As I was sitting in my apartment, I watched my 24 year old roommate come home from work, open the fridge, grab a beer, and sit next to me on the couch. I sat there for a second and pondered trying to think of a reason the legal drinking age is 21.
Immediately, I grabbed my computer and looked for a good solid reason why I can't legally drink at 18 years old. You know what I found? A bunch of websites created by people who want to prevent underage drinking. According to the Travis County Attorney's Office, "underage drinking is illegal,
unhealthy, and unacceptable."
Im assuming it's equally as unhealthy to an 18 year old as it would be to a 21 year old (or anyone older for that matter).
This is my argument, I am 18 years old. I can legally vote for my government, I can enlist in the military, buy my own cigarettes (which according to Polifact, "Every year tobacco kills more Americans than did World War II -more than AIDS, cocain, heroine, alcohol, vehicular accidents, homicide, and suicide combined."), I live by myself, pay my own bills, have my own job and yet I can't buy my own alcohol.
I understand there are concerns and responsibilty that comes with drinking alcohol. Mostly drinking and driving. I completely understand the consequences of doing something like that and would never put myself, or someone else in that kind of danger. However, by law, at 18, I am a legal adult and I can legally go to prison for committing a crime on that level, just as anyone else, yet, still can't buy alcohol.
I would have to agree with my classmate’s blog titled Why21?. The author questions the legal drinking age being 21. I also did a search and could not find a valid reason for the age being 21. I did find an interesting article asking the same question from US News, The Drinking Age Debate: Time to Go From 21 to 18,But It’s Not an Easy Call. As the article states, education on alcohol starts at home; however, I do believe it should also continue at schools in a health class. Teenagers need to be educated on the effects of alcohol and their body.
ReplyDeleteAfter more searching, I discover the legal drinking age in most countries is 18 (Minimum Legal Drinking Ages Around the World.) There are only five countries where the legal age is 21. Echoing my classmate’s thoughts, at age 18 you are allowed to kill and die for your country, you can vote, drive a vehicle, sign legal documents, go to prison, and be on a jury. But yet for this same person at age of 18, there is no drinking allowed!
When it comes to the dispute over the legal drinking age being 21 as opposed to 18, I am in full agreement with one of my classmates. In Mary Hunt’s blog post, “Why 21?” she makes an argument in favor of lowering the drinking age to 18. I find it difficult to accept the fact that it is illegal for 18-year olds to purchase their own alcohol when society supposedly views them as adults. My classmate worded this view in an excellent manner. “I can legally vote for my government, I can enlist in the military, buy my own cigarettes… I live by myself, pay my own bills, have my own job and yet I can’t buy my own alcohol.”
ReplyDeleteThose who are against dropping the legal age to 18 have claimed that alcohol-related deaths would significantly increase in young adults. I’d have to disagree with this statement. As a college student, I’ve seen far too many instances of underage drinkers blaming the illegality of alcohol consumption for their binges. Because they’re unable to purchase alcohol in public, there’s a common theme of drinking enough at home to last the whole night. It’s not unusual for this type of behavior to result in alcohol poisoning or extreme intoxication—to the point of blacking out.
This blog entry is into response to my classmate, Mary’s “Why 21” blog entry. I can understand the reasoning behind Mary’s argument and agree with the points that she made; however, I agree with the law. Mary pointed out the fact that some of the reasons that it is illegal to drink before twenty-one years of age is because it is unhealthy and unacceptable. Mary then states that it is not healthy at any age. I agree it doesn’t matter what age you are drinking can be unhealthy, especially done in excess. As for being unacceptable the only reason I can see that it is unacceptable is because you are breaking the law if you are under twenty-one. Mary goes onto question why is a person that is eighteen able to vote, be in the armed forces, and be tried as an adult. I can understand how it can be frustrating for a young adult that has just as many responsibilities, but not able to do everything legally a person can do that is over twenty-one.
ReplyDeleteThe reasoning behind why I feel twenty-one is an acceptable age has to do with the decision making processes. According to the article on NPR, The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet.The article discusses how the frontal lobe is not yet full connected. Some of the things the frontal lobe controls are emotional impulsivity and judgment. Because of this I feel that a young adult’s judgment is not always the best and their decision processes may be impulsive, which is not a good mix with alcohol. According to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services alcohol and drugs are a factor to 41% of motor vehicles deaths for adolescents and young adults. . This is an example of the consequences of poor judgment. Not only is judgment and impulsivity in question also the fact that young adults are more susceptible to addiction. Essential the underage brain is more responsive to learning and addiction is a learned behavior.
I am not saying you turn twenty-one and magically you do not have poor judgment and impulsivity. In fact there is a chance your brain is still not fully developed at twenty-one, but with age you develop more insight which is connected with a fully functioning frontal lobe.