The huge question that people ask themselves that my previous posts have been leading up to is: Is the drinking age saving lives like it was meant to, or is it doing the opposite and destroying those lives?
As stated in my previous post, the main reason the government increased the drinking age was a goal of reducing highway fatalities. However minors and young people under 21 still engage in underage drinking all across the country. The "drinking age" has not hindered minors from consuming alcohol, it has only decreased the number of drunk driving accidents and fatalities.
Although the drinking age has helped save some lives, it is also helping to destroy other lives. The law is making teenagers drink excessively because they are prohibited and restricted. Experts say the law is leading to extreme drinking and binge drinking. John McCardell, president of Middlebury College in Vermont, started the college movement trying to lower the drinking age back to 18. McCardell believes the law has been a failure and puts kids at a higher risk for the dangers of drinking. He states that underage drinking has adapted to the law and become even more hidden and riskier because people are doing it more privately. The situations are worse than public disposure because, we cannot control or regulate what is happening in these settings.
Drinking games are just one of the unmanageable activities happening behind these closed unmanageable settings. These games are part of the underage drinking culture, where kids have to prove themselves by demonstrating reckless and destructive drinking behaviors. "Six and Ten" is a popular drinking game, the objective of the game; to drink six cups of beer in ten seconds. Kids are trying to become drunk quicker and prove who can drink the most.
One would think, the government would see how uneffective the law has been over the past 20-30 years. Matters have only become worse over time, kids are still drinking excessively, but they are being smart about when and where they are drinking. The government needs to do something about this because clearly the law is NOT WORKING! How much worse does it have to get before something must be done? What are your thoughts on the issue, do you think its saving lives or destroying lives?
The article I used is from CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/19/60minutes/main4813571.shtml
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html
ReplyDeleteThere are only 5 countries including the US with a drinking age of 21!!!!! Obviously, other countries don't have a problem with a lower drinking age, and the US shouldn't either! This topic is so frustrating to me because people are allowed (and sometimes expected) to go to war and risk their lives at 18 but can't have a drink!! Furthurmore, the law isn't preventing underage people from drinking, it is just making drinking more secretive like you said. With a lower drinking age, kids will be more responsible especially in college because they will be more accustomed to drinking. By increasing the drinking age to lower drunk driving accidents, the US is accomplishing nothing. Why not keep the 18 year old drinking age and actually educate kids on drunk driving to help prevent it? By increasing the drinking age, all we are doing is delaying some drunk driving accidents until people are 21.