Why the Legal Drinking Age Should Stay at Twenty-one

Alcohol is a depressant that affects your vision, coordi commonwealth, reaction time, multitasking ability, judgment, and decision-making (Short and Long Term). Seventy-five portion of adults in America befuddle inebriant (Health). Beca make use of of the vast impact that inebriant phthisis has had on America, it has become a hot topic of debate. Specifically, on whether lowering the term at which a person behind lawfulness proficienty discombobulate would decrease the amount of inebriantic alcoholic bever come onismic confuse abuse by minors. To estimablely address the issue of nether(a) durationd boozing in America, the reas bingled alcohol addiction eon should stay at xx- unrivalled.If let charge, the amount of alcoholic drink being consumed by persons under twenty- unmatched would make up, causing a rise in alcohol think accidents and cobblers last. Origins of Alcohol Ethanol, the alcohol we consume, is made by fermenting and distilling fruits and g rains. Alcohol agitation is a natural process which occurs when yeast converts carbohydrates, such as amylum or sugar, into alcohol. An example would be wheat utilise to create beer, or grapes to produce drink. Most plant matter can be used to produce alcohol.When an alcoholic bever season is consumed, 20 pct of the alcohol is impris one(a)d in the stomach and 80 percent in the small intestine (Freudenrich). The speed of absorption depends upon the concentration of alcohol in the beverage, gender, w eightsome, and whether your stomach is full or empty food slows down the absorption of alcohol. Men ab founder awayly pee much muscle mass and little fat so women, so one drink progeny not affect a man as it would a woman.A person doesnt start relish the effects of alcohol until it is carried through the bloodstream, to thebodys tissues. This process takes round twenty minutes, depending on the amount originally consumed. Once absorbed by the bloodstream, five percent of the alcohol is expelled through the kidneys as urine, five percent through exhalation of the lungs, and the rest is broken down into acetic acerb by the colored (Freudenrich). A person becomes drunk when an excess of alcohol is consumed and cannot be absorbed by the liver. Throughout history, alcohol has provided a large variety of uses for the human race.No one knows exactly when alcohol was first base used, exactly intentionally fermented drinks existed as early as 10,000 B. C. (Patrick, 12-13). In ancient Egypt, create from raw stuff dates back to the beginning of civilization, where alcohol played an important roll in worship of the gods (Cherrington, vol. 1, 404). Alcoholic beverages were used for pleasure, nutrition, medicine and ritual. In China, alcohol was considered a spiritual food, playing an important percentage in religious vivification (Hucker, 28).In ancient times people always drank when holding a memorial ceremony, arrive atering sacrifices to gods or thei r ancestors, pledging re effect in front going into battle, celebrating victory, ahead feuding and official executions, for taking an oath of allegiance, art object attending the ceremonies of birth, marriage, reunions, de fateures, death, and festival banquets (Fei-Peng, 13). Greeks were the most restrained when it came to alcohol economic consumption in ancient history. This had to do with their rules stressing hash out intoxication, diluting wine with water, and avoiding excess (Austin, 11).However, intoxication at gatherings and festivals was not uncommon. By 1,700 B. C. , wine making was commonplace, and during the next thousand years wine alcohol addiction anticipate the same function so commonly found around the earth It was incorporated into religious rituals, it became important in hospitality, it was used for medicinal purposes and it became an implicit in(p) part of daily meals (Babor, 1986, pp. 2-3). Greek philosopher, Plato, thought wine, in moderation, was be neficial to ones health and happiness.With all of these ancient countries prospering, and overpowering alcohol for the better, it is herculean to believe that alcohol consumption laws argon being abused both day by pocket-sizedd drinkers. Temperance Movement In the early geezerhood of America, alcohol was viewed positively, with the idea that it was to be received with thankfulness. Even toddlers drank alcohol it was seen as healthful for everyone.Ironically enough, for over thirty years, those who abstained from alcohol had to pay life policy rates thatwere ten percent higher than that for drinkers. Those who held back from alcohol were seen as thin and watery, and as mentally cranked, in that he repudiated the good creatures of deity as found in alcoholic drinks (Kobler, 26). There was an expectation that abusing alcohol was not acceptable. Drunkenness was condemned and punished, merely only as an abuse of a God- minded(p) gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, each more than than food merit blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion (Aaron and Musto, 132).Violations did occur, precisely for the most part, alcohol abuse was not a major caper, until urbanization. With an add-on in poverty and crime in colonial America, came an increase in alcohol abuse. A sizeable number of Americans for the first time began to drink to excess by themselves. The solo binge was a new conventionality of drinking in which periods of abstinence were interspersed every week, month, or season with one to three-day