Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the US, once stated that "It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing. " (Alcohol Trivia). Another wise man said that what is good for one can be a poison for another.
Alcohol is exactly the thing that can be good for one but the poison for another, particularly, good for adult but bad for adolescent. The US government is very concerned about the future of American youth.Trying to save them from numerous problems, the government made an legislative attempt to protect young people from premature acquaintance with alcohol. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act, passed in 1984, stated the age of 21 years as a minimum age for purchasing or public possession of alcoholic beverages. “If a state can not enforce the minimum age it will be subjected to a ten percent decrease in its annual federal highway apportionment,” the lawmakers proclaimed (Wikipedia 2006).Thus they emphasized the country’s serious intention to protect its youth from the harm alcohol can cause.
The Act did not actually make underage drinking illegal; however seven American states after all banned the drinking for people under 21. These states are Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, West Virginia, Kansas, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Another 22 states constituted partial age prohibition, which means that a person can drink in special, religious or medical, occasions under the supervision of a parent, tutor or older spouse.The rest 21 states have no laws prohibiting people under 21 drinking alcohol; however, these states can charge persons who have possessed alcohol or committed other alcohol-related violations (Hanson 2005). The society apprehended the Act ambiguously. In one hand, many people and organizations, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving, supported the Act as the law which can protect youth mostly from irresponsible drunk driving.
However, their opponents, particularly the movement Legalize Alcohol for all Adults, debated the prohibition of underage drinking.Their main argument is that if a person at 18 is considered an adult and assumes adult privileges and penalties, it should have all the rights the adult has including the right to drink. In this way, the American society has been debating over the issue whether the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 years or kept at 21. The purpose of keeping the legal drinking age at 21 is to protect young people and those around them. Immature and inexperienced, they get intoxicated and involve themselves in a number of potentially dangerous activities.
There is a possibility that when a young person knows drinking is illegal she or he will think well about why it is illegal and about the consequences of her or his actions. In a 20-minute video Alcohol: True Stories the movie star Matt Damon says: When alcohol is abused... used as a crutch or an escape, it's dangerous.
And if you're under 21, it's not legal. Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself: Am I risking hurting somebody I love? Am I risking hurting myself? " (SADD). People at young age are not actually used to care for their lives and safety.Otherwise how one could explain the neglecting of simple precautionary measures in everyday life? Thus, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted in 2005, the majority (83%) of high school students rarely or never wore bicycle helmet, and about the third rarely or never wore motorcycle helmet (34%).
About ten percent of the students still drove when drunk and 23% had sexual intercourse after intoxication by drugs or alcohol. At the same time only about 60% used condom and only 10% percent tested for HIV.In this way, the high school students put their own lives at risk almost every day (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance 2005). That is way the society should help young people to take care of themselves, should limit the situations when young people can suffer from their own irresponsibility, alcohol abuse, harm other people and thus be possibly tried. Keeping age at 21 aims to protect youth from committing more actions against other people, against themselves and against the law in a state of intoxicationDespite the opponents’ critique and several inconsistencies in the prohibition laws, they really seem to work.
Thus during the next twelve years (1985-1997) after the year when The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was signed the percentage of drinking high school students has been dropped dramatically. According to federal government research, the number of current young alcohol consumers dropped almost 2. 5 times (The 1998 National Household Survey). For the years 1997-2005 this number dropped another 10%, according to Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Youth Online).At the same time heavy alcohol use among people in the US 17 years of age or younger actually dropped by an amazing two-thirds (65.
9 %) (The National Household Survey 2000). Other federally funded research also documents the continuing decline in both drinking and drinking abuse among young people (Facts and Fiction 2005). Not only the alcohol consumption level continues to drop but also the number of alcohol-related traffic injuries and fatalities. Deaths associated with young drinking drivers aged 16 to 24 decreased almost half (47%) in a recent 15-year period (Ibid. ).
Furthermore, according to the estimates of The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, raising the drink age to 21 has reduced traffic fatalities involving young drivers by 13% and has saved an estimated 19,121 lives since 1975. Twenty of twenty-nine studies conducted between 1981 and 1992 reported significant decreases in traffic crashes and crash fatalities following an increase in drinking age. (Buddy 2003) In this way one of the most important objectives of the prohibition law is being reached. There is thus a strong case for prohibition laws and for the necessity to keep the legal drinking age at 21.The only thing which is wrong about legislative underage alcohol prohibition is probably the improper implication of its principles in teenager’s life. The prohibition opponents fairly note several serious mistakes and the subsequent consequences.
