Minimum Legal Drinking Age
Jerry Lopez
ENG 68
Mushik
2/27/13
The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Underage drinking has been become a large issue in the recent decades, becoming a rising issues mainly among young college students. This debate of either lowering the drinking age or keeping it as it is has caught great attention, especially with academic superiors. In 2008, 100 college presidents called for a debate about bringing down the drinking age. In Shari Roan’s essay, “Tempest in a Bottle,” agreed that “[their] experience as college and university presidents convinces us that twenty-one is not working. A culture of dangerous, clandestine ‘binge-drinking’--often conducted off-campus--has developed.” This occurrence of binge-drinking in clandestine settings is a result of college students not being able to legally purchase their own alcohol. These clandestine areas include places like fraternity, house parties or even out in street at night, all in which no adult supervision is involved. Young adults who are curious about drinking are shunned from places where safe and responsible drinking is promoted and so, instead, they decide to escape and drink in secret where they’ll have no “older adults who might model more appropriate behavior.” This will end up resulting in unsafe and irresponsible consumption of alcohol like binge-drinking. The aim is to eliminate irresponsible drinking, not promote it and it seems by having the drinking age so high is what is causing this unsafe drinking behavior among young adults. In Europe, where the drinking age is lower there than here in the states, the consumption of alcohol is higher there, but alcohol abuse rates are higher here. Actions could and should be taken to promote safe and responsible drinking behavior among young adults, regardless if the drinking age is lowered or not. Even though we don’t want them out and about drinking, we shouldn’t deny the fact that they do and so just like Elizabeth M. Whelan mentioned in her essay, “The Perils
ENG 68
Mushik
2/27/13
The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Underage drinking has been become a large issue in the recent decades, becoming a rising issues mainly among young college students. This debate of either lowering the drinking age or keeping it as it is has caught great attention, especially with academic superiors. In 2008, 100 college presidents called for a debate about bringing down the drinking age. In Shari Roan’s essay, “Tempest in a Bottle,” agreed that “[their] experience as college and university presidents convinces us that twenty-one is not working. A culture of dangerous, clandestine ‘binge-drinking’--often conducted off-campus--has developed.” This occurrence of binge-drinking in clandestine settings is a result of college students not being able to legally purchase their own alcohol. These clandestine areas include places like fraternity, house parties or even out in street at night, all in which no adult supervision is involved. Young adults who are curious about drinking are shunned from places where safe and responsible drinking is promoted and so, instead, they decide to escape and drink in secret where they’ll have no “older adults who might model more appropriate behavior.” This will end up resulting in unsafe and irresponsible consumption of alcohol like binge-drinking. The aim is to eliminate irresponsible drinking, not promote it and it seems by having the drinking age so high is what is causing this unsafe drinking behavior among young adults. In Europe, where the drinking age is lower there than here in the states, the consumption of alcohol is higher there, but alcohol abuse rates are higher here. Actions could and should be taken to promote safe and responsible drinking behavior among young adults, regardless if the drinking age is lowered or not. Even though we don’t want them out and about drinking, we shouldn’t deny the fact that they do and so just like Elizabeth M. Whelan mentioned in her essay, “The Perils