periods of solitary inebriation (Rorabaugh, 144). This is when people began to search for solutions to drinking problems.One suggestion came from one of the most influential physicians of the period, Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1784, Dr. Rush argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to a persons physical and mental health (Katcher, 275). Many thought that the only way to prevent boozing was to abstain from drinking alcohol completely. With the influence of Rushs belief, the first temperance association was formed in Connecticut in 1789, and inwardly the next few decades other temperance organizations were formed in eight states (Ashbury, 28-31).The future day of this suit to moderate alcohol seemed bright, but many a(prenominal) of its leaders overestimated their strength they expanded their activities and took positions on other moral issues. This just turned into political bickering, and by the early 1820s their movement was stalled. To get out of this standstill, most temperance organizations argued that the only way to prevent drunkenness was to obliterate alcohol consumption completely. While the Temperance Movement began by advocating the temperate, or moderate, use of alcohol, it now said that no one should be permitted to drink any amounts of alcohol (Royce, 40).They became much more extreme, devoted advocates of their cause. They became prohibition eraists. For decades the Amer ican normal was flooded with temperance pamphlets, temperance novels, temperance newspapers, temperance sermons, and temperance lectures-the continuing sustained and perhaps the largest organized effort at mass discourse about a social issue that the country has ever seen (Room, 22). interestingly enough, root beer, the carbonated soft drink, was developed by prohibitionists in the hopes that it would switch beer in popularity that effort was clearly unsuccessful.Many prohibitionists saw it as their religious business to encourage temperance, even through politics. Children were even used in the movement to march, sing and exert pressure at polling places. One of the leading organizations for field of study Prohibition, the Anti-Saloon League, stressed its religious character, and anything it did was seen as moral or warrant because it was working for God. Decades later, their strong organization and political tactics paid off in the passage of the 18th Amendment to the U. S . Constitution, establishing national prohibition.A leader of the Anti-Saloon League give tongue to that before its passage in Congress, 13,000 business people who back up prohibition were given crucial instructions We blocked the telegraph wires in Congress for three days. One of our friends sent seventy-five telegrams, each subscribe turnaroundly with the name of one his subordinates. The campaign was successful. Congress surrendered. The first to cut the white flag was Senator Warren Harding of Ohio. He told us frankly he was opposed to the amendment, but since it was app atomic number 18nt from the telegrams that the business world was demanding it he would go under his own opinion and vote for submission.(Pollard, 107)For decades prohibition had been advocated as the magical solution to the nations poverty, crime, and other indiscretions (Aaron and Musto, 157). However, almost immediately after the Eigh striplingth Amendment was imposed, alcohol was being made and consu med il sub judicely. Grape juice began to sell as bricks or blocks of Rhine Wine along with a warning After dissipation the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the fluidness in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine (Aaron and Musto, 159). Ironically, American alcohol production and consumption grew during the period of prohibition.It encouraged high amounts of alcohol consumption in secretive, unregulated ways. People did not take the shake up to go to a speakeasy, front the password, and pay high prices for very poor quality alcohol obviously to move over a beer. When people went to speakeasies, they went to get drunk. (Zinberg and Fraser, 468). Removing the alcohol from the norms of everyday orderliness increased drinking problems. Without well-known prescriptions for use and commonly held sanctions against abuse, prohibition drinkers were odd almost as defenseless as were the South American Indians in the face of Spanish ru m and brandy. (Zinberg and Fraser, 470).Violence and corruption of public officials caused by prohibition only added to the list of problems. It became difficult to convict prohibition violators because public validate for the law and its enforcement dramatically weakened. For example, of 7,000 arrests in New York between 1921 and 1923, only 27 resulted in convictions (Lender and Martin, 154). Political views on the law began to shift as its ineffectiveness became evident. Even John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , a lifelong abstainer, inform his support for strike down of the eighteenth amendment, because of the widespread problems it caused (Prendergast, 44).The popular vote for repeal of the eighteenth amendment was three to one, the American people rejected prohibition (Childs, 260-261). It is obvious that alcohol abuse was, and still is, an infinite problem faced by American adults and adolescents. Clearly permanently abstaining from alcohol is a mess as well. The solution, to find a healthy medium, is clear allow Americans the consumption of alcohol, but restricting the age at