The roots of this extreme drinking lie in our own history. It was the most disgusting thing in the world and I turned down future opportunities to drink until about 16 with a small glass of wine at the holidays. Research from the early 1980s until the present has shown a continuous decrease, and then leveling off, in drinking and driving related variables which has parallel the nation's, and also university students, decrease in per capita consumption. And a horribly ineffective one at that, especially since just like other drugs, it bashes and eventually kills you. A national survey of 3,090 parents by Alcohol.org has revealed that 1 in 5 parents believe the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21. We have to remember that the teen brain isnt fully developed. because I, and many of my fellow students grew up in households where, as kids, we were offerred a glass or two of wine on holidays. Anyone was free to drink without worrying about legal action, with the exception of some restrictions in dry states like Kansas. Cant drink a beer until youre twenty-one, then you cant join the military until youre twenty-one either. Copyright 2023 The Trustees of Gee, these people are silly, they spend so much time thinking about alcohol. They found it all pretty sophomoric. Do you see any positives to the drinking age being 21? Its the question that has stuck in the craw of underage college students for decades: I can fight and die for this country, so why cant I crack a beer? If you can die in battle you should be able to drink a beer. Next up: Rules, Realities, and the Holy Grail.. Revising the drinking age back to 21 has declined the rate of drunk driving accidents so much that it is estimated an average of 800 lives have been saved every year. Gabrielle Glaser, author, "Her Best-Kept Secret: Why Women Drink". Between 1970 and 1975, however, 29 states lowered the MLDA to 18, 19, or 20, largely in response to the change in the voting age. Why the Drinking Age is 21 in the United States. Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving began agitating for a. That struck me as a really perverse culture and the wrong way to go about it. Please upgrade your browser. However, the new review found that since the legal drinking age was set at 21, young people have been drinking less, and are less likely to get into traffic accidents. Lawmakers reasoned that if you were old enough to vote, you were . In an effort to address student misconduct, the president of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., announced last month that hard alcohol would be banned on campus. Thats what youve got to break. It only perpetuates the idea that drinking is something bad, and thus bad-ass. Its bringing to bear enormous amounts of resourcespolice enforcement, rules on college campuses, all these RAs and staffers who spend an awful lot of time worrying about whether people are drinking, how much theyre drinking, and what theyre doing as a result of drinking. Take your military entitlement elsewhere. Most of the military is under the age of 21 and if youa re at a military function and on a military base you can drink along with everyone else. dont get me wrong though i do agree with the basis of your idea, i just think it would never be a reality. Responsible for the layoffs of 1,000s of people working for breweries, distilleries, and saloons, Prohibition seemed to do more worse than good, further lowering the economy. Off-campus parties are a big problem. 1,000 lives were taken each year of Prohibition from drinking the toxic, unregulated alcohol. As with so many things, this is a matter of parents who dont teach their kids properly leaving their mess up to the government and other social institutions to deal with. Every girl taken advantage of at an illegal party? Summer is a wonderful time to go outside and enjoy outdoor activities. Lawmakers in a handful of states have proposed lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, but none have gained traction so far. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected. Educational and health institutions, sports clubs, and gas stations will be banned from selling alcohol. If you want it in the dorms, everybody knows somebody 21 or older or in a frat. Thats the kind of climate this law seems to have engendered. The minimum drinking age in New Hampshire is 21. Lower the drinking age to 18 or scrap it altogether and leave it to the parents to teach responsibility to their children. Those numbers are so inflated and wrong it just feeds there cause. The only issue I have with their study on how the change in age 18->21 drinking law resulted in less alcohol related incidents on the road is that they should really be focusing on the 18-21 age group and not the whole picture.. What do 40 year olds drinking and driving have to do with 18 year olds drinking and driving? Should the U.S. lower its drinking age? This change in beverage choice along with irresponsible drinking patterns among young collegians has led to increased incidences of alcohol toxicity - in some cases leading to death from alcohol poisoning. A small number of vocal individuals are proposing that the drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18 based on a belief that abusive and high-risk drinking by youth in our society would be dramatically curtailed by simply adopting the lower drinking age and providing alcohol education. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. 