Amber Koterba
Eng 100
04/21/15
I-Search Paper
FINAL DRAFT
Stupidity or brilliant?
The age legal drinking at 21 is completely unfair to be due to the fact that when you’re 18 you're considered a legal adult, so why wait until the age 21? The US government does not trust teenagers to make the right decisions to not binge drink and to not get behind the wheel of a car and risk your own life and someone else’s life. They have all the more reason to think that way due to the fact that teens give them every reason to think that way. Most people are graduating high school at the age of 18 and most are entering college or just starting out at the age of 18 or 19. Legalizing drinking at the age of 18 to me is a perfect age. Doing this will keep adult college students from worrying about getting caught with alcohol and getting a fine for underage drinking. Drinking at the age of 18 is considered legal in many other countries and the US is actually one of the few countries who prohibited alcohol to “minors”. If someone who is considered an adult wants to have a drink, it shouldn't be a problem to do so in any circumstance.
Underage drinking is allowed in 29 states if done on private premises with parental consent, 25 states if for religious purposes, and 11 states if for educational purpose(ProCon). Making teens aware that alcohol consumption should be something that is done responsibly in moderation will make drinking alcohol much less of a taboo for young adults entering college and the workforce (ProCon). When I was younger, I have always thrilled going behind my mother’s back and lying about where I was because I was drinking somewhere and my mother was always a stickler for “obeying the law”. It being outlawed for people under the age of 21 makes us teenagers want to go out and try getting served at a bar or go party in the woods where we would have to drive home or get into the car with someone who is drinking and driving, which can be unsafe. Teens fear asking their family members to pick them up from a party in thought of getting in trouble.
"We have a law that is out of step with social and cultural reality," he says. "In the eyes of a culture and a polity that understands in the most general way that 18 is the age of adulthood, the most glaring exception is the prohibition on alcohol, and that is why we've had such a difficult time enforcing this law.(Greenblatt, 2009)
In thought, yes it does seem stupid to just think why can’t someone who is graduated high school to be able to chill out and have a beer with their friends. But it is much more complex than that. At the age of 18 you become legally your own person. Both men and women can be trusted to fight for our country but can’t be trusted to have a beer? A 20-year-old college junior that is far more educated than the average American who do not attend college, cannot buy alcohol or enter a casino(Greenblatt, 2009). The problem, McCardell says, is that underage kids don't actually consider themselves underage(Greenblatt, 2009). Teenagers can have friends who are 21 or even older than 21. It’s said that binge drinking starts at the age of 18 and if we lower the drinking age to 18 that there will be more fatal accidents and more binge drinking death related problems (Greenblatt, 2009). What we as a society need to do is trust the teenagers, you never know what the outcome will come back as.
"In summer 2008, more than 100 college presidents and other higher education officials signed the Amethyst Initiative, which calls for a reexamination of the minimum legal drinking age in the United States"(Carpenter & Dobkin).
Countries such as Italy, China, and Greece are some of the countries where the legal drinking age is lower and they seem to have fewer alcohol related problems. Laws of prohibition to alcohol until the age of 21 in most countries, in terms of legal drinking age has caused more alcohol related deaths than there has ever been (Guest blogger, Cognac). So since this is the case, why hasn’t the government looked into dropping the drinking age to 19? The United States actually has the highest BAC level at ANY age being .05 opposed to the other countries including the European nations. Lowering the BAC level according to age has been seen to work wonders in other countries. Belgium lowered its limit to .05 for new drivers in December of 1994, reporting a 14 percent reduction in fatalities in the following year (ETSC 1997). The legal limit in France was lowered to .05 in December of 1995. Fatal crashes in 1996 were reduced by 4 percent (ETSC 1997). Car-crash fatalities linked to alcohol also dropped 12 percent a year in the Czech Republic and 10 percent a year in Germany between 1997 and 2005, both of which are countries with a drinking age of 18(Sterns, 2007). If this is the case, how come the government hasn't even THOUGHT about trying this also?
Being a 20 year old woman, it probably sounds like I just want the government to drop the drinking age so that I can get drunk legally until I turn 21. False, that is not the case. I really believe that we should try looking into how other countries, like Germany, rate of fatal accidents due to impaired driving have dropped since they moved the drinking age to 18 and lowered the BAC level to .05%. Trusting people of the age of 18 is the main problem of today's society due to the binge drinking and stupidity to get behind the wheel of a car while have been drinking. There is no saying if teens will stop binge drinking, but if you don’t trust them enough to do so, you will never know what the outcome will be.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amber Koterba
Eng 100
04/21/15
I-Search Paper
PONDER
My research question was “should the drinking age be lowered to 18?”, therefore to look up statistics and research I googled my main points. While writing my first draft of my I-Search paper I rushed to finish it because it was due the next day and I hadn’t even started it.
When I revised my essay, I made a ton of changes to the introduction, body and conclusion. I switched up some sentences to make my thesis statement more clear.
When I was editing the body section of my paper, I made sure I took into consideration what my friend and professor said. They both told me that my theme needs to be more clear, and I like to believe that I made that happen.
In my first draft of the product section in my I-Search paper, I had an entire paragraph that was about how smoking kills. It didn’t make any sense as to what my research question was so that didn’t work. I cut that entire paragraph off.
