Benefits Of Lowering The Drinking Age

What is the right Drinking Age?
It’s a well known fact that in America the legal age to drink is 21, but if you ask most people under 21, they will say they have consumed some type of alcoholic drink. While many have different opinions on what the legal age should be, its quite clear that there is backlash in any decision made. For this paper I looked at one op-ed written by Zapoliski which came from the New York Times, she argued that the drinking age should be kept at 21. The second op-ed I looked at was written by Glaser in the New York Times, she argues that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 and enforced more. Although both op-eds were very compelling I found that Zapolski’s article in the New York times is more compelling as to why the

drinking age should be kept at 21, as she argues the harmful things that can come to the youth.

In Glaser’s op-ed, who is for lowering the drinking age to 18, she states that the current law hasn’t reduced underage drinking, but merely driven it underground to riskier settings. The 21 drinking age law has created more dangerous drinking habits in the youth such as binge drinking, which is consuming excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Binge drinking is most likely seen around college campuses where frat houses have massive amounts of liquor and with no parent supervision, and practically no police enforcement college students are exposed to dangerous drinking. This type of drinking can be seen on a smaller scale at high school parties, but this segregation of ages teaches to kids to binge drink rather than to drink in moderation. Glaser (2015), also stated that the current laws in place have lowered traffic deaths from young people drinking and driving, yet this is still outweighed by the number

of DUIs and seatbelt deaths. While Glaser had compelling arguments, she claimed that the number of alcohol poisoning deaths nearly tripled fro 1998 to 2005; which made her argument seem less convincing. In Zapolski’s article she explains that nearly 27 percent of student have used alcohol by 8th grade and nearly 66 percent have used alcohol by 12th grade. Drinking can lead to violent behavior, sexual assault, unwanted pregnancy, accidents, drug use, academic and legal trouble, and even problems at home. The op-ed even mentioned that alcohol has serious affects on the youth’s brain which leads to brain damage. By lowering the drinking age, you give greater access to the troubled people, and also can lead to lowered perception of risk. While both articles had clear reasons and compelling arguments its clear that Zapolski had the better argument.
While most of the youth would love to have the drinking age lowered it would bring many dangers. It’s quite clear that first time drinkers do not know their limits as Glaser (2015) stated that the number of alcohol poison deaths among 18 to 24 year olds has nearly tripled from 779 to 2,290 cases. Not only does it leave to greater fatality, but also more traffic deaths due to DUI’s and not wearing seatbelts; as we all know drinking impairs your judgment, and allowing the youth more acces to something that can cause them death