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Hopchak

Abigail Hopchak

English 112

Ms. Lisa Grundy

20 March 2019

The Legal Drinking Age Controversy

There are many challenges that young adults face. Teenagers experience the pressure to

make decisions regarding the future, are expected to maintain good grades, and perform

extracurricular activities. With these expectations, teenagers are under much pressure and often

seek ways to relax and forget about their problems. Alcohol is easily accessible for high school

and college students, and social expectations encourage excessive underage drinking. Lowering

the legal drinking age to legalize this trend is not the solution and will not make it safe for

teenagers to consume alcohol.

Alcohol related accidents is the leading cause of death for people between 18-20 years of

age (“NIH Fact Sheets- Underage Drinking”). According to the US Department of Health and

Human Services, there are 10.1 million underage drinkers in the United States annually. 5,000

people under 21 years of age die per year due to alcohol related causes; suicide and homicide

account for approximately 1,900 deaths. 39% of eighth graders and 72% of high school seniors

have tried alcohol. While alcohol is common in high school, 85% of college students have had

alcohol, often in the form of binge drinking (“NIH Fact Sheets-Underage Drinking”).

Because many college students are not able to legally drink, they get access to alcohol at

parties or as acts of initiations. This can lead to alcohol poisoning, which if left untreated, leads

to death (“Facts about Alcohol Overdose (or Alcohol Poisoning)”). When in this situation, young

people are faced with a choice: seek medical help and risk legal repercussions, or leave the
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situation alone in the hopes that the poison works its way out of the system. Unfortunately,

because alcohol poisoning requires medical intervention, many college students die prematurely.

Because drinking is a major part of the college scene, it is highly improbable that law

enforcement will be able to shut down every party involving alcohol. There are those within law

enforcement support lowering the legal drinking age to eighteen in order to save police

departments money and free up their time to pursue more serious crimes that pose greater threats

to the public (News, CSN). By making it legal for college students to drink, they would no

longer fear seeking medical help if alcohol poisoning occurs. Families who have lost loved ones

due to alcohol poisoning support this stance on the issue; claiming that their lost one would still

be alive had they been free to seek help without the fear of law intervention (News, CSN).

While taking away the possible legal consequences would lead to more hospital visits, the

initial problem of alcohol poisoning will not be solved. Someone who has suffered alcohol

poisoning is at risk of irreversible brain damage and/or increased anxiety (“Facts about Alcohol

Overdose (Alcohol Poisoning)”). This will follow a person for the rest of their life if they survive

the initial poisoning. Medical bills and further medical appointments will be necessary even if

the patient has legally consumed alcohol.

Traffic accidents are the second reason for alcohol related death and injury. According to

the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five teenagers involved in car accidents

had higher than the legal blood-alcohol levels. One in ten high schoolers will drink and drive,

increasing the likelihood of a car crash by seventeen times (“Teen Drinking and Driving

|VitalSigns| CDC”).

When the legal drinking age was lowered to eighteen in the 1970s, there was an increase

in traffic accidents which, when the age was again raised to age twenty-one proved to be safer. It
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is estimated that 17,000 lives have been saved from traffic accident preventions (Daniloff, Caleb,

and Robin Berghaus). There is no supporting evidence that lowering the legal drinking age to

eighteen would have a different outcome in 2019 than it did across multiple states across several

years in the 70s. Because of the current data showing the lives saved, keeping the age raised in

the safest option.

The immediate effects of alcohol are enough to warrant concern, but the deeper damage

caused by consuming excessive quantities of alcohol are unseen. The human brain is not fully

developed until age twenty-four. When excessive alcohol is consumed, parts of the brain’s

development are inhibited and/or damaged. A person may struggle with memory later in life and

their problem-solving skills may be inhibited (Silveri, Marissa M). Aside from the complications

presented to the development, youths with alcohol disorders and/or heavy episodic history

experience altered cognitive performance. Silveri reports on a study showing significant

decreases in verbal learning and visual reproduction after young people between the ages

eighteen and twenty and experienced three weeks sober. Given the data demonstrating impaired

neurological function due to premature alcohol consumption, the legal drinking age of twenty-

one is safer than eighteen years of age.

During the 1960s and 70s many states lowered the legal drinking age to eighteen in an

attempt to solve the issues presented by underage drinking. An interesting discovery was made:

in states with a lower drinking age, women had a 12% higher risk of suicide and a 15% of

homicide even into adulthood (Melnick, Meredith). This affected women, not men. While

researchers are unsure as to why women were at a higher risk for being the victims of homicides

and suicides, it became fact that states with a higher legal drinking age are significantly safer for
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women. It is estimated that the legal drinking age prevents 600 homicides and 600 suicides

annually.

