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Arguments for and against changing the drinking age
Alcohol consumption among youth essay
Arguments for and against changing the drinking age
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Many people have lost loved ones as a result of drunk driving. Alcohol related motor vehicle accidents are one of the main causes of death, especially with teenagers. After drinking alcohol, a person’s perception and judgement become distorted and they may feel overconfident and take chances they’d never take if sober. Alcohol affects the body by impairing vision, slowing down reaction time, and making the body feel more relaxed and drowsy. People think that they can be careful when they drive drunk and that they’ll make it home safely, however, consuming alcohol makes the task almost impossible. Although drunk driving is more common in the youth, drinking is dangerous for everyone, particularly if they aren’t completely educated on the risks. …show more content…
When drinking, the majority of people make poor decisions, making them think they’re invincible and can easily do everyday tasks such as driving. Though teenagers may drive less than adults, their accident rate of drunk driving is four times the amount in older drivers (*1). Teens and young adults tend to seek out a thrilling and potentially dangerous situations. Researchers believe that developmental changes in teenagers offer a possible physiological clarification for why teenagers act so hastily, frequently not understanding that their activities have consequences. (*2) Although a human’s brain is still developing in someone’s early twenties, raising the minimum drinking age to twenty one rather than eighteen has reduced the rate of intoxicated driving accidents in the United States and saves about “700 to 1,000 lives annually”
Each year, about 5,000 teens are killed or injured in traffic crashes as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 are due to car accidents. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation) In the newsletter, safety in numbers by National highway traffic administration and U.S department of transportation “Of all the people who died in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, 31 percent died in crashes involving a drunk driver, and this percentage remains unchanged for the past 10 years” (Vol 1, 2013). Crashes involving alcohol include fatal crashes in which a driver had a BAC of .01 g/ ld. or higher (Underage Drinking Statistics)). Deadly crashes involving alcohol are twice as common in teens compared to people 21 and older. This is because teens’ judgment skills are harmed more by alcohol. Teens who drink not only risk hurting themselves, they risk hurting their friends, family, and even strangers when driving intoxicated. Teens and parents both need a strong reminder that underage drinking is illegal and can have disastrous consequences. According to Health Day News, “one study found that in 2011, 36 percent of U.S. college students said they'd gone binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) within the past two weeks, as compared to 43 percent of college students in 1988. Since 2006, the current law has reduced the rate of drunk driving crashes among young Americans” (Preidt, 2014 and DeJong, 2014). This proves that lives have been saved after the legal drinking age increased. According to an article in Time Magazine called “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”, “lowering the drinking age to 18 would stop infantilizing college students, but it would probably kill mor...
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not mature enough to handle it, lowering the drinking age actually teaches responsibility and safety in young adults, maintains consistency in age laws, and diminishes temptation.
Each year numerous lives are lost due to careless and irrational driving. The disregard for safe driving has been a predicament to Queensland for years. For many years? police have relied heavily on speed cameras, breathe testing and heavy fines as a deterrent against unlawful drivers. Over the years fatality rates have increased, so Queensland Transport has composed a series of safe driving campaigns. On many occasions the transport department informs and advises the public about the importance of responsible driving. They propagate safe driving through the various channels of the media. Their safe driving campaign is now using effective propaganda aimed directly at speeding; drink driving and tired and reckless driving
It really is no secret that if the minimum legal drinking age were lowered, a large number of teens would then drink for perhaps the first time. “The age group with the most drivers involved in fatal crashes with Blood Alcohol Content levels of .08 or higher during 2011 was the twenty-one to twenty-four-year-olds” (“National Highway Traffic Facts”). Young adults are just as irresponsible at eighteen as they are at twenty-one, maybe even more irresponsible. The teenagers will indulge themselves on what they feel is a luxury the first chance they get. The young adults abuse the alcohol, and then go driving because even at twenty-one through twenty-four they are still not as responsible. If the age is lowered to eighteen, many eighteen-year-olds will go out and drink alcohol for the first time. The age group may rise to number one in fatal crashes. The National Highway Traff...
