Free Custom «Factors for and against Lowering the Drinking Age in America» Essay Paper

It is true to say that, citizens are legally adults when they are over the age of 18 years. At this age, they can marry, operate businesses, adopt children, vote, own and drive automobiles, have abortions and enter into legally binding contracts. This argument claims that if they can handle all that, then they can also handle drinking (Hanson, 2011). Reilly (2002) adds that changing the drinking age to be 18 would not only place it in line with the allocation of other rights and commitments, it would also make life to be more logical. At the age of 18, most youths in the America leave their homes to join either the labor force or colleges. This is a strong argument because it is a fact that at the age of 18, a person becomes mature.

Fuller (2011) argues that if the drinking age reduces to be 18, then most driving teenagers will turn to alcohol, and thus the number of accidents will go higher. Even if few underage teenagers get access to alcohol and consume it, it appears that they consume more and they experience or go through more alcoholic associated injuries rather than when the drinking age is 21 (Pearce, 2011).

 

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In the modern society, most teenagers turn 21 while still in colleges or universities. This can cause a lot of trouble since most teenagers will be away from their parents. They will learn more about alcohol consumption from their peers. Consequently, by lowering the age of drinking to 18, most parents will have to spend most of their times educating their young ones about consumption of alcohol and how one should be a responsible drinker (Racialjustice.org, 2011). On the other hand, Fuller (2011) counters this by stating that if drinking age reduces, most teenagers will be at freedom to order for alcohol from stores and bars and they will have little time to discuss with their parents about alcohol.

It is true that an 18 year old has less broadmindedness as compared to a teenager aged 21. In most cases one doesn’t really know how much he/she can handle or manage until he or she tries it out. This means that reducing the age of drinking makes a person have experience in controlling his or her drinking (Cognac.com, 2009). To oppose this argument, Pearce (2011) argues that fixing the drinking age until later in life decreases the chance that an individual will become alcohol-dependent.

There is always underage drinking in every college campus in the United States, which is in high amounts and on a daily basis. The fact that only few teenagers gets arrested, prosecuted or even chastised for drinking supports their decision. Everyone, from students to college administrators and even the parents and law enforcement officials, seems to have tacitly acknowledged that the current drinking age is not worth enforcing (Reilly, 2002).

The earlier a person begins to drink alcohol on daily basis, then the higher probability one has of becoming more dependent on drinking. According to the Los Angeles Times, experts have suggested that the young brain is vulnerable to developing a need for alcohol, which becomes hard to get rid of later in life (Fuller, 2011). On the other hand, there is an economic benefit that could accrue if drinking age reduces to 18. Lowering the drinking age will be a perfect way to boost the economy since persons between ages 18 and 20 have a lot of money to spend (Racialjustice.org, 2011).

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Lowering the drinking age will cause a lot of negative health effects to teenagers. This is because, their brains is not fully developed hence alcohol can affect their reasoning capacity, coordination as well as psychological ability. Consequently, this can cause many young people to engage in risky behaviors such as unprotected sex (Pearce, 2011). On the other hand, maintaining drinking age at 21 causes much alcohol related deaths among teenagers. They drink too much alcohol because they know that they will only have access to it at age 21. They therefore take as much as they can whenever they have the opportunity (Cognac.com, 2009).

Fuller (2011) indicates that the drinking age to 18 years could cause much problems related to binge drinking among teenagers in the United States. When such teenagers engage in binge drinking, it is possible that they will indulge in various anti-social behaviors for instance crime and rape. This factor is not very strong because not all teenagers will be involved in binge drinking since they have other responsibilities to attend to for instance education and are answerable to their parents.