Tania Galvez

Ms .Alcaraz

English 11 p4

2/15/18

Drinking age should be Lowered

Underage drinkers make up 11% to 20% of the alcohol market. With introduction of

media, teens are exposed to alcohol in movies, music, and social media. Consequently alcohol is

normalized in the American culture due to the common use of alcohol. Resulting with a popular

question with the new adults:whether the drinking age should be lowered, there arguments tend

to be enforced by using Europeans as models-drinking age is 18 in Europe. The drinking age

should be lowered to 18 because it has health benefits, underage people ignore the law and when

a person reaches the legal age they should be able to drink.

The first reason the drinking age should be lowered to the age 18 is because people

ignore the drinking age and continue to drink anyway. As stated in Underage Drinking Statistics

“ 40% among 8th graders, 48% among 10th graders, and 28% among 12th graders.” (Dalbec) In

shorter words means that even though the drinking age is at 21 people who are underage still

continue drinking. Although the drinking age being ignored the percentage of underage drinking

has gone down considerably over time as shown in Monitoring the Future -Underage Drinking,

”Seventy-seven percent of 8th graders report they have never consumed alcohol, down 67%

proportionally from 70% in 1991 to 23% in 2017. Lifetime consumption of alcohol among tenth

graders and twelfth graders declined proportionally 50% and 30%, respectively, since

1991.”(Spjut) Consequently, with the downfall of the popularity of alcohol teenagers go against
 the stereotype of recklessness and the majority of teenagers see drinking as something

reckless.As shown in NIDA recent studies in Monitoring the Future,”Increasing slightly in 2017,

four percent of 8th grade students report binge drinking in the past two weeks, but 54% perceive

it to be risky behavior and 85% disapprove of binge drinking...55% of 10th graders believe this

to be a risky behavior and 80% disapprove of the behavior...12th graders 46% perceive great risk

in the behavior and 73% disapprove of it.” (Spjut) Finally, with all taken in mind it is difficult to

follow the drinking laws when alcoholic beverages are so easily accessible to underage people in

general. As shown in Monitoring The Future “85% of 12th graders, 71% of 10th graders, and

53% of 8th graders say it be “fairly easy” or “very easy” for them to get alcohol” (Spjut). In

conclusion the drinking age is put in vain, since people tend to ignore it.

The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because it's the age when a person is viewed as

an adult and should be treated as so. Metydist a doctor with a PhD states in The Problem of

Drinking Age,’’Turning 18 and tells receiving the right to vote, smoking cigarettes, serve on

juries, get married, sign contracts, be prosecuted as adults, but can't drink.’’(metydist) What this

is trying to entail is that it's ironic how a person is considered an adult by the law by 18, giving

the right for the person to be trialed as a adult and serve the military or buy cigarettes which

could kill or cause life changing results yet the government refuses to serve them a drink with the

one of the excuses being that it could be harmful for someone so young. In addition, when taking

the psychology aspect of 18 years being denied drink can make the act of drinking more

desirable since the person feel as if a wrong has been done since it is not fair, in their terms as

shown in the report in Indian university. Furthermore there's a problem to add the drinking age is

not being regulated/inforced causing the problem of new adults to feel as if they are not taken
 seriously. Alexander C. Wagenaar writes in Law Officers' Views on Enforcing the Drinking

age,” Police are inclined to ignore or under enforce the drinking age of 21 because of resource

limitation, statutory obstacles perceptions that punishments are inadequate.” (Wagenaarr) It is

difficult to be treated like adults when the law is not being enforced correctly. Since being 18

years old means that one is legally an adult they should be able to do things an adult is

considered to have the option to including drinking.

The last reason why the drinking age should be 18 is because when drinking moderately

alcohol can have many health benefits. As listed in 23 Surprising Health Benefits of Alcohol by

Mendez it is shown,” a study from Oregon State University revealed that red grapes found in red

wine can help people manage obesity and metabolic fatty liver, due to the chemical called ellagic

acid.” (Mendez) With that noted it mean alcohol is safe to drink while in a diet since the grapes

found in red wine help the metabolism resulting in being friendly during a diet. In addition, there

has been some testing, stating that wine helps with your memory as it enhances your memory in

Scientific Journal writes about new research done,”elderly rats treated with Resveratrol enjoyed

far better blood flow, memory and other brain growth than those not given the

antioxidant.”(Texas A&M University) Consequently while wine can help with enhancing the

memory it could also prevent memory loss once the person reaches an elderly age. Furthermore,

red wine isn't the only alcoholic beverage that has a health benefits beer can relieve the soreness

after a workout, makes your bones stronger - beer has a high silicon, which is responsible to

increase your bone density to 8% - lessen the menopause symptom- it helps with hot flashes and

other menopause symptoms- and people who drink beer with moderation have 40% less to have

diabetes. Overall the benefit for an alcohol has a long term effect which could benefit many.
 The drinking age in America being 21 should be lowered to 18 since the age 18 is the age

when a person becomes an adult according to the government and the adult should be able to get

a drink, secondly people ignore the drinking age making the law in vain, and lastly alcohol

when\drinking in moderation can have health benefits.