Phillip Martin Issue Summary - Final Rebecca Miner English 1010

Should The United States Set the Alcohol Consumption Age to 18?

Many countries around the world have differing alcohol laws than the United States. One that is most contested in the states is the minimum drinking age, which is currently 21. Performing a quick Google search and utilizing Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age), just to receive a list of the legal age of other countries, a quick scroll down shows many if not most of the countries using 18 as a minimum age, just for an easy comparison. There appears to be many pro and con arguments about lowering the age to 18. The negative arguments appear to mostly use logical reasoning to keep the current set age in order to protect younger people from alcohol related accidents, traffic or otherwise, and to deter from alcoholism and dependency later in life. The positive arguments attempt to tell the want to be consumers pathological point of view on allowing younger purchase and consumption ages. A third point of view is more to create new laws that would help ensure both the safety of underage, mainly looking at freshman-junior aged college students, by allowing drinking alcohol but only in certain circumstances, such as under supervision and only allowing a certain amount of alcohol. Most research websites, journals, and blogs provided a myriad of negative consequences linked to underage drinking, to an extent that when researching the subject it was the most likely response to be supplied. Most of these sources, rather than trying to argue whether or not we should allow underage drinking, were only focused upon finding new laws or other ways to help deter youth from

alcohol consumption. Alcohol reduction strategies, such as school education programs, social norms campaigns, alcohol counter-marketing, and alcohol control policies have all been listed as major alcohol reduction strategies for college campuses in order to help quell alcohol intake of underage students (Hove, and Paek 659-676). Most of the other negative media and research papers or journals were focused on the strict consequences of intake and negative effects while the underage subject is inebriated and further damage and dependency while in adulthood due to drinking during late teen years. An example of the consequences is a research paper submitted in 2010 that was created to show that percentile increase of adult alcohol dependency increases fourfold due to drinking during teens pre adult developmental period (Windle, and Zucker 29-44). This paper also shows a direct link to the prevalence of alcohol dependency declining sharply if drinking alcohol starts after the ages of 21-24. A similar posting goes into the experiences of a past alcoholic who drank in his college years. This posting by (Buddy) was a new and reminiscent look at college drinking by a former dependent alcoholic who used his own experience to help show the ease of obtaining alcohol and the pull or peer pressure that leads new freshmen, who are usually away from home usually for the first time, to give in and binge on alcohol, reportedly leading to deadly accidents, unplanned sex, damaging of property or themselves, overdose, trouble with the law, and other obvious consequences. Most research into negative arguments for younger drinking seems to be similar to these points. The overall message is that people under 21 are likely to develop problems due to drinking, whether if it is that night, or causing developmental problems that cause a lasting effect on their adult life due to dependency or harm to their own bodys organs. There was a large amount of difficulty in finding real arguments from professionals to put underage drinking in a positive light, as many searches into the subject gave only the negatives on the subject. However, using different methods of searching, there were a few sites that were showing a broader look at the subject. These articles were usually found on news websites that tried to give the

point of view of college students who illegally but admittedly partake of alcohol and their reasons for doing so. Most of these articles and blogs seemed to attempt to relate happiness to alcohol intake during college. A web entry viewed on the ABC news reported by (Chao) was able to shed some light on this view. According to the report, a questionnaire was given to students at a particular college to undergrad college students who joined into underage drinking. The questionnaire overall seemed to indicate that students who joined into drinking alcohol (usually in binge drinking) proved to be happier than their non-binge drinking peers of the same social status. The report revealed that relating to status, those students of a lower status, mainly meaning those who are not wealthy heterosexual or Greekaffiliated students had the highest reports of drinking assisting in their moods, the largest argument as to why happiness is increased was that drinking increased their social satisfaction. There were also links discussed that those of higher status felt similar peer pressure for drinking, as it is a prerequisite for receiving the full benefits of high status group membership and of the Greek system. These were some of the biggest arguments for a decreased minimum of drinking age, mainly pointing out that alcohol is being used by college students as a sort of social lubricant to make them feel more in step with their peers, namely those of higher status. This argument seems to be very two sided, for or against. There was a discernible middle ground in the topic, instead of to allow it or not to allow it to instead create a new argument in which new laws and or more safety nets can be created to allow underage drinking, in a manner that is more easily governed by adults to help protect students from over drinking. An article from (Nauert) gives both the pros and cons of drinking from the view of students and their management. According to the article heavy drinking increases courage, eases communication, and has other social benefits that according to students seems to overshadow negative effects of hangovers, fights and regrettable sexual situations. Due to cognitive-dissonance reasoning mild to moderate negative effects caused by drinking do not appear to be enough to deter later consumption to gain the benefits. To create true dissatisfaction to

the idea of drinking again high levels of negative consequences need to be experienced by the user, to the point that the benefits no longer seem to overshadow the consequences. This article later goes on to report a suggestion of creating risk reduction approaches to help reduce drinking to still enable some of the positive effects of alcohol consumption. Allowing less but still a moderately low amount of drinking can then help to avoid negative consequences due to over consumption, which is what is usually the creator of the familiar phrase Ill never drink that much again. Instilling a legal form of drinking may also help remove secretive drinking. By allowing a degree of drinking, there may be less of a drive to do it alone or unsupervised. There have been very strong views and arguments on this topic. The two sides appear to mainly be underage college students who are not willing to wait for their 21st birthday in order to drink to either see what its like for the first time or to experience the previously mentioned benefits, and the other side appears mainly research showing the negative consequences of drinking and indicates methods to help stop the problem. The middle ground mentioned would be a definite side approach to the topic that seems to be mainly two sided, again for or against, but as far as I have found has not had a lot of attention. The main consequences of all of these decisions that have been discussed are if our current age limit for underage drinking continues to be outlawed, it is sure to be ignored as it currently has been, which has may continue to create rebellious and secretive over drinking. Allowing it also could create issues, but it may be less likely to be abused, but that cannot be proven until more testing has been done. This is a heated topic for those that are currently dealing with it, as parents and faculty want the law to continue as is to assist in the safety of young students, and all the research that is being made should help to alert people of the possible implications of any of these decisions.

Work Cited Buddy, T. Back to School and Drunk Again. 07 August 2006. Web. 17 April 2013. <http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/college/a/aa000722a.htm>. Chao, Tiffany. www.abcnews.com. 13 April 2013. Web. 17 April 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/08/20/binge-drinking-college-students-reportbeing-happier/>. Hove, Thomas and Hye-Jin Paek. "Determinants of Underage College Student Drinking: Implications for Four Major Alcohol Reduction Strategies." Journal of Health Communication 17.6 (2012): 659676. Print. Nauert, Rick. www.psychcentral.com. 06 July 2011. Web. 17 April 2013. <http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/07/06/many-college-students-see-heavy-drinkingthrough-rose-colored-beer-goggles/27495.html>. Windle, Michael and Robert A Zucker. "Reducing Underage and Young Adult Drinking: How to Address Critical Drinking Problems During This Developmental Period." Alcohol Research & Health 33.1/2 (n.d.): 29-44. Print.