Alcohol at a young age can include many serious injuries, including vehicle accidents. According to M.A.D.D. (Mothers against Drunk Driving)”In 2010 the highest drunk driving rates were found amongst those ages 21 to 25 (23.4%), and 18 to 20 (15.1%). After age 25, the drunk driving rates decrease.” Many new drivers are around the age of ...
For example research shows that teenagers are not as effective in impulse control compared to adults. As a result they tend to take more risks than adults, especially in motor vehicles. Many of our current programs to curb drunk driving have worked, but only to an extent. Despite the fact that there has been a 54% decline in teenage drunk driving since the 1980s, the problem persists. 85% of underage drunk drivers report binge drinking before getting involved in an incident. This is an even more serious issue that needs to be fought with new policies and legislation. The current laws today in many states penalizes convicted teens with fines, community service, alcohol education, license suspensions and documentation of incidents. Three potential alternatives or extensions to our current methods are to target the enablers of underage drinking, increase sobriety checks on high-risk days and require mandatory interlock breathalyzers on all
Even though there is an age requirement, alcohol should be banned because it leads to drunk driving and kills. Here in the state of Missouri, statistics show that in 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes. One crash every 53 minutes. There are two types of drunk driving offenses. One is DWI, which is driving while intoxicated. The other is the DUI, driving under the influence, which would be of alcohol or other drugs. They both follow the same rules and laws.
Drunk driving accidents are the number one killer of adolescents (Teenagers and peer pressures. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). Mixing drinking while driving can be deadly. Teenage drunk driving accidents not only affect the person drinking while driving, but it also can kill or harm others (Alcohol problems and solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from) (Teen drinking and driving. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from) . Every single accident provoked by drinking and driving could have been prevented. If underage drinking is illegal, why do young people do it ? Teenagers usually are influenced by their elders (Alcohol problems and solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). In the United States, one out of ten 12 through 14 year olds have tried alcohol and continue to do so on a regular basis . There is a more than fifty percent of probability that young adults that have tried alcohol at a younger age may become alcoholics in the near future (Alcohol fatalities. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). So, why do teenagers take so many risks with their health and behind the wheel? The answer is simple teen drivers tend to think they are invincible and more needs to be done to educate teens on the dangers of drinking and driving.
The growing awareness of alcohol hazards has made people more cautious of their drinking habits, particularly young adults. At present young adults have the highest prevalence of alcohol consumption than any other age group. They also drink more heavily, experience more negative consequences, and engage in more harmful activities, specifically drunk driving. Although surveys have documented a decline in recent years, consumption rates remain highest from late teen years to the late twenties (Johnston1-3). Despite the long-term decline since 1982 in alcohol related traffic deaths, a 4 percent increase occurred between 1994 and 1995 among young adults age 21 and over (Hingson 4). As alcohol-impaired driving persists, legal and community initiatives intervene to help reduce the problem, as well as, continuing research on possible solutions.
