Laws might be laws, but they aren’t always just

Rob does bring up some good points, but I think that the experience of the rest of the world will back me up. If alcohol consumption in the late teens slows brain cell production, wouldn’t the majority of Europe be dumber than us? After all, many European countries have ridiculously low drinking ages and more accessibility to alcohol at any age. They aren’t any dumber than us, right?

About high school students getting their hands on alcohol, this is where my plan about needing a diploma comes in. Of course, even if the age were simply 18, I don’t think the effects on high schoolers would be as profound. In my experience, those in high school who wanted to drink were able to get their hands on it in some way or another, I honestly never knew how. Those who weren’t really interested in drinking didn’t worry about finding people to buy it for them, and I think this would stay the same, even if a few high school seniors were able to buy it.

I will stand by my earlier argument that drinking in 18-20 year olds would decrease, but I will modify it slightly from how Rob worded it. Drinking itself might not decrease, but binge drinking would. I know that the point of alcohol at a party is to loosen people up a bit, but if people were able to buy their own alcohol they wouldn’t be so prone to overdoing it when they go to a party. Sure, a few people just like drinking too much, and they would continue getting wasted no matter what, but I think that overall, less people would be among that crowd. Just like there are less adults over 21 who get wasted all the time than people who just drink a little to loosen up, I think the 18-20 crowd would become that way as well.

Finally, on Rob’s drunk driving argument: I don’t think lowering the drinking age would have much effect at all on drunk driving. This is unfortunate because we really need to find a way to lower the frequency of these tragedies, but I don’t think that lowering the drinking age would increase them. There are plenty of 16-21 year olds who drive drunk as it is now, and for the most part they are in the same crowd as those who drink too much routinely; they are going to continue in the same pattern whether it is legal or not. For the rest of us, the harsh drunk driving laws are deterrent enough to keep us off the road if we’ve been drinking, let alone the fear of death or killing someone. I don’t think that there is so much difference between 21 and 18 year olds that 18 year olds think it is OK to drive drunk. By the time we are 16 and we get our drivers licenses, we know that it is a horrible idea, and waiting until we are 21 isn’t going to cement that any more than it will already be cemented when we are 18.

A law is a law for a reason

Now, I know I won’t be making any friends in the college crowd, but I’m going to have to say that lowering the legal drinking age would be a bad, no, horrible idea.   And there are many logical and scientific arguments to back this up.

First and foremost, it is scientifically proven that human brain cells continue to develop into the early to mid 20′s.  It is also proven that alcohol will halt the production of these brain cells.  If the legal drinking age were to be lowered to 18, or anything lower than it is now for that matter, the U.S. government would essentially be encouraging our teenagers to stop their development long before they are ready to.  Plus, teenagers are still at the maturity level where they are more likely to consider their own entertainment over intelligence, leading to a higher chance of alcohol poisoning and alcohol related injuries.

And it’s not just college students that would be affected by this law change.  The biggest effect would be on high school students, who currently have a much more difficult time getting their hands on alcoholic beverages than their college counterparts.  There are many people, myself included, that turned 18 at the very beginning of their senior years.  Now tell me, does high school and alcohol sound like a good mix?  Of course not.  Just like in college, the younger people would get their hands on alcohol from the older ones, and we’d have even younger people drinking illegally.  High school students are just not at the right age and maturity level to handle the responsibility of consuming alcohol.

Now, one of the biggest arguments for changing the current law is that drinking would actually decrease in people aged 18-20 because they’d be allowed to do it.  Not only is that argument absolutely ridiculous, but it’s completely based on speculation.  Well here’s my speculation.  Many people don’t consider a party worth going to if it doesn’t involve alcohol; a little bit loosens you up and it’s always interesting to see that one guy who gets totally wasted making a fool of himself (you all know what I’m talking about).  Would it really make people less likely to throw these parties if it was less dangerous to do so?  Is that really even a question?

