Alcohol Debate

Alcohol Debate

The Alcohol Debate

Since 1984 Federal law has made the legal drinking age 21. Dana Boyd wrote an essay to debate the issue of sending 18-year- olds off to war, but cannot legally consume alcohol. Some are calling this a hypocritical debate.   Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and 100 college and university presidents signed on to the Amethyst Initiative   and discussed this subject of lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. MADD strongly opposed the idea, while college and university presidents were all for it.

Colleges and universities presidents believe by lowering the drinking age, it will cut down on binge drinking. This is a “last resort” in many ways. The school officials are at there wits end. School rules have been disregarded, campus police have been shrugged off and State and Federal laws have been broken. Students have faced different consequences for these actions,   most resulting in basically “no lesson learned”.

John M. Grohol, wrote the article I read called The Debate on Alcohol and 21 Year Olds. Mr. Grohol suggests that maybe the legal limit shouldn’t be lowered, but raised to 23, 24, 25 or even 26. He also suggests that we should educate or “integrate alcohol in our society or culture” as he says it. That would allow teenager to have greater access to it, which in turn might actually hit the problem head on at an younger age, there for, cause and effect would be learned earlier.

I think that if you are considered legally an adult, you should have all adult privileges. If you are not old enough to drink, then you should not be allowed to serve in the military and visa versa. I agree that this debate is hypocritical. Raising or lowering the legal drinking age might help the issue, but will not fix the problem. In my opinion to fix the problem you must change society’s way of thinking. People or society need to be reeducated on the following three words; respect, responsibility and family. When we can do this,...