19, 19,19 To buy cigarets, A F***cking cigaret is worst than alcohol, I could start piloting airplanes AT 17, I could F*****ng be forced by the united states of america to go to war AT 18 and kill people if necessary Yes kill people and they will authorize it and They also applaud that when you start walking through the airport bringing the victory the the U.S, What victory? So maybe if institutions promoted creativity a bit more and provided realistic opportunities and alternatives for students (watching Finding Nemo is not realistic for college students), they might be able to not only curb the amount of drinking, but foster more creative, intelligent students. Where I live we had to change the law or lose federal funding. Drinking Age: Facts and Resources - NYRA - National Youth Rights Good luck with your early drinking. The pedestal effect of separating young people from alcohol is undeniable. After the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1971, which prohibited the states from setting their voting age above 18, most states lowered their drinking ages, usually down to 18. Although I am for lowering it to 18 I just think that wouldnt be very affective. Lowering MLDA 21 would reduce the number of underage people who are hurt from alcohol-related injuries or accidents due to fear of legal consequences if they sought medical attention. As a nation we have tried prohibition legislation twice in the past for controlling irresponsible drinking problems. Submit your number to receive a call today from a treatment provider. Seaman: The disrespect to the law is fake IDs, the widespread purchase and consumption of alcohol by people who know its illegal, and the supplying of younger people by older or upperclassmen in college who think nothing of going out and buying alcohol and then making sure that everybody in their fraternity or sorority has access to it. A pretty big twist, but taht is how I see it honestly. Why not just say that only people above 21 can buy alcohol but allow anyone 18 or older to consume it? For more information on treatment options, contact a treatment provider today. But by mid 1988, every state in the Union had raised its drinking age to 21. I enjoyed and learned from this article. Honestly, screw you. Changing the law isnt going to change things like this, and alcohol education needs to come at an earlier age and from closer, more interested persons than a school health advisor. If research is funded by alcohol companies or groups, it is decried as biased, while funding by RWF is glossed over or lauded as in the public interest. Show me data, not anecdotes. I think it should be noted that limited access to alcohol (and marijuana) is the direct cause of many cases of prescription drug abuse, which is absolutely rampant in American schools. To the author: dont be afraid to correct interviewees in the actual article if they cite stats and facts that dont exist. Required fields are marked *, Pioneering Research from Boston University, BostonUniversity. When we tell our teen that its okay to drink while they are with us, they will think it is okay to drink all the time. Seaman: When I began researching binge drinking on American college campusesHarvard, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Hamilton, UVA, Duke, Indiana, Wisconsin, Berkeley, Stanford, PomonaI was struck by the unanimity of the culture on these campuses that seems to revolve around heavy, dangerous, determinative drinking, where people set out to get drunk and the whole notion of pregaming and doing shots in the dorm room. And beyond education? I agree with the first post. 21 references. And the fact is, if you look at the polling data over the years for the Age 21 law, there is overwhelming public support for it. I agree that the generation currently in charge is fucking up the country/world for all of us but the whole country is terrified of the day your generation is running things. CRs main goal is to lower the drinking age to 18, combined with better education about alcohol use. Seaman, two final questions for you: wont lowering the drinking age result in the problems trickling down to a younger, more vulnerable age group? It was an open culture. States should make 21 years old the minimum drinking age. Well it doesnt work that way, you have to have a really good reason to be threatening to, or actively depriving my liberty, and my choice to put certain chemicals into my body is definitely not a good enough reason. It isnt stopping anyone. I am normally a strong libertarian, believing that the government has not right to control what people put in their bodies. Dejong: Disrespect for authority can happen with the enforcement of any law that people are not uniformly behind. The law considers you mentally fit to make that choice at age 18. If I were president for a day, I would increase drinking age to 25. Last updated on: 9/8/2022 | Author: ProCon.org All 50 US states have set their minimum drinking age to 21 although exceptions do exist on a state-by-state basis for consumption at home, under adult supervision, for medical necessity, and other reasons. Counter arguing the possibility of a bad economy as a result of Prohibition, they believed that the sales for other goods would rise and make up the difference of the decrease in alcohol revenue. Young people who are unable to legally obtain alcohol may engage in binge drinking when they do have access to it. Australia is known for its love of beer and wine, but the country is also facing a serious problem with alcohol-related harm. But mostly its because we knew our parents were concerned and involved with our activities, but without too short a leash on us. Funny how you can own a gun at 18 but still cant drink a beer. It also allows people to be forced into alcohol education when we legally become adults. Then the next time he/she wants to have fun, the brain will think I need to drink alcohol.. At a frat house/underage party, you have immature adults deciding what is appropriate behavior. Wiki is constantly being updated by different users. As a 19 year old college student myself, I think the main issue is that the entire legal system in the US is extremely stupid with no attention paid to common sense, unbelievable stubbornness when it comes to changing our laws, and no attempt whatsoever to keep in touch with the times. A 2013 study of nursing students, for example, revealed that they consumed an average of 4.3 shots of liquor compared to 2.6 glasses of beer on a weekly basis. Making it 18 wouldnt change a thing, the reason Id like it to change is so I can go to places that happen to serve alcohol and not be refused service. This means that an overwhelming majority of people under 21 . And the other erroneous belief is the belief that countries with lowered drinking ages have more responsible drinking among young adults. Raising the drinking age to 21 hasn't reduced drinking -- it's merely driven it underground, to the riskiest of settings. In Karen Scrivo, "Drinking on Campus," CQ Researcher 8 (March 20,1998):257. The ubiquity of noncompliance has led to a diffidence toward the law both a sense that it may be selectively obeyed and a perception that one is powerless to change it. Caleb Daniloff The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids has a whole page of myths and truths about underage drinking all backed by research.