be able to take a shot of beer legally," South Carolina state Rep. Fletcher Smith said.
In this day and age, it is not uncommon to see teenagers graduate from high school one day and enroll for the military the next, but these same people who are sent to foreign lands to defend our country are too immature to drink alcohol?
According to the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2005, 85 percent of 20-year-olds reported that they have consumed alcohol. Furthermore, they also report two out of five have said they have binged within the previous month.
The laws we have in effect now do not hinder young adults from drinking; sometimes it makes it worse.
As a child when your mother would tell you not to do something, you would have this growing urge for defiance. The nature of teenagers and young adults is to rebel against authority, so they end up drinking far more than they would normally, just to "stick it to the man."
"The evidence is clear, it has had no effect," John M. McCardell, former president of Middlebury College, said.
An argument made from supporters of the current drinking laws state that since raising the drinking age to 21, there have been fewer alcohol-related driving deaths, but according to David J. Hanson, an alcohol policy expert at the State University of New York-Potsdam, alcohol-related driving deaths among minor drivers was already declining before 1984, when the drinking age was raised.
Whenever a driver is charged and convicted of a DWI they are usually required to do a certain number of alcohol education classes. These classes should become mandatory to all young adults who reach the age of 18. After completing these classes, they should be given a permit, just like a driving permit, where until they turn 21, needs to continue alcohol education and have limitations on when they can drink.
"The way people become most responsible is by giving them responsibility," Roderic Park, college administrator, said. "Young adults would be responsible with such a privilege following education and with appropriate monitoring."
As an 18-year-old American, there are a lot of responsibilities thrown about them, voting for the future of our country, defending that same country and even the option to smoke. Why can't education show these young adults that their opinions do matter and allow them the luxury other adults have by letting them consume alcohol?
"If you lower that drinking age, make drinking no longer a forbidden fruit but rather something that younger adults do with older adults who have learned to drink responsibly," Barret Seaman, author of Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You, said. "You then reduce those behaviors rather than increase them."
"If you can take a shot on the battlefield, you ought to be able to take a shot of beer legally," South Carolina state Rep. Fletcher Smith said.
In this day and age, it is not uncommon to see teenagers graduate from high school one day and enroll for the military the next, but these same people who are sent to foreign lands to defend our country are too immature to drink alcohol?
According to the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2005, 85 percent of 20-year-olds reported that they have consumed alcohol. Furthermore, they also report two out of five have said they have binged within the previous month.
The laws we have in effect now do not hinder young adults from drinking; sometimes it makes it worse.
As a child when your mother would tell you not to do something, you would have this growing urge for defiance. The nature of teenagers and young adults is to rebel against authority, so they end up drinking far more than they would normally, just to "stick it to the man."
"The evidence is clear, it has had no effect," John M. McCardell, former president of Middlebury College, said.
An argument made from supporters of the current drinking laws state that since raising the drinking age to 21, there have been fewer alcohol-related driving deaths, but according to David J. Hanson, an alcohol policy expert at the State University of New York-Potsdam, alcohol-related driving deaths among minor drivers was already declining before 1984, when the drinking age was raised.
Whenever a driver is charged and convicted of a DWI they are usually required to do a certain number of alcohol education classes. These classes should become mandatory to all young adults who reach the age of 18. After completing these classes, they should be given a permit, just like a driving permit, where until they turn 21, needs to continue alcohol education and have limitations on when they can drink.
"The way people become most responsible is by giving them responsibility," Roderic Park, college administrator, said. "Young adults would be responsible with such a privilege following education and with appropriate monitoring."
As an 18-year-old American, there are a lot of responsibilities thrown about them, voting for the future of our country, defending that same country and even the option to smoke. Why can't education show these young adults that their opinions do matter and allow them the luxury other adults have by letting them consume alcohol?
"If you lower that drinking age, make drinking no longer a forbidden fruit but rather something that younger adults do with older adults who have learned to drink responsibly," Barret Seaman, author of Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You, said. "You then reduce those behaviors rather than increase them."
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