Preview

drinking at 18

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
762 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
drinking at 18
the Drinking Age

In other countries around the world if you are under the age of 21 you can drink alcohol some countries don 't even have an age limit, but in America you have to be 21 to buy alcohol. You can go to war and die for your country when you are 18, you can also vote, buy cigarettes, but you can 't buy alcohol. One of the main causes of the drinking age being set to 21 was teenagers were getting into car accidents after getting drunk. I am not saying driving under the influence should be legal. What I am saying is there should be more government programs to educate and prevent people from driving intoxicated.

More and more people under the age of 21 are experiencing alcohol. "A survey released by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) found that by the time Texas teenagers are seniors in high school, more than 80% of the teens admit to having some experience with alcohol. The same study found that secondary students say it 's easy to get beer, wine or liquor." (qtd. in Westbrook) Texas is a zero tolerance state for underage drinking it has some of the strictest penalties for underage drinking, and if 80% of the teenagers in Texas have had experiences with alcohol that tells me that the campaigns against underage drinking, and zero tolerance programs are not working. Teens are going to drink alcohol at one point of their lives. So instead of spending all this money to prevent teens from drinking maybe it should go toward programs, or educating these teens about alcohol so they can make a informed decision about drinking.

There are programs now that educate people under the age of 21 about alcohol. These programs are being implemented in colleges around the country, and are about the choices of using alcohol. "At the University of Virginia they are taking a more of an old-fashioned approach to educating college students about alcohol use. They are using two, two-and-a-half hour courses in class rooms called "Choices". They are



Cited: Altamirano, Natasha "U. Virginia Alcohol Education Course Deemed a Success." Cavalier Daily 16 September 2003: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Database October 26 2003: online http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/databases/qf.htm Westbrook, Steve "Alcohol, Kid can be Shattering Mix." Corpus Christi Caller-times 6 June: online http://www.caller.com/ccct/contributors/article/0,1641,CCCT_879_2016472,00.html

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The drinking age in the United States is 21. How ridiculous is that? You are able to do so many things at the age of 18. When a person reaches the age of 18, he or she can leave their homes or be kicked out, and become their own legal guardian. They no longer are required to have their parents sign their name to any documents pertaining to them, and are now considered an adult except when it comes to alcohol. When a person 18 or older commits a crime, they will be tried as an adult. Now the 18 year old no longer goes to Juvenile Hall when convicted of a crime, but instead they go to jail, state prison, federal prison, or even death row. At 18,…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people believe that eighteen year olds are not responsible enough to make correct decisions involving alcohol.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Since July 17, 1984, when the United States Congress enacted the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, people only above the age of 21 could have the opportunity to legally purchase and publically possess an alcoholic beverage. The Congress’s purpose for establishing the law was primarily to combat motorist under the influence of alcohol, as the death rate of traffic accidents were significantly high before 1984 in the US where the typical minimum age to drink was 18. Which is the average age for a first year student in college, and apparently the age where minors become involved around alcohol. Meanwhile, it has been nearly unavoidable to prevent underage students in college the consumption of alcohol. As according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about four out five college students drink…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dry Campus Research Paper

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    (Hingson et al., 2009) Furthermore, 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had unprotected sex, and more than 100,000 students report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex. These shocking statistics lead campuses to ban the use of alcohol on their campuses. Except, eliminating drinking on college campuses is unrealistic because college students, like high school students, are subjected to strong social pressures to drink. Moderation is a more realistic goal for college students to avoid the problems of alcohol abuse (Krohn, 2000). America tried, during its history, to ban alcohol. This brilliant idea was known as prohibition. Prohibition did not prevent drinking, and dry campuses won’t prevent drinking. Therefore, drinking is a reality for college student, and it’s going to happen. Teaching students to make better choices about alcohol can prevent excessive drinking and the social problems that come along with it, such as academic problems, sexual assault, suicide attempts and alcohol abuse. The whole point of graduating college is to earn an education, not develop an alcohol addiction. Colleges can’t ignore or avoid the problems of drinking by having a dry campus policy. Drinking happens, and kids need to be educated on how to be able to deal with…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article talks about the current drinking laws and why they aren’t working effectively, based on statistics. The drinking age has effectively banished alcohol from public places, but it has done little to reduce drinking among teens. A majority of young people start drinking way before the…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If age 18 is legally considered an adult, why can't they drink alcohol? In 1984 the drinking law was changed from 18 to 21(Procon.org), since then there has been a 13% rise in car accidents due to under age drinking , 300 deaths and 2,100 homicides per year due to under age drinking. Therefore I believe the age to consume alcohol should be lowered to a younger age. At age 18 you are legally considered an adult, you are able to join the military, get married and even start taking classes to run for president of the United States, but you can't have a drink at the end of the day, is that fair for the 18 to 20 year old age group to wait that long?…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seth Hurtwitz is a guy who has traveled the world and when he was in countries that had no drinking age he noticed that some of the kids that weren’t drinking weren’t drinking because of the drinking age but because they didn’t want to. “kids are going to drink if they want to drink” (Hurtwitz). That is a big heresy that most United States citizens have. If the United States changes the drinking age to 18 doesn’t mean that every 18 year old is going to start drinking and get drunk all of the time. There is going to be some of the docile 18 year olds that just won’t drink because they don’t want to, drinking isn’t insipid but the difference is that they get a choice on what they want to do and how they want to live…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While it may seem to some, drinking at age eighteen is frowned upon. It is actually true that many people between the ages of 18 and 20 drink alcohol illegally without any sense of guilt. On July 17, 1984, a law was established in the United States that impacted a large number of America’s youth. The indicated law was the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Legal drinking ages were originally determined by each state. Many states kept the age at twenty one, but several lowered the age to eighteen. The bill was created and required, “all states to raise their minimum drinking age to twenty one within two years or lose a portion of their Federal-aid highway funds; and encourage States, through incentive grants programs, to pass mandatory sentencing laws to combat drunk driving” (Koroknay-Palicz 1)…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lowering Drinking Age

