Example Of Research Paper On Lowering The Drinking Age From 21 To 18 Is A Good Idea

When a person becomes an adult presumably at the age of eighteen, there are so many things that they are allowed to do. They are allowed to vote, own a home, get married, join the military and even adopt a child. But there is one thing they cannot do until they are twenty-one. One wonders why an eighteen-year-old can go to combat in Afghanistan and not drink, considering the former is more dangerous than the latter. But, of course, there are different arguments to the question of the legal drinking age and whether it should be lowered to eighteen. Some believe there is heavy drinking among young people of the ages between eighteen and twenty- one and the matter has been made worse by the illegality of drinking during their age. But at the same time it is good to look at the effectiveness of the drinking age remaining twenty. Either way, lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen has both positive and negative aspects to it.
Even with the official drinking age standing at twenty-one, teen drinking is on the rise and the situation has been made worse because these teen drink in hiding. When drinking is done in hiding it is a lot worse than it could have been done in public for a number of reasons. Adults or parents may never be aware of their children’s drinking habits when they drink in unsecure environments, and they might wake up one day to realize that their children are addicts. It is a lot better when adults and the society, in general, is aware of teen involvement in drinking because that way it will be easier to talk to them about the dangers of drinking at a young age (Peter 146) . When they drink in hiding, there is no way anyone will know about their habits when drunk in order to talk about them. It is a lot better for young people over the age of eighteen to comfortably drink in the full glare of their parents and the law because that way, and it is easier to manage their drinking.
When a teen turns eighteen, they automatically become adults who are subjected to enjoying so many pleasures of life. Most of these activities that are pleasurable are always seen as a preserve of adults and teens often look forward to a time when they will start enjoying them. And drinking is one of those activities that are seen as enjoyable and pleasurable. It is against this background that 18- 20-year-olds should be allowed the chance of their lives to enjoy drinking because they have become adults who can enjoy man other pleasurable activities. The pressures of adolescence make most of the prohibited things such as sex and alcohol desirable, and the more the government prohibits alcohol and permits other activities, the more these teenagers get tempted to explore (Kittleson 104). It is this exploration that will lead to binge drinking. It is reasonable to have them drink under controlled environments and be allowed to have the time of their lives if drinking does that for them because they are adults.Even if the drinking age is raised to thirty or above, alcohol consumption will always be a dangerous affair, and so it is a matter of drinking responsibly despite the age. There are a lot of grownups in the fifties or sixties who started drinking at thirty are worse off than teenagers who are drinking. It is a matter of drinking responsibly and instead of just having the drinking age t twenty-one, and it can be reduced to eighteen and these youngsters be advised on the dangers of too much drinking. Alcohol is easily accessible; one wonders how eighteen-year-olds access alcohol when it cannot be sold to them (Peter 147). They always have a way of accessing it, and it is imperative just to educate them on how to go about it because teenagers will always access alcohol even if they were sixteen. It is also good to question why the age for alcohol consumption is regulated when more dangerous narcotics such as cigarettes are easily available to teenagers.
Teens are not yet old enough to make wise decisions about alcohol when they are still too young to handle the influence alcohol has on their brainwork (Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein 112). They are likely to harm themselves and even become slaves of the same alcohol especially when they do not control alcohol consumption. Scientifically speaking, consumption of alcohol at a younger age will lead to the destruction of the brain’s frontal lobes that are tasked with emotional regulation, planning and even organizing (Moore ( Gerstein 43). If alcohol consumption is going to interfere with a person this much, then it is logical to have the legal drinking age as twenty- one. In order to protect and encourage a healthier nation, it is in the interest of these young people that the government should ensure that laws are developed that ensure that happens. That only means that lowering the drinking age to eighteen might end up affect ting the lives and future of many young Americans.
One of the reasons the proponents of the legal drinking age to remain at twenty one is that the health of many young people is safeguarded when they do not start drinking at a younger age. Binge drinking, when a person is young, can be catastrophic to their brain development. Serious drinking problems are usually expected when people start drinking at a young age because they are unable to control how much they drink (Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein 87). It is a known fact that many young people start drinking out of peer pressure and things can go wrong when the drinking becomes serious especially when one drinks for the sake of fitting into a social group that drinks a lot. If drinking because of peer pressure continues for a long time, a person may become addicted and hence become a slave of alcohol or liquor. When that is the case, they will be affected in very many aspects of life more so when it comes to their health.
The public safety of young people is also safeguarded when they do not start drinking when they are too young, say when they are younger than twenty-one years of age. It is a proven fact that alcohol consumption tampers with the brain mechanism and many people end up making hazy decisions that might affect the way they behave in public. For instance, it is common to see drunken people causing uncalled for disruptions in public. It is better that they do not start causing problems and disruptions in their communities or neighborhoods when they are young; hence protect them from becoming lawless and visitors of the state (Moore & Gestein 54). Apparently, there are too many accidents in the American society that are caused by young people, especially those who are high on alcohol. It is believed that in order to safeguard the public safety of young people, the drinking age should remain at twenty-one or even be adjusted upwards.
Lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen is a good idea in as much as there are advantages and disadvantages that come with it. But it is good to check whether the two- year period before one gets to twenty- one are good enough for these youngsters especially when it comes to their drinking habits at the time. There may be several implications that will come with this action but it is good to allow teenagers to drink under safe environments instead of hiding away and doing more dangerous things than they could if the society were o be open to the idea. At the end of the day, the age does not matter if they are advised on how best to go about teenage drinking. A lot of Americans could be comfortable knowing that their teenagers are drinking, with whom and where rather than just suspecting them. It is wise that America reduces the thrill of breaking the law by these young people and let them behave and act responsibly out of their free will. That way, so many ills could be avoided, and it is good to put in mind the fact that as long as something is illegal, the urge to do it is very high than when it was to be legal (Maisto, Galizo & Connors 415).

Works Cited

Hanson, Glen R., Venturelli, Peter J. & Fleckenstein, Annette E. Drugs and Society. 12/e. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett, 2014. Print
Maisto, Stephen., Galizio, Mark, & Connors, Gerard. Drug Use and Abuse. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010, Print
Moore, Harrison & Gerstein, Dean R. Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition. The National Academic Press, 1981.Print
Kittleson, Mark J. The Truth about Alcohol. New York: Infobase, 2005 Print
Peter, Boyle. Alcohol, Science, Policy and public Health. New York: OUP, 2013.Print