Jessica Rymer
Jan Lee
Research Techniques and Technology
4/6/14
Bibliography
Abstract
This paper will be taking a look at specific sources that provide pros and cons to
changing the legal drinking age and the effects it could have on society. Senator Frank
Lautenberg and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) came up with the National Minimum
Legal Drinking Act which was established in 1984. Since this Act was passed there have been
many attempts on lowering the legal drinking age. None of which have been successful.
Changing the legal drinking age has been an issue because there is an argument on whether it
would help reduce teen drinking or increase traffic accidents and fatalities. By looking at these
dates, authors, and information affects articles, it is possible to easily see the debate on the
subject. Not all sources are from authors who are experts in the field. It is not necessarily a bad
thing. It shows a variety of authors which provide a variety of opinion and fact. There has been
lots of negative talk about how the change would negatively affect society. These sources will
provide a comfort knowing all sides and information needed in making the decision. The sources
will cover important information and topic areas. These include the following: the political
debate, looking at the effects to society, and lastly a source that has a finalization on the debate.
In summary it will show importance in having different sources in an academic paper.
Some of the biggest problems in the decision today deal with whether or not it will affect
the safety of individuals or if it will increase safety. Since the law was passed in 1984, the debate
has been very difficult. The outcome of this topic looks as if nothing will be changing anytime
soon. According to Procon.org in 2015, there are multiple pros and cons that have been debated
on whether or not they are accurate. Before it is clear to make a decision over changing the
drinking age, the sources in this paper will be covering the problems, effects and the current
laws.
Should the U.S Lower Its Drinking Age
Since this has become such an argued subject, it is important to know both sides of the
debate to make a proper research paper. In Brandon Griggs’ article,” Should the U.S. Lower It’s
Drinking Age,” covers the debate side wanting to change the drinking age (Griggs). This source
would help inform those who are reading the article about this side of the debate. This source is
up to date. When it comes to the effects the change will have on society, it can be from years
passed to current. The debate can be very changing due to the fact there is a high possibility the
age could be changed. With Griggs being a senior producer with coverage of pop culture and the
fact this is on a well-known website it could do well in an academic paper. On the opposite side
of the debate we have the not so willing to let the age change. In Kindlebergers article
“Calculating lives due to minimum drinking age laws: Traffic Safety Facts,” talks about the
methodology used, and introduces a slight change in methodology (Kindlebergers). This makes it
a little less biased due to the fact it is both sides of the debate. Because it doesn’t really matter
when you get your information it is relevant to the topic.
Effects of Raising the Legal Drinking Age Involving Crashes
Sometimes looking at each side of the argument makes it possible to find some
information that has can be agreed on by both sides. This can be found in the R.D. Arnold article
“Effect of Raising the Legal Drinking Age on Driver Involvement in Fatal Crashes: The
Experience of Thirteen States. It discusses the pros and cons of both sides of the debate (Arnold).
This article is from 1985, because it was published a year after the law it demonstrates reasons
why the law was passed. It also has another article by K.Womble “The Impact of Minimum
Drinking Age Laws on Fatal Crash Involvements: An Update of the NHTSA Analyses”. This is
also an older article from 1989, which also talks about the sides of the debate but mainly on the
reason why the law was passed in the first place. Both of these authors are not experts in the field
making them biased to certain sides of the topic. All of these articles would be used for the
problems in the debate.
College related mortality and morbidity
When taking a look at the parties involved in the decision making, their comments are
important in the process. The paper will look at the effects going through Society and how it
would react. R. Higson, T. Hereen, M. Winter and H. Wechsler wrote an article” Magnitude of
alcohol related mortality and morbidity among US college students ages 18-24: Changes from
1998 to 2001,” discusses the changes in society from one time to another. It isn’t a new article.
The author is an expert in the field. The point of this article is to show the difference in mortality
and morbidity in students (Higson, Hereen, Winter, and Wechsler).
Cause and Effects of increasing alcohol availability
H. Wechsler and T.F. Nelson in their article “Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by
Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking Related Consequences Among
Youths,” talks about whether the drinking age will cause more or less problems on the road for
society (Wechsler and Nelson). The authors are experts in the field due to the topic and
education. The article from this journal is relevant because it is from 2010. In another article by
C. Carpenter and C. Dobkin “The minimum Legal drinking Age and Public Health,” discusses
the causes and effects within the drinking age and the effects on public health and society. It tells
about how the if the drinking age is to be lowered the highways will no longer be funded. It
comes from an American journal of Economic association making it very credible and helpful
for academic papers.
Evidence for raising the drinking age
Professor S. Allop wrote an article “Strong evidence for raising drinking age but little
support,” talks about opinions and facts about the evidence from raising the drinking age and
how well it would go over with the government. This article is very relevant due to the fact that it
was published in 2013, making the information up to date. Because this topic hasn’t been
decided information from any year could be relevant.