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "A comparison of college students attending schools in states that had maintained, for a period of at least ten years, a minimum drinking age of 21 with those in states that had similarly maintained minimum drinking ages below 21 revealed few differences in drinking problems" (Hanson, "The Legal Drinking Age: Science vs. Ideology"). For example, a large study of young people between ages of 16 and 19 in Massachusetts and New York after Massachusetts raised its drinking age revealed that "the average, self-reported daily alcohol consumption in Massachusetts did not decline in comparison with New York" (Hanson, "The Legal Drinking Age: Science vs. Ideology"). College students, young teens and drinking will always be inevitably associated with each other regardless of the circumstances or rules. So what is the point of conceiving and enforcing a policy that is already failed and is doomed to fail? Cocco 3 Administrations cannot stop alcohol abuse, but they cannot ignore it either. With the college administrations ignoring it with the hopes that it will go away is simply unaccepted and should not even be an…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    needs to stick up for underage kids to save lives. Also, by lowering the drinking age more teens could have access to alcohol which could increase deaths each year due to driving under the influence. Sexual assaults, violence, and injuries also indicate dangerous actions that could take place (Moyse). A survey showed that 78 percent of adults support 21 as the drinking age and 72 percent believe lowering the drinking age would cause adolescents younger and younger to want to drink (Moyse). The old saying, that many underage drinkers use, is “let’s make up for lost time” which makes them inexperienced once they start. Adults can problem solve, behave better and make logical decisions, whereas adolescents do not. Teens are known for acting on impulse, getting into all kinds of accidents, fights, taking part in risky behaviors, and not thinking before they act…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This law has pushed underage drinking behind closed doors and in unsupervised places that are unsafe for inexperienced drinkers. Statistics show that most who consume under age are indeed binge drinking. Binge drinking is considered having 5 or more alcoholic beverages within a 2 hour time frame. It has been known that there are 100,000 deaths annualy related to binge drinking and alcohol abuse. In July of 2008 John McCardell, a college president, initiated The Amethyst Initiative which supports lowering the national drinking age due to the harmful consequences of binge drinking. McCardell’s goal, along with the other 135 other college presidents who support the initiative, is to encourage new ideas on ways to teach young adults how to make responsible decisions regarding alcohol. It would be much more effective to teach today’s youth the risks and responsibilities involved with alcohol rather than punish them for something nearly all of today’s society is engaging in. Not only would it save our country money to educate, but it would possibly save lives as well. People say that the earlier a person consumes alcohol the more likely they are to have alcohol problems later in life, so educating them and teaching them safe drinking habits will highly reduce these risks. It is much more logical to have people learning to drink in the safety of their own home with parents than in a fraternity…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages

    People have proposed that a 40 hour educational course should entitle people under 21 to drink. Research shows that educating youth drivers does not prevent youth crashes, however restrictions such as a limitation on the amount of passengers a youth driver can have, and curfews do help restrict the amount of youth crashes. The same philosophy applies to drinking. Educating young people…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age Essay

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Drinking and driving is not as big of a problem in other countries as it is here in the United States. Simply because it is not seen as a taboo among young people in 157 countries that have the age requirement set to eighteen - zero. If we normalized the act of socially drinking it wouldn't be such a big deal and more teenagers wouldn't be inadvertently disobeying the law. “According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, underage drinking accounts for $22.5 billion of consumer spending for alcohol in the United States. In 2006, 72.2% of twelfth graders reported drinking alcohol at some point in their…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol in the hands of an irresponsible under aged person, can be deadly. Furthermore, for anyone to consider lowering the legal drinking age from 21, to 18, in my opinion is simply ludicrous. John Bowersox reports, “Since Colonial times, drinking alcohol has been part of American culture and its use by young people has been accepted by many as part of growing up. In fact, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, many States lowered the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Following this change, the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities among young people increased. In response to these acute consequences, beginning in the early 1980s individual States increased the drinking age to 21. In 1984, Congress passed legislation that would…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The term “alcoholism” describes a drinker who is mentally and physically dependent on alcohol, and who would most likely have withdrawal symptoms upon trying to quit. This dependence prevents most alcoholics from being able to control when they drink and how much they drink. For that reason, alcoholics usually drink to excess despite the consequences. Alcoholism, like any addiction, is a chronic disorder which involves continued use despite negative consequences and requires ongoing treatment and management. This research paper will cover many aspects of alcoholism including the causes and effects of drinking and different treatment approaches.…

    • 2743 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays