Lowering The Drinking Age Essay

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Let Me Vote Drunk A U.S. citizen can be drafted at age 18 and sent to war, but cannot buy a drink at a bar, a U.S. citizen at age 18 can vote, but cannot buy alcohol at their local grocery store. Dangerous long term consequences could be the result if lowering the drinking age was in process. In the first article written by John M. McCardell Jr., the vice-chancellor and president of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee voiced his opinion. This article is titled, “Let Them Drink at 18, With a Learner’s Permit”. He assesses the potency of the prevailing drinking age and produces a solution for educating young adults to drink, and act, responsibly. In the second article written by Dr. Deni Carise a Deputy Chief Clinical Officer of CRC Health Group voiced her opinion. This article is titled, “Defense of the Drinking Age”, but Carise is against the drinking age being lowered and doesn't think binge drinking should be compared to binge driving. This argument is important because, some people think that the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered, but others oppose lowering the drinking age from 21 to a younger age. However, the authors voice and provide evidence on why lowering the age should and should not happen, but authors McCardell and Carise have some common thinking about prohibition not being the answer. I am going to explain binge drinking, binge driving and health issues. In the first disagreement McCardell states that drinking too much alcohol in a short time period is as general today as it was before the age was raised. Since the arm of the law changed in 1984, fewer Young adults are drinking alcohol (of course under the effective law, none should) but 45 percentage of those who do drink, drink excessively... ... middle of paper ... ...t Carise disagrees but, both authors both agree that prohibition is not the answer. Even though the two authors have different perspectives on lowering the the age from 21 to a younger age, there is plenty common ground in compromise with both authors and both can agree that something needs to be done in order to educate young people on the responsibilities of alcohol use. Young adults of minimum age 18 are likely to drink more than young adults older than 18 (Dee and Evans). Binge driving, physical fighting, poor school performance, sexual activity and smoking are mainly all the issues associated with drinking (CDC). Teen drinking is not something that is cool just to fit in with a group of friends or people, when deciding to get on the road think before you act. Is drinking under the influence worth risking innocent people lives, yours and also your entire future?

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