Essay For English 14 September 2014

Briana Przybyl-Gallagher
Ms. Bierman
ENG 111
17 Sept 2014 National Drinking Age should be Lowered to 18 “We drank when we were young and we grew out of it. It’s just a phase that all students go through.” I can agree to an extent but doing so can also get the person or another innocent person killed. In the 2013 article University Star, author Alexis Acguirre wrote the article “National Drinking Age should be lowered to 18”. The title itself sounds terrifying and unfavorable. I feel as if the author has a careless attitude about this topic and a little selfish due to his comments. Aguirre stresses and keeps restating the fact that people 18 years and older are considered adults and should be treated as such by being allowed to legally purchase and consume alcohol. Aguirre must feel as if there’s not enough dreadful things that underage kids do in this world and feels that his way of handling this situation would be to lower the drinking age. Aguirre states that as soon as a person turns 18 they are considered an adult legally so therefore they should be treated as an adult and should be allowed to consume alcohol. Aguirre also states that an 18 year old legal U.S. citizen can do such things as ink up their body, join the military, vote, and fill their lungs up with smoke and a few other things an 18 legal adult can take action in. She believes that as young adults they can partake in making their own decisions about alcohol. She argues that lowering the drinking age could make it easier to regulate consumption among younger adults as well as encourage healthy drinking habits. If the legal drinking age is lowered, people between the ages of 18 and 20 would be able to drink in safer, more controlled environments. Aquirre is influenced in such a way that lowering the drinking age is the right thing to do because she is convinced that young kids drink anyways so let’s give in to them anyways and make things worse. I perhaps feel totally against it all. First of all, as we all know drinking can lead to risky behaviors, unexpected pregnancies, sudden deaths, and alcoholic problems. Indeed, that can happen to anyone in any age but the age 18 doesn’t mean your mind is thinking like an adult. I disagree with what acguirre said. If anything it should be raised to a higher age. For someone fresh out of high school to go on and make their own decisions in life, or to make a decision about how much alcohol to consume and what alcohol is absurd. Letting an 18 year old purchase it is opening the doors to drink and drive and to do crazy things out there. You’re setting them up for failure and opening the early door to being an alcoholic by starting very young. What’s weird about it all and something I never understood is why 18 is even considered an adult if it still says the word “teen” in it. My second reason would be because of drunk driving. Considering 18 is when most teenagers get their license and they are barely starting to get the concept of driving. And for an 18 year old to drink and drive is very dangerous. Yet for anyone it’s a dangerous thing to engage in. Not just for them but for another innocent person out on the road. Drinking alcohol leads to a loss of coordination, poor judgment, slowed reflexes, distorted vision, memory lapses, and even blackouts. If it can happen to a 30 year old drunk person there’s defiantly more chances with an 18 year old drunk teenager. Then I strongly encourage when a teenager gets someone killed or hurt someone in some way somehow pertaining to alcohol and they get in trouble by law for it they should be punished in an “adult way”. Seeing that Acguirre states they should be treated like an adult, well they should be punished for their mistakes as well as rewarded. However I do understand teenagers want to try things and are curious and it’s a trend they want to get into because they are who they surround themselves with and want to try binge drinking. A sip with a parent around won’t necessarily kill them but for someone like acguirre that wishes just for binge drinking for the whole nation to have a lower drinking age is over the top. Thirdly, drinking can lead to death as I have stated .If the nation accepted Acguirres opinions then there would be even more trouble containing overdosing. An 18 year old isn’t educated on alcohol and how much their bodies can have of it. There’s not many stories stating “A 18 year old died due to alcohol poisoning” because the age limit is 21. But if the legal age of 18 was the case kids would be taking advantage of it and more lives will be lost. I would highly recommend schools to educate kids to not drink and why they shouldn’t. It would help some. Alcohol affects your brain, your body and your self-control. And for an 18 year old, those are people that are just trying to find themselves and who they are as a person. When they are drinking they don’t think of how much they just consumed, what can kill them, so that’s when it leads to overdosing. As we all know majority of the teenagers these days don’t wait to consume their first alcoholic beverage at 21. They should because it’s something to look forward to, and hopefully by that age you know right from wrong. The author of this article obviously has a different mentality and had some valid points such as “why is everything legal age 18 besides alcohol”. But to me it is the right thing for the alcohol point of views. I personally feel acguirre didn’t make valid points and not many parents would agree with her. Realistically I’m speaking the truth. One drink can make you fail a breath test. In some States, people under age 21 can lose their driver's license, be subject to a heavy fine, or have their car permanently taken away. The reasons I stated is why I think the national drinking age should either stay at 21 or go higher just for the lack of knowledge of these teenagers on alcohol consumption and the safety for our children.