Death and disability threaten to illegal alcohol drinkers who may consume the poor quality drinks or abuse alcohol when it can be obtained. Thus more than a quarter of high school students with only 4% difference in sex reported the episodic heavy drinking in the Survey 2005 (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance 2006, 62).Prohibition also leads to the growth of organized crime and serious loss of tax revenue. It teaches youth to disrespect for the law and provokes many other social illnesses (Facts and Fiction 2005). If young citizens start cheating on the country in the childhood they are likely to continue it in the future. All these facts, the opponents to keeping drinking age at 21 base their argumentation upon, are true, fair and correct.
However, there is one little meaningful mistake the opponents make. It is not the prohibition laws that cause these problems – it is the underage people’s attitude to these laws.Of cause, currently we have the situation when young people do not actually care about what is illegal. They disrespect the laws of prohibition and still consume and abuse alcohol.
However, that does not mean that the laws are incorrect. The only thing the adults need to make the prohibition laws working much more effectively is listening to the voice from the other side. This voice says that the most probable way young people recognize is the way of their own experience and deep inner conviction in what is right and what is wrong.One English 16-year-old woman could help lawmakers to understand the teenagers’ logic in answering the question ‘to drink or not to drink’.
When you are younger you say "God – you got drunk on only that? " But it depends on whether you have drunk before and sometimes you think, "I should be able to drink a lot more than that" or "I’ll drink the same as so-and-so" and so-and-so might be a lot older. If younger people go out with a lot older people in groups, then a younger person looks silly but they are only trying things out.With time you have experiences and you become more responsible. At the time you think you are sensible but now I look back and know that I have learnt so much more than when I started out. It becomes less peer pressure and more your own truth.
When you go out it is not "Drink this! " it is "So you are not drinking tonight, OK". It is up to you – you get to realize it is your own choice. Everyone has to go through that experience themselves – it is a process. In this way prohibition add many social problems and ills instead of curing youth from alcohol abuse (Honnes et.
al. , 68).Let’s see what problems this young British lady rises, and certainly our American youth face with similar ones. First she says about self-appraisal based on the quantity of alcohol she is able to drink.
The less girl can drink the lower self-esteem is. Obviously, this kind of base for self-esteem is not correct. Then she says how silly a young person looks when goes out with older people. This problem is partially decided in some US states where underage persons are not allowed in the bars and clubs where alcohol is served. However, the psychological problem still exists and it is the first that should be resolved.She may feel being silly because of inexperience, related alcohol abuse (when one does not know their limits) or, on the contrary, she does not drink when everybody does.
It should be noted that the specific problems are important for particular age. Thus, the lawmakers should not only prohibit the underage drinking but also to understand how to convince the young people that this prohibition is reasonable. The government should work out the detailed educational campaign based on the deep research and understanding the youth psychology. Older people and particularly parents should be involved in it.The aim of this campaign should be to change the views, the self-esteem bases, and the moral values of teens. It should propagate the right attitude to alcohol and the right drinking habits.
Besides, the campaign should be specifically designed for different age groups to satisfy their special needs. The government must put more efforts to prompt the youth what is right and what is wrong, but only prompt to let the youth to come to the deep inner conviction based on their own understanding and experience. Adolescence is a wonderful time when the way only begins, however the slightest mistake at this point can ruin the life.It is the duty of American society to protect the youth from such kind of mistakes, from their maybe immature and that is why irresponsible behavior, impulsive actions peculiar to this age. Of course, everyone has the right to make their own mistakes but it will be much better if mistakes are made with sober mind.
Keeping minimal drinking age at 21, and thus caring for the adolescents, is the right thing to do to protect young people from dreadful mistakes they can make under the alcohol pernicious influence. The existence of prohibition makes young people think better about the possible consequences of their drinking.There is no reason to revolt because it seems that young people at 18-21 have all the obligations adult citizens have and even can be tried as adult but have no right to have a beer. The government does not limit the civil rights but provide the adolescents with special care. The government tries to limit the situations when young people can suffer from their own alcohol abuse, harm other people and thus be possibly tried.
The prohibition aims to protect youth from committing more crimes in a state of intoxication. However, the government should pay the greatest attention to the prohibition laws implementation.Educational campaign and propagation is strongly needed to make the young people understand not only harm alcohol causes but also the benefits prohibition laws bring into life. Prohibition laws rise and protect an abstinent young person, who is healthier, better-looking, more intelligent, smarter, more successful in life and more respectable in society.
In one word, the youth should believe that being an abstinent is cool. That is why keeping minimal drinking age at 21 together with propagating the benefits of this laws are extremely important objectives for nowadays American government and society.Referencehttp://alcoholism.about.com/cs/teens/a/aa010730a.htmwww.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5505.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act
