Drinking Essay, Research Paper

Drinking Age

Did you know that in the year 1980 the legal drinking age was only 18?

In 1987 there was a law passed that said in order to drink legally and

to buy alcohol a person had to be 21. At the age of 18 people are

allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married without parental consent, and

even join the armed forces, so why can t some one who is 18 by alcohol.

This is a question I have; I believe that the legal drinking age

should be 18. Dr. Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Heath Sciences at

Indiana University, agrees with me also. She states, the legal

drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults

should be allowed to drink in controlled environments. (Engs) These

controlled places include restaurants, taverns, pubs, and official

school and university functions.

College students under the age of 21 are drinking heavily and by some

are being called binge drinkers. Binges drinkers are people who have

more than five drinks at least once a week. Professor Engs brings up a

reason for these actions. She calls it the theory of reactance. The

theory of reactance suggests that, whenever people believe their

freedom either has or will be unjustly threatened, they enter into a

reactance motivational state and act regain control by not complying.

(Engs and Hanson) This means that the underage students are drinking

more so because they are not supposed to. Drinking is traditionally

important to college life; many activities are focused around drinking.

When the right to drink is taken away from these students then the

reactance theory comes into effect. They are not getting the right to

drink freely and so they go out and deviate from the laws. Professor

Engs has tested this theory by using a student alcohol questionnaire.

The questionnaire tested 3,375 students that were both underage and of

legal age. The questionnaire showed that 81.2% of the underage

students were drinkers, which was compared to the legal age students

that had a percentage of 75.3%. Out of the 81.2% of the underage

drinkers about 24% of them are heavy drinkers. This compares the lower

percentage of heavy drinkers that are legal age; they only have a

percentage rate of 15.93%.

In Boulder Colorado is a similar debate going on, whether to lower the

drinking age or not. Tom Koby, Police Chief of Boulder Colorado, also

believes that the drinking age needs to be lowered. He thinks that

they need to focus on the underlying issue of alcohol abuse more than

on people who are consuming alcohol illegally. The problem is we ve

forgotten to teach people how to use alcohol. There is nothing

fundamentally bad about alcohol. (Bregman) Professor Engs says,

responsible drinking can be taught through educational programs and

role modeling. Both Police Chief Koby and Professor Engs think that

by educating students about the effects of alcohol and what may happen

while intoxicated will help lower the percentage of binge drinkers.

Along with Professor Engs, Koby thinks, when used properly alcohol can

serve important societal functions. Professor Engs says that minors

should be able to drink legally at school and university functions. I

believe this is one type of function that Police Chief Koby is talking

about.

The legal drinking age today is set at 21 years of age. I am a 20-year-

old college student that does not have the right to go out and buy or

consume alcohol legally. I am registered to vote, I am registered for

the selective service, meaning I can be drafted by the armed forces if

necessary, but I cannot go out and drink a beer with my friends. I am

old enough to get married. I can even buy tobacco. Tobacco is just as

bad if not worse for a person than drinking a beer or two at the end of

the day. Responsible drinking can be taught to students and if the

drinking age was 18 there would be less problems with students and

young adults who feel they need to deviate from the norm.