Essay On Current Drinking Age

Reasons for Maintaining Current Drinking Age Recently, the current drinking age has become a major topic of discussion amongst Americans with whether it is too old or just right. Recent studies have shown that underage drinking has become a major problem in the United States, not only because it is illegal for them, but because people underage have shown they do not know how to drink in moderation and responsibly. Another reason the current drinking age should be maintained is because drinking has caused many problems on college campuses with the behavior of the students who drink on or near campus. Excessive drinking has caused many students consequences that they would not have had to deal with if they were not under the influence of alcohol is another reason to maintain the current drinking age. Lastly, underage drinkers do not realize the seriousness of drunken driving and seem to be a lot more liberal with driving after
drinking than people that are of age. The current drinking age is perfect for our current society because it allows time for maturity before legally being able to drink, and lowering it would only increase problems with people who drink between the ages of 17-20. The first reason that the legal drinking age must be maintained is because most underage drinkers do not know how to drink in moderation and be responsible.
As stated in Underage Drinking by Charles S. Clark “’What seems different today,’ says OSAP spokesman Lewis D. Eigen, ‘is that we're getting reports from all over that kids are getting drunk not just inadvertently at a party, but as a result of intentionally downing the greater and greater amounts of alcohol that are needed to get that effect’” (Clark 2). It is also shown in the same article that 30% of high school students and 43% of college students have drunk to excess (binge drinking). These statistics are startling because it shows that underage people are not mature enough to be given the freedom to drink. The point of raising the age to what it currently is was to make our society a better and safer place, and if it was lowered down again it would just give an opportunity to the immature to drink freely and overall endangering society with their inabilities to drink
responsibly. Behavior of drunken college students on campuses have become a major problem, which is another reason to keep the current drinking age to keep these problems to a minimum. Since many of the students, that are underage, can not drink in moderation there have been many problems occurring on college campuses while these students are intoxicated. “Binge drinkers also cause problems for other students, Wechsler says, ranging from ‘date rape,’ assaults and unwanted sexual advances to vandalism, having their sleep interrupted or having to baby-sit a drunken friend” (Scrivo 4). All lowering the age would do is increase these problems since we know, from the earlier research, that binge drinking is a major problem among underage students. From a study done at George Mason University and West Chester University nearly two-thirds of Residence Hall problems and violent behaviors were related with alcohol, which shows that this society is not ready to be able to drink freely until they can mature as a whole. These studies show that the age group of 18-20 has a lot of maturing to do before given the ability to drink freely with the adult population of the United States. Another reason to maintain the current drinking age is the excessiveness of drinking causes many problems a student would not have to deal with normally. “Excessive drinking causes a variety of negative consequences, including blackouts, injury, unintended and unprotected sex, impaired driving, poor grades, property damage, fights, arrests and sexual violence” (Drinking on Campus, Mantel). This article also goes on to tell about a seventeen year-old girl who went to visit California State University, and while there had to get treated for alcohol poisoning after being non-responsive to the people she was with. It shows that the underage population is unaware to everything that can occur from excessive drinking and also unprepared for it. It is sad to see these problems occurring now, but decreasing the current legal drinking age would only enhance the chances and probability of all of these consequences occurring to the younger population. Lastly, drinking and driving is a major issue for keeping the current drinking age what it is. As stated in Drunken Driving by Kathy Koch, “Young people are involved in more fatal crashes involving alcohol than any other segment of the population, and as the youthful population continues to grow, so does alcohol usage among teenagers. Binge drinking is becoming increasingly popular among high schoolers, MADD says,” this shows how irresponsible the underage population is with their own lives and the lives of others (Koch . The underage population is often unaware of how dangerous drinking and driving is to the society because many of them still believe nothing bad can ever happen to them. Knowing that underage people have this problem with drinking and driving, it would be just ignorant to lower the legal drinking age to enable them the opportunity to drink and get behind the wheel more often than they already are. Maintaining the current drinking age is very important to keeping our society and the young people safe. Underage drinkers have shown for decades that they are to immature to legally consume alcohol with the inability to use moderation and responsibility, which a reason why the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 in the first place. Also, colleges have enough problems with alcohol as is and with the age lowered it would greatly worsen there problems since everyone, just about, would be of age to consume. Lastly, drunken driving has been a major issue amongst underage people and why give them more opportunities to get on the public roads after a few drinks? Maintaining this current law is essential to controlling and lessening problems that occur from drinking, especially minors.