Finally, we come to the reason the law was passed in the first place, to prevent alcohol related car accidents.  People are told from the time they’re very little that drinking and driving is a terrible idea, and yet people still do it all the time.  How could it not be a good thing to keep 18 year olds from driving drunk by making the consequences for them worse.  At that age level, these people are the most likely to make that mistake, so why not make a greater incentive to avoid driving drunk.

So lawmakers were on the right track when making the decision to make the drinking age 21, and it should most certainly stay that way.

Eighteen is not too young

This weeks debate is on whether the drinking age in America should be reformed. Last time, I took the “leave it as it is” stance on the BCS system in college football, but this time I’m going to have to propose reform.

First off: Minors should be allowed to be introduced to alcohol by their parents in their own homes. 20 states now forbid that. By forbidding this, they are maximizing the potential for people’s first drinking experience to be wild, crazy, and dangerous. If we learn about alcohol in a safe environment with our parents, we are less likely to lose control when with our peers.

Now: why 21 is too old.

We have the highest drinking age in the world. The only other countries that have drinking ages of 21 are Pakistan, Fiji, Palau, and Sri Lanka. Most other developed nations have a drinking age of 18, and many have drinking ages lower than 18. Why?

If we were to lower the drinking age, we would obviously have less underage drinking. Yes, part of that is because the standards would be lower, but another factor would be that kids don’t have to wait so long to try it out. When you are 18, it seems like an eternity until you will be 21. Many 18 year olds are just starting college, and most of the rest are just starting full time jobs. For the college students, it seems unfair to have to wait until your Junior year before you are allowed to drink. This also fosters binge drinking at parties, which is unsafe and can have drastic consequences, unplanned pregnancy being a big one. While lowering the drinking age to 18 (not exactly my plan, but keep reading) would not eliminate binge drinking, it would lower the frequency of it for most people. Some people just like to get trashed, every day, and will do so regardless of the legality of it. Most people enjoy bingeing less often, but do so more often because they don’t get many chances to drink, and drink as much as they can at one time to make up for it. Also, if it were legal for 18 year olds to buy alcohol, they might not have to go to large parties to get their booze, and small parties tend to generate less trouble than large parties do.

For most 18 year olds who do not go to college, the supervised portion of their lives is over. They don’t have school anymore, and they aren’t children anymore. Many of them move out of their parents homes, and start their own lives. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to drink? Nobody is telling them how to do anything else in their lives anymore, why try to control this?

And of course, the arguments that have been shouted for years, ever since the new drinking age was enforced: Old enough to vote, old enough to be imprisoned, old enough to go to war, but not old enough to drink. It just isn’t fair that we have so many adult responsibilities, and face adult consequences for all of our actions, but we don’t get all of the adult privileges.

Finally, the unlikely plan that I think should be implemented: The drinking age should be lowered to 18, with the stipulation that in order to legally drink, you must obtain a high school diploma, or some sort of equivalent. Otherwise, the drinking age is 20. I know that one of the major concerns about lowering the drinking age is that high school students would then be allowed to drink, but this would make it so it is still illegal to do so. It would also act as an encouragement for some students to stick through high school, which would help them later in life in ways that they can not imagine now. A class on alcohol safety could be added into the curriculum, just as sex education is now. I’m not sure if this would be implementable or even legal, but regardless I believe it is a good idea.

Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, I support a drinking age of 18 like most of the rest of the Western world.

Coming up, BEER!

First off, thanks to everyone who checked out the blog and voted.  We got 39 views yesterday, which may not sound like a lot, but as it’s only our second debate, we’re pretty happy.  So keep on checking out the debates, because we really appreciate your support.

We’ve finally decided on the schedule for the blog that we’ll follow from now on.  We’re going to make the debates biweekly, giving us the off weeks to write our arguments and perfect them, and making sure neither of us are late.  So our next debate will begin next Monday.

And what might that debate be, you might ask?  BEEEER!  Well, now that I have your attention, we’ll be debating the legal drinking age (for all you college students).

So thanks again for the support, and check back Monday for the new opener.  And in the meantime, check out our individual blogs (the links are on the right side).