Drinking Age Law

In 1984, a constitutional amendment was passed to increase the drinking age from 18 to 21 years of age. However, the current drinking age has sparked much debate over whether or not this an effective age requirement in today’s society. The United States has the highest drinking age out of all the countries in the world, and the average of the countries is 18 years old. 

The major issue with the drinking age is the actions of those that are underage and consuming alcohol illegally. Underage persons have the ability to vote, fight, marry, drive, etc. by the age of 18, so why are they not allowed to drink legally? This is where the definition of a person becomes unclear. How can a person be considered an adult by 18, but still not legally be able to consume alcohol. In the case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee, the law defines a person. In this case, the law says a person cannot drink until the age of 21. Is a person still a person regardless of whether or not they can exercise all age related laws?

As a result of the inability to drink until 21, many underage individuals find themselves drinking behind closed doors and consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. An example would on college campuses where the majority of students are underage and consuming an alarmingly high amount of alcohol on frequent occasions. Many believe that if 18 were the drinking age that the novelty of drinking would not be as prevalent. In turn, making the act of drinking more casual as opposed the dangerous. Others believe that if the law were to be changed that this would trickle down to younger age groups wanting the law to be lowered more. Also, if the age were to be lowered then drunk-driving accidents would increase again.  Lastly, this law excludes me. With this said, I have acquired all of the responsibilities of that of an adult, except this one. 

Statistics from SADD(Students Against Destructive Decisions)

http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm#underage

-In 2005, about 10.8 million persons ages 12-20 (28.2% of this age group) reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Nearly 7.2 million (18.8%) were binge drinkers, and 2.3 million (6.0%) were heavy drinkers.

-Three out of every four students (75%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by the end of high school.

This chart displays the percentage of alcohol consumption of full-time college students. This shows that there is an alarming amount of underage consumption of alcohol, binge and heavy drinking. Binge drinking is the consumption of 5 or more alcoholic beverages. 

The following video examines the debate over the drinking age.

Drinking Age Debate

Resources

1)"Constitution of the United States - Official." National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html>.

2) "CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM’N." LII | Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html>.

"SADD Statistics." Welcome to SADD. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm#underage>.—Statistics

3)"Underage Alcohol Use among Full-Time College Students, SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies." OAS Home: Alcohol, Tobacco & Drug Abuse and Mental Health Data from SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k6/college/collegeunderage.htm>.—Chart of underage drinking

4)"YouTube - Drinking Age Debate." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37WgpzsTTD4-- Drinking age debate video

5)"Late Puberty." Gamagedara. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://gamagedara.org/tag/late-puberty/-->.—Drinks Images