Is lowering the drinking age a good idea
It is important to show both sides of the debate. Since this is a topic about whether or not
lowering the drinking age would be beneficial or harmful to society, there is going to be
arguments on whether any idea is a good one. A major thing that could happen with not lowering
the drinking age would be the possibilities in which teens will binge drink at parties. This could
cause more teens sneaking around asking older peers to buy for them. If the drinking age isn’t
lowered teens will continue to go behind the back of what they know is wrong. Jessica Pauline
Ogilvie is a great source to use from this point. She talks about the pros of keeping the 21, which
resolves in keeping the government funding for highway repair and the comfort of knowing that
fully developed adults are in charge of alcohol. She also describes the cons which result in binge
drinking in teens and higher MIP and MIC rates due to teens sneaking around at parties. She
talks about this in her article “The pros and cons of lowering the drinking age to 18, is lowering
the drinking age a good idea,” This is a very informative article. The article didn’t have a date of
publication that I could find. The author is well educated in the field. With her having good
education makes this article relevant.
Will lowering the drinking age decrease drinking consequences
Another option for a source includes an article from Henry Wechsler and Nelson F.
Toben “Will Decreasing the Drinking age minimize Binge Drinking in Teens,” it describes the
impact that drinking has on teens. This could help determine the effects it would have the teen
society as well as adult (Wechsler and Toben). The author is not an expert in the field. It does
not come from a top business source. This source is up to date coming from 2010.
The effects of drinking now has later in life
The final step for a paper on the effects lowering the drinking age would have on society
would be to find a possible solution. Some options would be either to keep the law the ways it is,
or find a way around the system or a way to meet in the middle. If everyone could agree on one
thing and evenly way possibilities without bias maybe some debate could be eliminated. An
article by Andrew D. Plunk “The Persistent Effects of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws on
Drinking Patterns Later in Life,” supports the idea of evenly weighing options because it will
play a big part on everyone’s future (Plunk). Plunk is a reliable sourcing because he is clinical
and experimental research on alcoholism. This source was released in 2015 making it very
reliable and up to date.
Time to lower the drinking age
Lowering the drinking age is not as bad as people think due to the fact that it could stop
teens from trying to jump the gun. Being in college at the age of 18 and having peers that are
older most likely mean that they will be around alcohol at least once. In Mary Kate Cary’s article
“Time to lower the drinking age,” discusses how back when people didn’t go to college they
could sip on a solo cup all night and no one said anything. There also was little to no use of fake
ID’s (Cary). Cary is a Former White House speech writer, she currently writes speeches for
political and business leaders. This makes her a very credible author and reliable and relevant
source. This article was published in 2014 making it up to date.
All of these sources can be used in writing an academic paper. Majority of the papers
come from reliable and credible sources with dates ranging from 30 years ago to present. By
comparing and contrasting the information within the sources it is possible to come up with a
logical answer to the paper. The effect lowering the drinking age will have on society could be
very positive if all actions are taken responsively. In the article “Lowering Drinking Ages can
have an impact on later drinking habits,” it talks about how earlier binge drinking could resolve
in later life binge drinking as well (Unknown). This covers most of the debate that led up to the
question of how lowering the drinking age would affect society. I do not know the other but it
does come from credible site which is the Science Daily website. It was published in 2013
making it relevant and up to date. This is the end of the paper making this the last piece of
information.
Work Cited
Allsop, S., Professor, S. A. and Director (2013b) ‘Strong evidence for raising drinking age but
little support’. The Conversation (Accessed: 17 March 2015).
Arnold, R.D. (1985). Effect of Raising the Legal Drinking Age on Driver Involvement in Fatal
Crashes: The Experience of Thirteen States. NHTSA Technical Report, Department of
Transportation: Washington, DC.; Womble, K. (1989). The Impact of Minimum
Drinking Age Laws on Fatal Crash Involvements: An Update of the NHTSA Analyses.
NHTSA Technical Report, Department of Transportation: Washington, DC.
Carpenter, C., & Dobkin, C. (2011). The Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Public Health. The
Journal of Economic Perspectives : A Journal of the American Economic Association,
25(2), 133–156
Cary, Mary K. "Time to Lower the Drinking Age." US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d.
Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
Griggs, Brandon. "Should the U.S. Lower Its Drinking Age? - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News
Network, 4 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Hingson, R., Hereen, T., Winter, M. & Weschler, H. (2005). Magnitude of alcohol related
mortality and morbidity among US college students ages 18-24: Changes from 1998 to
2001. Annual Review of Public Health, (26), 259-279.
Jessica Pauline Ogilvie (no date) ‘The pros and cons of lowering the drinking age to 18’, is
lowering the drinking age a good idea. Latimes (Accessed: 17 March 2015).
Kindelberger, J. (2005). Calculating lives saved due to minimum drinking age laws. Traffic
Safety Facts: Research Notes. Retrieved June 12, 2007
Plunk, Andrew D. et al. “The Persistent Effects of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws on
Drinking Patterns Later in Life.” Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research 37.3
(2013): 463–469. PMC. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.
ProCon.org. "Minimum Legal Drinking Age ProCon.org." ProCon.org. 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 26
Mar. 2015. "Minimum Legal Drinking Age ProCon.org" ProCon.org. 27 Feb. 2015. Web.
26 Mar. 2015. <http://drinkingage.procon.org/>.
Wechsler, Henry, and Toben F. Nelson. “Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the
Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among
Youths?” American Journal of Public Health 100.6 (2010): 986–992. PMC. Web. 1 Apr.
2015
"Lower Drinking Ages Can Have an Impact on Later Drinking Patterns." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.