Legal Drinking Age: 18 or 21?
Legal Drinking Age, 18 or 21?
People have always wanted what they cannot have. Starting in 1984, this is the attitude most lawmakers in America have taken with respect to underage drinking, since it was the time when many states changed their drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. Lawmakers thought that if you raised the drinking age, people could drink more responsibly, because as you grow older, your brain matures and with maturity comes responsibility. Although this law, passed not even twenty years ago, was made for the safety of young adults, people now are arguing to have the law returned to the age of eighteen. Many college students, professors and teachers have a lot to say about this topic. From John McCardell, former head of Middlebury College, to the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving Association, people have different views on the responsibility that young adults take when it comes to alcohol. Some people, who view that you should be able to drink when you are a legal adult, collect statistics about car accidents, deaths related to alcohol consumption, and binge drinking. Others who oppose this change in age collect similar data but there is a twist on the information that they receive. When making decisions about laws, people have to consider all possible situations. Since not only lawmakers have involvement in this issue, they have to think about everyone who will be affected, whether it is people from the age of twenty-one or older or eighteen or older. In changing the minimum legal drinking age to eighteen, the lawmakers would be granting adults with the ideal of justice. Since they are adults, they would be given equal consideration and be treated purely as adults. Also, having faith in these young adults grants them with responsibility, forcing them to grow up more quickly while still in their late teenage years. By giving them responsibility, you have to consider the obligation of non-malficience, which is avoiding doing injury to others. If a
People have always wanted what they cannot have. Starting in 1984, this is the attitude most lawmakers in America have taken with respect to underage drinking, since it was the time when many states changed their drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. Lawmakers thought that if you raised the drinking age, people could drink more responsibly, because as you grow older, your brain matures and with maturity comes responsibility. Although this law, passed not even twenty years ago, was made for the safety of young adults, people now are arguing to have the law returned to the age of eighteen. Many college students, professors and teachers have a lot to say about this topic. From John McCardell, former head of Middlebury College, to the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving Association, people have different views on the responsibility that young adults take when it comes to alcohol. Some people, who view that you should be able to drink when you are a legal adult, collect statistics about car accidents, deaths related to alcohol consumption, and binge drinking. Others who oppose this change in age collect similar data but there is a twist on the information that they receive. When making decisions about laws, people have to consider all possible situations. Since not only lawmakers have involvement in this issue, they have to think about everyone who will be affected, whether it is people from the age of twenty-one or older or eighteen or older. In changing the minimum legal drinking age to eighteen, the lawmakers would be granting adults with the ideal of justice. Since they are adults, they would be given equal consideration and be treated purely as adults. Also, having faith in these young adults grants them with responsibility, forcing them to grow up more quickly while still in their late teenage years. By giving them responsibility, you have to consider the obligation of non-malficience, which is avoiding doing injury to others. If a
Bibliography: WSJ. College Presidents Stand Up for Common Sense? I’ll Drink to That. [Online] Friday, August 28, 2008. http://onlline.wsj.com/article/SB121996586419781419.html?mod=taste_primary_hs Dartmouth News. Brain Changes Significantly After Age 18, says Dartmouth Research. [Online] February 6, 2006. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2006/02/06.html Wikipedia. Ignition Interlock Device. [Online] January 19, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ignition_interlock_device