Andrew lived a normal life, he played xbox with his friends every night, on weekends he went to the skate park with a different set of friends. He thought they were pretty good kids and that they wouldn’t do anything to put him in any harm, he trusted them. Then one day his friends came to pick him up and he had a bad feeling about it but he got in the car anyways, while they were driving they kept swerving to the side but every time he asked to drive instead of one of his friends but they wouldn’t let him. He was feeling very unsafe since they were on a busy street in the afternoon with busses full of kids around and parents picking kids up from school. They were approaching a stop light and he asked how much they had drank but
Drunk driving is extremely impactful on the lives of you and others. While drinking and driving, you are not just endangering yourself, you are also endangering the lives of others. The driver of the car does not just control the car with their hands and feet. They need their brain to function properly so that you are able to react to objects on the road quicker and control the car. If you drink then drive/ drink while driving. Alcohol affects your brain in many ways that inhibit your ability to drive. Alcohol will affect your reaction time, it slows your reflexes which decrease your ability to react to objects on the road. It affects your vision, in can impair your color perception, and night vision. It slows down the movement in the muscles in your eye causing your visual perception to change. Alcohol affects your ability to track. You will not be able to judge the position of cars ahead of you, you won’t be able to judge the
As a result of underage drinking, 5,000 adolescents under the age of 21 die annually due to intoxication (taking motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and other injuries while intoxicated into consideration) (paragraph 2). Later in life, underage drinkers are more likely to develop alcoholism, poor performance in school, and risky sexual behavior (paragraph 43). Although this research is not opposed to my argument, there is an importance to acknowledging it as proof of dangerous, underage drinking occurring significantly regardless of whether it is illegal. More importantly, this research stems from adolescents drinking without the supervision of adults and in uncontrolled quantities. Since adolescents must wait a long period of time to drink legally, I believe they fear they must take advantage of drinking opportunities by excess drinking and risk of safety due to their restriction to alcohol. Based on this mindset, I believe exposure to alcohol at a younger age in controlled environments would not only decrease underage drinking in large quantities, but injury and death related to intoxication, as
Many people in the United States enjoy a drink of their favorite alcoholic beverage. It could be a nice ice cold beer after a hard day of work or going to the bar and enjoying a few shots or mixed drinks with friends. Drinking alcohol is a common way to mingle with friends and take the edge off a difficult day. However, there are dangers involved with alcohol since it does dampen the body’s ability to cope with new information. Alcohol becomes a poison to the body when consumed in large quantities. The biggest danger is not to the driver after they become inebriated, but comes to anyone the drunk driver comes in contact with. A sober person can be dangerous just by being distracted, but a drunk driver’s ability to cope with changing situations and distractions is one of the biggest hazards on today’s roads. Some individuals believe that they are not as impaired as what they are led to believe from government ads and the many videos that show what can happen to someone who is drinking and driving. Although, there are many policies in place to advocate against drunk driving, there are those who would endanger themselves and others with their thoughtless actions when they jump into the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Drinking and driving should never be combined because a person who has been drinking does not have the ability to use all mental faculties unimpaired, many people have been killed, injured, or psychologically hurt by a drunk driver, many men and women do not know the difference weight and gender have on the body’s ability to process alcohol, and the financial and legal trouble that is awaiting for those convicted by a DUI.
“Drinking and driving is very dangerous, particularly for adolescents! Since 1991, drinking and driving among high school students has decreased around 54%. Even though less teenagers are drinking and driving, it is still a major problem. After all, secondary school students still drive after drinking around 2.4 million times each month. According to a survey, 85% of teenagers in secondary school who reported drinking at least 5 mixed beverages in a few hours and driving after in the previous months. In 2010, 1 out of 5 teenage drivers associated with deadly crashes had some liquor in their body. The vast majority of these drivers (81%) had BACs* higher than the set limit for adults. It is unlawful for grown-ups to drive with a BAC of .08%
Reckless driving is extremely dangerous and is considered to be anyone who is driving with carelessness and/or who has no regard for the safety of others on the road. Reckless driving is considered to be a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor is a criminal act that is less severe then receiving a felony. Your punishments are also not as severe as penalties. Penalties for reckless driving include fines of up to $1,000, jail time, getting your parole revoked, two points on your driving record, insurance rates to go up, insurance can be cancelled and/or license suspension. Reckless driving includes speeding, not using signals, not using your headlights, disregarding traffic signs and signals, distracted driving, drag racing, and using a cell/smartphone while driving. In some cases a DUI can be deemed a “dry reckless”, which means the person was driving with disregard for others on the road. This charge is less serious then a DUI charge. If you have been pulled over for DUI and believe that it could be reduced to a “dry reckless” you should contact an attorney right away. Drag racing or a speed co...