Kaitlyn Bartl
Corey Hamilton
English 1020
November 30th, 2015
The consumption of alcohol by persons under the age of twenty-one in the United States is illegal. People aged twelve to twenty years old drink eleven percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States each year. More than ninety percent of this eleven percent of alcohol consumed by underage persons each year is consumed in the form of binge drinking. Binge Drinking is the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Binge drinking is the most dangerous form of drinking because a person does not realize how much alcohol they have consumed or how much this alcohol will affect them. Although there are people who do not believe the drinking age should be lowered because the amount of alcohol related car accidents and deaths prevalent among young adults, the drinking age should be lowered so that young adults can learn to drink responsibly and reasonably, without having to binge drink.
In 1972, Michigan lowered the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. At this time, the decision of the minimum legal drinking age was a right that was left up to each state. The push to lower the drinking age to eighteen was due to two different factors. The first was due to men and women soldiers returning home after the Vietnam War who said that if they were old fight for our country at a time of war; they were old enough to consume alcohol when they returned home. Furthermore, male soldiers who did not voluntarily enlist also argued that if they were old enough to be drafted into the war, instead of voluntarily going to war like the women who fought during this time, they should be allowed to consume alcohol when they returned home. In many states these arguments were valid enough to lower the drinking age at that time. The other factor that called for states to lower the minimum legal drinking age was the 26th Amendment which lowered the national voting age to eighteen; people believed that if they could be a voting member of society at eighteen they should be allowed to consume alcohol as well.
Corey Hamilton
English 1020
November 30th, 2015
The consumption of alcohol by persons under the age of twenty-one in the United States is illegal. People aged twelve to twenty years old drink eleven percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States each year. More than ninety percent of this eleven percent of alcohol consumed by underage persons each year is consumed in the form of binge drinking. Binge Drinking is the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Binge drinking is the most dangerous form of drinking because a person does not realize how much alcohol they have consumed or how much this alcohol will affect them. Although there are people who do not believe the drinking age should be lowered because the amount of alcohol related car accidents and deaths prevalent among young adults, the drinking age should be lowered so that young adults can learn to drink responsibly and reasonably, without having to binge drink.
In 1972, Michigan lowered the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. At this time, the decision of the minimum legal drinking age was a right that was left up to each state. The push to lower the drinking age to eighteen was due to two different factors. The first was due to men and women soldiers returning home after the Vietnam War who said that if they were old fight for our country at a time of war; they were old enough to consume alcohol when they returned home. Furthermore, male soldiers who did not voluntarily enlist also argued that if they were old enough to be drafted into the war, instead of voluntarily going to war like the women who fought during this time, they should be allowed to consume alcohol when they returned home. In many states these arguments were valid enough to lower the drinking age at that time. The other factor that called for states to lower the minimum legal drinking age was the 26th Amendment which lowered the national voting age to eighteen; people believed that if they could be a voting member of society at eighteen they should be allowed to consume alcohol as well.
- On average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers.
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a way of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL. This typically occurs after 5 drinks for women and 6 drinks for men—in less than 2 hours.
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which conducts the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), defines binge drinking as drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks on the same occasion on at least 1 day in the past 30 days.
- People who binge drink report binge drinking on average bout 5-6 times a month
- Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-binge drinkers. (If we lowered the minimum legal drinking age, we could eliminate the amount of young adults’ binge drinking, which would in turn lower the amount of alcohol impaired people driving.)