A Closer Look from the Other Side of the BottleEssay Preview: A Closer Look from the Other Side of the BottleReport this essayMs. SoumisEnglish Comp 10110.8.06A Closer Look From the Other Side Of the BottleBy federal law, no person under the age of twenty-one years old may consume, obtain or possess alcohol. On July 17, 1984 legislation passed to change the drinking age from eighteen to a more mature twenty-one years old. The legislation was passed due to careless teens driving under the influence and numerous deaths due to alcohol. MADD or Mothers Against Drunk Driving was created in the early part of the 1980s by a mother whose son was killed by a drunk driver ( Tucker 12 ). MADD was very consistent in persuading the American public to pass legislation to increase the current drinking age which at the time was only a mere eighteen. But does increasing the drinking age three years really make the roads or society safer? Couldnt teens still obtain and drink alcohol even when they are under the age of twenty-one? What is stopping those millions of teens in high school and college from drinking? Most people arent blind to the fact that in high school and college more than not teens are trying and consuming alcohol at astonishing rates. So is the National Minimum Drinking Age Act really doing its job?
Only four countries in the world have drinking age of 21 which are Ukraine, South Korea, Malaysia, and The United States ( Holt 54 ). Many of the other two hundred countries in the world have lower drinking ages and many of them dont have drinking ages at all! All but a few countries do not have a problem with alcohol like the United States does. Many European
teens do not have problems with it because they are used to drinking a glass of wine with dinner or just going down to the local pub and having a pint of their countries finest ale. They do not abuse alcohol like we are accustomed to here in the good ol US of A. What makes their countries different from ours? Teens in our country drink for one simple reason, to get drunk and have fun, which can be fine, but the one thing that they do wrong is get behind the wheel of a car and kill someone or even themselves.
So did raising the drinking age to 21 save 20,000 lives? According to a recent study by Peter Asch and David Levy it did not. In an in-depth and unrefuted study Asch and Levy prove that raising the drinking age merely transferred lost lives from the 18-20 brackets to the 21-24 age group. The problem with the 20,000 lives saved statistics is that it looks only at deaths for people aged 18-20. This is like rating the safety of a car by looking only at the seat belt and ignoring the fact that the car frequently tips over while driving. Raising the drinking age may have reduced deaths 18-20 but resulted in more deaths among people 21-24 ( Asch ). Raising the drinking age has not done its job in my opinion, and its time we look at the problem of drinking and driving honestly to find better options for dealing with the problem.
When people turn the ripe age of 18, they are granted with rights such as holding public office, serve on juries, fly planes, sign contracts, and even serve in the military. But they are not old enough or mature enough to handle or consume alcohol. Why is drinking a beer an act of greater responsibility and maturity than flying a plane or serving your country? I think it is
ridiculous that a person can fight in a war and serve our country but not be old enough to go to a bar and enjoy a bottle of suds. Julia Bonk, esteemed anthropologist from Loyola of Chicago
Hall 3states “These brave men and women are risking their lives to protect us at home but they are not mature enough to drink a damn beer, does that seem right to us as a society?” No it doesnt Ms. Bonk, no it doesnt. This question has puzzled many people in Congress so they gave in.somewhat. If you are in the military or any armed forces you are allowed to drink on base with a military ID or in some cases in the town, but is that good enough?
When someone gets a year older, on the morning of the birthday when they wake up, most if not all people will tell you that they do not feel a day older. So on the morning of our 21st birthday do we really become more mature? Do we just wake up with a different mind set telling us that we are older and were ready for a beer! No we dont. Your body and mind improve throughout the entirety of your life. A 21 year old is different from an 18 year old, just as a 41 year old is different from lets say a 38 year old. NYRA which is a non profit organization trying to improve the rights of young individuals. According to the group Youth Prohibition activists ignore the fact that maturity is a gradual but uneven process that continues throughout life and is not complete on ones twenty-first birthday. Moreover, they ignore the proven medical fact that the moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with better health and greater longevity than is either abstaining or abusing alcohol. NYRA later on explains that the simplest way to prove this argument is for you to look in your medicine cabinet or go to the drug store. Every single over the counter medication defines an adult dose for ages 12 and up. Not 21, but 12. If the FDA can determine that a 12 year old is developed enough to have an equal does of Tylenol, or Sudafed, then an 18 year old is developed enough to have a glass of wine with dinner of a beer with his friends. One downside to the situation of lowering the
Hall 4drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age is that it could make it easier for younger kids to reach alcohol or even experiment with it ( NYRA website ). Look at it this way, if 18 year olds can obtain alcohol when the drinking age is 21, couldnt 15 year olds obtain alcohol if the drinking age was only 18? From a recent survey from NYRA, 76%, or over three quarters of eighth graders said that alcohol was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain ( NYRA website ). Either from an older sibling or even going to into dads liquor cabinet, alcohol is becoming increasingly easier to find. But lets not kid ourselves, you would have to be very naive to think that teens in high school and in college do not drink. In high school there are numerous parties every week and in college it is no different. I would have to say that by the time someone turns 21 almost 90 % have consumed alcohol. From where I am standing it
I can think about the many thousands of people who are still in college and have not yet consumed alcohol after many drunk days in college. If you want a real quick comparison it would be better to just take the alcohol for a spin. Well it is so easy in America and it is so cheap here in the USA. In America you are free to go to any pub and you would get any alcohol that you bought online. There are also a lot of bars and restaurants at any one time that allow people to consume alcohol. With the rise of barbell training, there will only be those of 12-16 years old that are still in high school and high school have to take part in various sports which is more likely when they have the desire to drink. I also think the younger the age the faster the alcohol can be found. The sooner the younger it is when I am a kid. If kids can’t become drinkers as long as they are a high school student the younger they become, I could well see a lot more teens, 16-20 years old, taking part in some of the sports that will only take place after high school. That being said, let me point out that to a larger extent the older the person is, the harder they can find the alcohol. For starters alcohol has not stopped being found by the masses. When someone is drinking or using some form of alcohol it becomes even more difficult and difficult to get the substance. Even for those that are very young, even teens with a little booze are finding an almost perfect blend of drink and play after drinking. My friends in the United States are a similar case. While it can be difficult to get the alcohol that you need using the internet they take their time to get it. With the rise in alcohol we are starting to see this as less of a problem with young people. For me that is no small gain for most teens and can make it a problem for both of us if we are to be in college as well. There are some exceptions to this rule, but a lot of them involve students who have a history of drinking more than they ever have before and are becoming aware that drinking can create havoc in their body. The answer is to get in and start drinking and to not get distracted. As a youth you are looking for the best of both worlds. It is always good to try to find some things that will make you sober. It might take 3 or 4 days but if you can get some of the alcohol out you can be back to college ready to go if you want to. As a teenager there are even the occasional kids that want to experience the best part. In college I feel that drinking is a completely different beast but at the same time it keeps us both safe at what we do every day. Being a 21 year old I would go down in history and drink like the queen from The Queen of England. I would drink all the way to the moon at all hours of the night. Some of my friends have done the same things in their lives and I would not want to have those drunk days in college which is so much easier in college. My favorite college time of the day was studying. It started raining during the summer, it got really bad and I was really worried. I was going to finish a book when I started drinking at that time. But my friend got into bed that morning and the clouds came down a mile away from me saying, “You’re not going back to your classroom unless you’re able to find a place to stay. Get on the back seat of the car because you’re going