Cadence Giazzon

12th May, 2016

Professor Hughes
Just a Sip
Alcohol seems to be one of the worlds favorite drinks. Were dying to get it from an
early age, and continue to make it a lifestyle once we are legal to drink it. Adolescents spend
hundreds of dollars just to get fake IDs to purchase it, and get into bars that will sell it to them.
Once young adults get their first sip, they crave more, and usually will do anything to get it.
Parents are sometimes the first ones to expose them to this new world, and they seem to be the
ones to blame, on the contrary, others believe that if they are exposed at an early age, they will
not feel the need to experiment with it, and their curiosity will be killed. This brings the question
of whether or not the drinking age should remain at 21 to keep adolescents safe, or if it should be
lowered to 18 to teach them responsible habits at an early age. The law is working towards
making a safer environment for all adolescents, and promoting health guidelines to protect them.
Even though it is made very clear by the government that adolescents cannot purchase or
consume alcohol, parents seem to think otherwise. According to a study published by PubMed,
Most participants indicated that their first sip took place at their own home, and the primary
source of alcohol was an adult, usually a parent. Youth who sipped alcohol by sixth grade had
significantly greater odds of consuming a full drink, getting drunk, and drinking heavily by ninth
grade than non-sippers (Barnett 2015). Parental figures seem to remain a regular supplier to
their children, despite of the illegality. What many of these figures seem to not realize, is that
even a sip puts their children, and potentially their friends, at risk of future scenarios of underage

drinking, and even worse binge drinking. The specific age group we are talking about is kids
from as early as sixth grade, to a typical junior in college at the age of twenty. Keeping the legal
drinking age at 21 will help to prevent putting these kids at risk for these binge drinking
scenarios, and help to protect from unsafe drinking environments.
If one thing is clear, its that prohibition has never worked. Our nation has attempted
many times to take control of its drinking problem, but prohibition has never been the answer. In
fact, it seems to make things a lot worse than they would be without these laws. Former president
of Middlebury College in Vermont, John McCardell, and author from Time Magazine, John
Cloud are both in agreeance that these laws are simply driving these illegal activities to
underground events that have no responsible supervision. McCardell states, It hasnt eliminated
or reduced drinking. It has simply driven it underground behind closed doors, into the most risky
and least manageable of locations. Like basements, fraternity houses, and locked dorm rooms
where kids go to hide from the law and from adults, including parents, who might teach them
some moderation (McCardell 2009). He further goes on to say that the law has created such a
dangerous culture of irresponsible and reckless behavior, of unsupervised binge and extreme
drinking. John Cloud has a very similar viewpoint on this new culture. In his article published in
Time Magazine he states, This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing
forbidden fruit, a badge of rebellion against authority and a symbol of adulthood (Cloud
2008). Both sources argue that these laws are serving no good for adolescents, and are making
the drinking world that much more dangerous.
In order to prevent this reckless underground behavior, many suggest we start by
lowering the drinking age to 18 or 19. In doing so, we can allow for appropriate behavior to be
learned at an early age to build healthy, and responsible drinking habits. A chief police from

college town Boulder Colorado, states The overall advantage is were not trying to enforce a
law that unenforceable. The abuse of alcohol and the over-consumption of alcohol and DUI
driving. Those are the areas weve gotta focus our efforts. Not on chasing kids around trying to
give them a ticket for having a beer in their hand (Beckner 2009). He has seen many cases in
which kids get themselves into sticky situations, where their friends need help due to overintoxication but they are too scared to contact authorities in fear of facing charges. Beckner
strongly believes that if the age were to be lowered these situations would no longer be such a
prevalent issue, and adolescents would be more comfortable in seeking help. Strongly
disagreeing with this viewpoint is health professionals from Mayo Clinic. They state, Underage
drinking can lead to alcohol-related fatalities, sexual activity, school problems, alcoholism, and
violent crime. Research also shows that alcohol use at an early age might permanently distort a
teens mental development (Mayo Clinic Staff 2014). Their viewpoints strongly disagree with
those of Beckner, and oppose the lowering of the drinking age as many of their studies show the
damage it can cause to the brain while it is not fully developed yet. Leading to multiple
irresponsible behaviors, they believe kids are simply not ready to be using these substances at
this age.
Considering McCardells suggestion of shifting the venue for adolescents from fraternity
basements to bars, we face an even bigger problem. Bars main motive is to make as much money
as possible, so surely they will sell irresponsible teens as much alcohol as they would like. It is
very unclear as to how this will solve the issue at hand, and it seems more irresponsible to put
these teens in public venues in which they will need to find ways home at the end of the night.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, In fatal crashes in 2014, the
highest percentage of drunk drivers was for drivers ages 21 to 24 (US Department of

