Bradley Jones
English 1010
Position Synthesis
Legal Drinking Age 18
Introduction
Since the ending of prohibition there has been an ongoing issue battling what is best for
our society. In 1933, the 21st amendment was ratified and allowed adults to drink again. For
many year states regulated individually what was the best age to legally drink and by 1986 the
federal government established a national age of legal drinking of alcohol. Seeking to create a
better society I believe they were doing what they thought was best for our country.
Many other people have been against the regulations. Will the government lower the
drinking age to 18? After all, 18 year olds can do anything a 21 year old can do except drink. We
often think that each of us have our own choices we can make, however, I say let’s look beyond
our selfish wants and understand what is best for our society.
Choices and Freedom
Those who argued to have the legal drinking age lowered were for individual choices and
freedom. Glenn Reynolds made a very clear argument that “with joining the military, 18-yearolds can vote, marry, sign contracts, and even take on a crippling lifetime burden of student loan
debt in pursuit of an education that may never land them a job.” With choices young adults make
in this time of their life, it is only fair to ask, why shouldn’t they be allowed to make their own
choices to drink or not?
Another writer, Caleb Daniloff said “back in the ’60s, when the drinking age in New
York, where I went to school, was 18, we didn’t feel a need to do that stuff because it was legal.”
Seeing and observing the social differences that have occurred since he was a young adult, he
argued that if they lowered the age of drinking and established drinking in controlled
environments with good examples, we would have fewer issues and the adults today would not
feel the need to drink so much. For me, controlled drinking environments sounds like a great
idea, but lowering the drinking age does not. I believe that if we make it easier to allow younger
people to drink, our society would become both better and worst, but the issues would
outnumber the positive results. Sure more people might decide to have less of a need to drink,
but more people would be able to access alcohol and we know the negative problems that arise
from those who drink. They put themselves and others at a higher risk of danger. On a positive
note, the controlled drinking environment could benefit society.
Controlled Environment
Professor Ruth Engs, who taught at Indiana University, was one of those who studied the
effect of alcohol on society and the ways young adults were having issues. He wants the drinking
age to be lowered and to also have a regulated and controlled drinking environment where young
adults can learn to drink moderately and responsibly. He says, “Although the legal purchase age
is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an
irresponsible manner.” Stating that it is obvious that those under the age of 21 will drink if it is
legal or not, but if it is illegal, then they will not have the good examples they need to learn how
to drink moderately. Look at all the TV commercials and many movies. Everyone is drinking
and having a good time. It looks like so much fun for the young invincible college students. I
agree that we need to have good examples and have controlled drinking environments to help
keep people more safe. Reynolds and Daniloff also agree that a controlled environment is need to
help our society become better, but they also want the drinking age lowered to 18 like Engs.
Alcohol Kills Brain Cells
David Hanson, a professor at the State University of New York and has been researching
alcohol and its effect on sociology for about 40 years, suggest that we need to show a good
example to young adults on how to drink moderately. He was also leaning for controlled
drinking environments. His main argument though was about the quote “Alcohol kills brain
cells,” can be false. Saying it is not always the case if you drink in moderation. In fact, he goes
on to explain that drinking alcohol can actually benefit and help the brain. Now if you have a
binge drinker, helping them drink in moderation would be more beneficial for them. That I agree
with, but alcohol has been proven to affect our frontal lobe, where our critical thinking takes
place, therefore we have a higher risk to do damage to ourselves and others. According to the
study done by Joanna Birckmayer and David Hemenway, “Alcohol may increase the likelihood
of suicide through a variety of mechanisms, including exacerbation of depression, adverse effects
on decision-making skills under stress, and interference with the treatment of either stress or
mental illness.” It may be true that alcohol does not kill brain cells, but it is clearly proven to
interfere with our brain when other factors are at risk.
Conclusion
There are so many different views about if we should lower the drinking age to 18. Is this
better or worse for our society? Many young adults are already finding loopholes to get alcohol
and to some extent the law is helping keep people safe, but it is still an issue. We need to
establish better controlled drinking environments to help our society, but should we also lower
the drinking age to 18 to make it easier to control at colleges? I am against lowering the drinking
age because to me I see it would create more issues about teenagers drinking, not just young 18
year old adults.
We all have our own choices we can decide to make, I can’t prevent anyone from
drinking, but I know that the chances of drinking will create a higher risk of damage to our
society and people around us. Controlled drinking environments will help us and perhaps we will
learn to keep our brain cells rather than kill them off. Let us learn to do what is best to create a
better society today.
Work Cited
Birckmayer, Johanna, Ph. D., and David Hemenway, Ph. D. "Minimum-Age Drinking Laws and
Youth." Web log post. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 04 Nov. 2012.
Web. Sept. 1999.
Daniloff, Caleb. "BU Today." BU Today RSS. Boston University, 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 04 Nov.
2012.
Engs, Ruth C. "Why Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: Dr. Ruth Engs." N.p., 1998. Web. 05
Nov. 2012.
Hanson, David J., Ph. D. "Alcohol: Problems and Solutions." Potsdam Health Issues, n.d. Web.
04 Nov. 2012.
Reynolds, Glenn H. "Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Drink." Web. Wall Street Journal.
N.p., 13 Apr. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.