which it can be consumed to twenty-one allow support alcohol in moderation and promote lawfulness when consuming alcohol.Underage Alcohol Abuse Alcohol use among teenagers is not uncommon. Archives of paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine says, by the end of high school, about 75% of adolescents have tried alcohol, and more than half report having been drunk at least once in their life. Alcohol is involved in more than one-third of the adolescent deaths associated with unintentional injury, homicide, and suicide (Further and Fredrick). If the drinking age is take down to 18, juvenility in this country will start drinking at younger and younger ages.It will be much easier for 15 to 17 year olds to obtain alcohol via their 18 year old coadjutors in high school (Fell). The abundance of alcohol will cause distractions to students stu analyzes as well as create dangers after hours. More a ccidents argon rally to occur, and teens will be less promising to report medical extremity if they are under the influence, whether it be for fear of getting in trouble or just so drunk that theyre unaware of any sort of problem. A higher drinking age has proven to be beneficial to the health and safety of underaged women.Adolescent drinking plays a significant role in chancey sexual behavior, including unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity, and sex with two-fold partners (Cooper and Orcutt). Such behavior increases the risk for unplanned pregnancy and for contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS (Cooper et al. , 1994). If the drinking age is lower below twenty-one, adolescents will feel more comfortable drinking more, unwittingly increasing the risk of physical and sexual assault among women (Staley, 1998).Having alcohol in the body while youre driving changes your distance and speed wisdom by making you see things farther or closer than they unfeignedly are, or makes you feel like youre driving the speed find when youre really speeding (Short and Long Term). Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes (An Examination). Sixty percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol related, and, in a wiz year, 522 children under the age of 14 were arrested for driving while intoxicated (Teenage Drunk Driving).During the 1980s, the nation saw a reduction in alcohol-related black crashes, directly due to raising the legal minimum age for the sale and public bullheadedness of alcohol to age 21 (Statement) It is estimated that minimum drinking age laws have prevented nearly 25,000 fatalities since 1975 Fig. 1. Cumulative Estimated Number of Young Lives Saved by tokenish Drinking Age Laws, 1975-2007 (Traffic Safety Facts, Young Drivers, 2006). However, underaged drinking is still a problem.High school teens drive after drinking about 2.4 million times a month (Teen Drinking and Driving). These numbers will only increase if the drinking age is get down, because alcohol will be more right away available to adolescents, and misuse will be deadly. Blood alcohol centre is the percentage of alcohol in the blood. All 50 states require that the legal blood alcohol content remain at . 08% or less when driving a motor vehicle. This means that . 08% of a persons blood, by volume, is alcohol (The Code).Teenage boys with a Blood Alcohol level of . 05%-.10% are 18 times more likely to suffer a single vehicle crash than a teenager with no alcohol in the bloodstream (Teenage Drunk Driving). Thats two beers in the course of one hour. Do you really want alcohol consumption to be legal for eighteen year olds? The National Highway Traffic Safety government activity Report of 1995 showed that raising the drinking age to twenty-one reduced teen traffic accidents significantly, and brought a thirteen percent decrease in fatal tra ffic accidents for all ages. Alcohol abuse has been a rising problem for the past three decades.With continued exposure, the human body must vary to increase the tolerance of alcohol. This involves an increase in the amount of the livers enzymes that are used to break down alcohol, and an increase in brain activity and nervous-system neurons (Freudenrich). These adaptations forbidly change a persons behavior. With long-term alcohol exposure, the body does become more efficient at eliminating alcohol in the blood, but this also means that the person must drink more alcohol to experience the same effects as before, which leads to more drinking and contributes to addiction.Alcohol addiction, or alcoholism, is a chronic disease in which a person becomes physically dependent on alcohol (Watson). Not everyone who drinks alcohol heavily is considered an alcoholic. Those who drink enough to affect their family or job responsibilities, or drive while intoxicated, abuse alcohol, but they do not unavoidably have a dependence on it. Alcoholics feel the need to drink, too to the way that most people feel the need to eat. There are many social factor ins that can cause one to develop alcoholism. just about include peer pressure, advertising, and the environment.Young people are extremely susceptible to peer pressure. Too many teenagers think it is acceptable to drink because their friends are doing it. Adolescents who drink alcohol experience problems with brain development and learning. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that people who begin drinking before age fifteen are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence at some time in their lives compared to those who have their first drink at age twenty or older. Lowering the drinking age would only create more alcohol addiction among adolescents.Alcohol, in the long-term, disrupts normal brain development causes permanent liver damage kills brain cells, destroys organs and causes amount of money problems such as heart attack, disease and stroke (Short and Long Term). The higher the legal drinking age is, the less likely alcohol will be a factor in a young adults death, and the more longevity of the average persons life. Reaffirming the heavy Drinking Age Believe it or not, there are exceptions to the law that makes it illegal for anyone under the age of twenty-one to consume alcohol.In twenty-nine states, its legal for a minor to drink alcohol on private, non alcohol-selling premises, with enatic consent, and eleven states allow for minors to have alcohol on alcohol-selling premises, with maternal(p) approval (ProCon. org). These exceptions to the law are extremely flawed. Alcohol affects minors in a way that is different to adults consuming alcohol. Its legal for a minor to drink alcohol on private property with maternal consent. What does that say if the parents are drunk themselves?Parents under the influence would not give proper supervision to the minors drinking alcohol, and, therefore, greatly increase the risk of an accident. This exception needs to be abolished, because adolescents consuming alcohol has proven negative short-term and long-term consequences. Underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which are the main cause of death for people under age twenty-one. Annually, about 5,000 people under age 21 die from alcohol-related injuries involving underage drinking (The Surgeon, 10).About 1,600 deaths result from homicides and 300 from suicides (Teen Drinking and Driving). If adolescents are given permission by parents to drink alcohol, then they will assume that they can get away with alcohol consumption in their homes when their parents are not around. This can lead to dangerous parties with underaged alcohol consumption. Many rights have different ages of initiation. A person can obtain a hunting permission at age twelve, drivers license at age sixteen, vote and dispense in the military at eighteen, serve in the U. S.House of Representatives at age twenty-five and in the U. S. Senate at age thirty and run for electric chair at age thirty-five (Wagenaar and Toomey). The minimum age of initiation is base on the specific behavior involved and must take into calculate the dangers and benefits of that behavior at a given age (Wagenaar and Toomey). The policy for alcohol consumption at age twenty-one takes into account the fact that underage drinking is related to numerous serious problems, including injuries and deaths resulting from car crashes, suicide, homicide, assault, drowning and recreational injuries.One sway for lowering the legal drinking age is that nineteen and twenty year-olds are drinking anyway, so why not legalize it so they will drink in controlled settings? Research shows that about half of drivers arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) or killed as drinking drivers in traffic crashes, did their drinking at licensed establishments (An Examinati on). Most other foreign countries have a lower drinking age than America. It is argued that alcohol is a bigger part of the European family than it is part of the American family.Many have argued that a high drinking age forces young people to drink without adult supervision, on the contrary making it legal for eighteen to twenty year-olds to drink alcohol causes worse problems because of the abundance of drinking that takes place. For example, in New Zealand, the drinking age was lowered from twenty to eighteen in 1999. After the drinking age was lowered to eighteen, there was a significant increase in traffic crashes among youth affected by the law change (Kypri et al., 126-131).About half of the European countries have intoxication rates among young people that are higher than the intoxication rates in the United States (Comparison). This evidence proves that younger drinking ages are hazardous to the health of adolescents, which, is why the American minimum legal drinking age s hould stay at twenty-one. Research has proven that keeping the age at which one can legally consume alcohol at twenty-one is best for Americans and their well being.In ancient times, alcohol in moderation was seen as a way of life, but advanced day has consistently shown the need for regulation of alcoholic drinking. The problem with identifying the best minimum drinking age, to reduce alcohol abuse, involves many issues of freedom, responsibility, religion, politics and many other realms of life (Alcohol). Americas past has shown that making the consumption of alcohol illegal to everyone is a disaster. Keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one is the best solution, because it promotes healthier drinking habits for everyone, especially the futures adults.Keeping the legal age at twenty-one reduces the amount of death and injury sexually transmitted diseases and abuse and addiction. The public should be inform on the risks and negative effects to ones health when drinking too m uch alcohol. Keep in mind the ruinous short- and long-term affects alcohol has on the body. The next time you decide to sit down and have a drink, or two, or three, remember the lasting harmful effects that will ensue, especially if your still growing and developing.