Transportation, 2015). These statistics would highly conflict with the ideas of reducing the
drinking age to 18, seeing that 21 year olds cannot even drink responsibly. Moving the location
of underage drinking could potentially help to set a more mature scene for adolescents to practice
responsible drinking, but at the end of the night it just isnt worth it seeing these numbers of
intoxicated drivers. Siding with the argument of keeping the drinking age at 21 is Dr. Wechsler of
Harvard University. He explains his studies, Among all college students in the sample, 3 of 10
(29.0%) drove after drinking any amount of alcohol, and 1 of 10 (10.8%) drove after consuming
5 drinks; about 1 of 4 students (23.2%) rode with a driver who was high or drunk (Wechsler
2003). As clearly supported by these statistics, college students and young adolescents are
highly irresponsible when making judgement decisions under the influence. Lowering the
drinking age does not necessarily mean these numbers will go down, it just means it will be
made more legal. Wechsler further explains that giving younger adolescents full access to these
substances will increase these numbers creating a bigger issue than what we have now.
According to a public health professor at Indiana University, Most of these reported
behaviors showed little change until after the 21 year old law in 1987. For example from 1982
until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50%
after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after
drinking" jumped from 9% to almost 12%; "missing class because of hangover" went from 26%
to 28%; "getting lower grade because of drinking" rose from 5% to 7%; and "been in a fight after
drinking" increased from 12% to 17% (Engs 2014). All of these behaviors are extremely
irresponsible and shameful results of binge drinking in the college population. These small
steady increases show no signs of slowing down, and with more enforced laws it will only push
these behaviors to be more underground and secretive like events in the prohibition periods. It is

in these environments that the most dangerous drinking habits are seen, due to a lack of
supervision of all these under aged individuals.
First of all, while binge drinking is a serious problem, the data does not show that it has
gotten worse since states raised their drinking age. As researchers John Schulenberg of the
University of Michigan and Jennifer Maggs of Penn State point out in a 2002 Journal of Studies
on Alcohol paper, "during the past two decades, despite many social, demographic, political and
economic changes and despite dramatic shifts in cigarette and illicit drug use rates of
frequent heavy drinking among those ages 19 to 22 have shifted little." According to the
University of Michigan's monitoring the future study, the proportion of those 19- to 22-year-olds
who reported consuming five or more drinks in a row in the two weeks prior to being surveyed
actually fell from 40.7% in 1984 to 38.1% in 2006 (Wadolowski 2007). And no researchers have
documented an increase in the percentage of alcohol-poisoning deaths among college students,
although the raw number has probably increased with the growing college population.
In the United States 18-year-olds have the right to buy guns, vote, get married, and serve
in the military. They're old enough to defend their country, serve on a jury, decide elected
officials, but not choose their own behaviors. Drinking, just like everything else in our society, is
an option and no one is being forced to participate in this activity. Understanding the effects on
the body and brain, which need to be made clearer by alcohol companies and the surgeon
general, adolescents must be given the choice to drink at the age of 18. At the age of 18, under
supervision of someone at the age of 21, adolescents should be allowed to drink in social
environments such as bars, and sporting events. In hopes to maintain safety and regulation of
consumption amounts, purchasing age in other environments such as grocery and liquor stores,
should remain at 21. This is in hopes that young adults do not have full access to an unlimited

amount of alcohol. Obviously there will be complications to this law, but we see complications
in every law. With this compromise adolescents have the option to choose what they do with
their bodies, and they are fully aware of the risks at hand. It will not give them full freedom to
purchase whenever they want, but in the presence of an older adult they can learn responsible
drinking habits to build a strong understanding at an early age.

Works Cited
Barnett, NP. "Prevalence and Correlates of Sipping Alcohol in a Prospective Middle School
Sample." PubMed. NCBI, 2015. Web. 12 May 2016.
Beckner, Mark. "Lowering The Drinking Age." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 03 May
2016.
Cloud, John. "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?" Time. Time Inc., 06 June 2008. Web. 03
May 2016.
Engs, Ruth C. "2 Why the Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion Based upon
Research." Indiana University. School of Public Health, 2014. Web. 12 May 2016.
Maggs, Jennifer, and Megan Patrick. "Energy Drinks plus Alcohol Pose a Public Health Threat University of Michigan Institute for Social Research." University of Michigan Institute
for Social Research. 2002. Web. 12 May 2016.
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Tween and Teen Health." Underage Drinking: Talking to Your Teen about
Alcohol. Mayo Clinic, 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 03 May 2016.
McCardell, John. The Debate On Lowering the Drinking Age. CBS News, 19 Feb. 2009. Web.
US Department of Transportation. "Fatal Crashes of Drunk Drivers." The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration. US Government, 2015. Web.
Wadowolski, Monika. "Parents Who Supply Sips of Alcohol in Early Adolescence: A Prospective
Study of Risk Factors." Table of Contents. 2007. Web. 12 May 2016.
Wechsler, Henry. "Binge Drinking Rampant Among College Students." PsycEXTRA Dataset
(n.d.): n. pag. Harvard University, Feb. 2003. Web.