Research also shows that during the years of a lower drinking age, homicides, suicides,

drunk driving accidents, and drug problems increased. These increased risks were only prevalent

in states with lower legal drinking ages and the states who kept the legal age of twenty-one did

not experience this trend (Melnick, Meredith). When the legal drinking age returned to age

twenty-one, these risks decreased once more. This demonstrates the direct correlation between a

lower drinking age and increased risks of threats to public safety.

The current research shows that teenagers in high school have fairly easy access to

alcohol at parties. Legalizing alcohol to eighteen year olds would mean that seniors in high

school will be able to legally drink, and thus younger age groups will have more direct

accessibility to alcohol. Underage drinking is associated with poorer performance in school.

Class attendance suffers and academic wellness decreases.

Alcohol is seen by young adults as ‘a forbidden fruit’. It is presented in the media as

something fun and is a crucial part of adolescence. Supporters argue that by lowering the legal

drinking age to 18, the forbidden fruit aspect will be taken away and alcohol will no longer have

the same fascination (Engs, Ruth C). They hope that by making it something that is more

accessible, the desire to binge drink prematurely will dissipate and disappear.

While making alcohol illegal for teenagers does leave them with the desire to take part in

something they cannot have, lowering the age will still leave middle schoolers and high

schoolers under age eighteen with that same forbidden fruit mentality. In movies, alcohol is a

key element to any house party. Making it legal for eighteen year olds will only make it legal for
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them to purchase mass amounts to take to parties and to groups of friends, many of which could

be potential underage drinkers.

University president John McCardell Jr. has seen first-hand the effect alcohol has on

students. He firmly believes that lowering the age is not the solution, but rather having students

go through an application process to gain a liquor license (Griggs, Brandon). By having them go

through a similar process as gaining a driver’s license, he believes fewer alcohol related issues

will arise. In this process, young adults would be taught about the dangers of binge drinking,

drunk driving, and the unsafe conditions alcohol presents. If they complete the program assigned

and pass the final exam, they may gain a license with which they may purchase alcohol.

While states currently have a zero-tolerance law with underage alcohol consumption,

Toomy and Rosenfield claim that law enforcement should focus on punishing more severely

those who sell alcohol to minors (Toomey, T. L., & Rosenfeld, C). By removing the source, it

will become far more difficult for those under twenty-one to get liquor. This will drastically

decrease the percentages of high schoolers binge drinking, thus creating a safer environment.

Alcohol can be enjoyable if consumed safely. Simply lowering the age to legalize large

demographics of alcohol consumers does not make this safe, it simply removes the legal issues.

While there is no simple solution, implementing no tolerance laws and stricter enforcement are

ways to help correct the issue.

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Works Cited

Daniloff, Caleb, and Robin Berghaus. “Drinking: 18 vs. 21 | BU Today | Boston University.” BU Today,

Boston University, www.bu.edu/today/2010/drinking-18-vs-21/.

Engs, Ruth C. “Forbidden Fruit.” (1999) Alumni Voice. Vermont Quarterly, Winter. pp. 25 & 47.

Retrieved from IUScholarWorks Repository

“Facts About Alcohol Overdose (or Alcohol Poisoning).” Facts About Alcohol Overdose for Students,

USA.gov ,

www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/parentsandstudents/students/factsheets/factsaboutalcoholpoi

soning.aspx.

Griggs, Brandon. “Should the U.S. Lower Its Drinking Age?” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Jan. 2015.

www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/us/legal-drinking-age/index.html.

News, CBS. “Drinking Age Debate.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Feb. 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA-91_LoKIw.

“NIH Fact Sheets - Underage Drinking.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21.

Melnick, Meredith. “Study: Another Reason to Keep the Drinking Age at 21.” Time, Time, 16 Nov.

2011, healthland.time.com/2011/11/16/study-another-reason-to-keep-the-drinking-age-at-21/.

Silveri, Marisa M. “Adolescent Brain Development and Underage Drinking in the United States:

Identifying Risks of Alcohol Use in College Populations.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry (Taylor

& Francis Ltd), vol. 20, no. 4, July 2012, pp. 189–200. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.3109/10673229.2012.714642.
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“Teen Drinking and Driving | VitalSigns | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 Oct. 2012,

www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/teendrinkinganddriving/index.html.

Toomey, T. L., & Rosenfeld, C. (1996). “The minimum legal drinking age.” Alcohol Health & Research

World, 20(4), 213.