I had a paragraph about the drinking age and how it works better in other countries. I expanded more on the statistics of that.
Future research questions..
- is there a cure to cancer?
- why is a MAC considered a better computer?
- is technology helpful or harmful?
Amber Koterba
Eng 100
04/21/15
I-Search Paper
ROUGH DRAFT
Should we lower the drinking age to 19?
Why should it be legal for half of college students to be able to drink, and half not? It shouldn’t be. Most people are graduating high school at the age of 18 and most are entering college or just starting out at the age of 18 or 19. Legalizing drinking at the age of 19 to me is a perfect age. Doing this will keep teens from not coming to high school drunk or hung-over, and keep adult college students from worrying about getting caught with alcohol and getting an underage. The age legal drinking at 21 is completely unfair to be due to the fact that when you’re 18 you're considered a legal adult, so why wait until you’re 21?
At the age of 18 people can smoke cigarettes that can literally kill you, vote, join the military, and become legally their own person, but can't drink is foolish. Some of which are enjoyable things to become legal for an “adult”. Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer (1). Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80-90 percent of COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) deaths (1). Among adults who have ever smoked, 70% started smoking regularly at age 18 or younger, and 86% at age 21 or younger(1). Now, if you look at the statistics for the deaths of underage people drinking and the health risks in alcohol and compare them, you won’t find the same thing. Drinking a lot over time can cause high blood pressure, stokes, irregular heartbeats. Also cancers of the mouth, throat, and breast (2). Drinking a lot can also weaken the immune system, making your body much easier to get ill. Therefore, drinking and smoking both have health risks, but look at the risks for smoking which is legal at a younger age compared to drinking, it’s not nearly as bad. Idiotic.
Underage drinking is allowed in 29 states if done on private premises with parental consent, 25 states if for religious purposes, and 11 states if for educational purpose(3). Normalizing alcohol consumption as something done responsibly in moderation will make drinking alcohol less of a taboo for young adults entering college and the workforce (3). Which is completely true, being 20 years old I have always thrilled going behind my mother’s back and lying about where I was because I was drinking somewhere and my mother was always a stickler for “obeying the law”. Don’t get me wrong, I never went out on school nights getting drunk. In my opinion, I believe that drinking should be okay once in a while. It being outlawed for people under the age of 21 makes us teenagers want to go out and try getting served at a bar or go party in the woods, which is completely unsafe. Why can’t it be legal for us to have a night where we invite some friends over and drink some wine? Doesn’t make much sense to me. Most of my friends who are 21 say that they don’t even drink anymore or go to bars due to them binge drinking since before the legal age.
Think about to when you were in college, who did you get alcohol from? You’re older friends. Why should freshmen in college have to worry about going to a frat party or even just hanging out with their friends, and getting busted? College students usually come from all over the world to just one little university, they left their families to live all on their own with no parental supervision so why can’t they have a few drinks here and there(4)? This once again makes them want to be a rebel and try out what it is they are being kept away from (4). The fact that they don’t know when they will be able to drink again is the reason most college students tend to get overly drunk when they get a chance (4). As a result there are problems as serious as deaths (4). Countries such as Italy, China, and Greece are some of the countries where the legal drinking age is lower and they seem to have fewer alcohol related problems. Current laws in most, in terms of legal drinking age has caused more alcohol related deaths than there has ever been (4). So since this is the case, why hasn’t the government looked into dropping the drinking age to 19?
Being a 20 year old woman, it probably sounds like I just want the government to drop the drinking age so that I can get drunk legally until I turn 21. False, that is not the case. I really think that we should try looking into how other countries are doing and drop the drinking age to 19.The government made cigarettes legal for an 18 year old, and they have chemicals to literally kill someone. Some people smoke 3 packs a day, which is so much worse than having a few drinks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amber Koterba
ENG 100
04/21/15
I-Search Paper
PROCESS
I am currently laying in my bed listening to the glee Pandora radio station, contemplating how I want to write this portion of the I-Search paper. Staring at my wall, texting people to help me choose a topic, I just couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Then I remembered, figure out the topic of my I-Search paper I figured I would look through the NY times room for debate. I saw something that said lowering the drinking age to 18 and thought to myself, “Hmmmm that might actually be a very good topic to choose from.”
How did I look up my information on this topic? I honestly just googled “why should the drinking age be lowered to 18” and looked through all of the websites and picked the information that seemed the most reliable. Some of my links had .org and I was once told that a website with the .org at the end of it has a lot of credible information throughout the source.
Sources
Blogger, Guest. "15 Reasons Why Drinking Age Should Be 18 - Cognac.com."Cognaccom. Cognac, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2015
Greenblatt, Alan. "What Is the Age of Responsibility?" What Is the Age of Responsibility? Governing, 30 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
Carpenter, Christopher, and Carlos Dobkin. "The Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Public Health." The Journal of Economic Perspectives : A Journal of the American Economic Association. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
Jonathan Stearns - April 17, 2007 10:35 EDT. "Drunk-Driving Deaths Fall in Germany, Rise in Britain and Spain." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 17 Apr. 2007. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), Response to the request of Sub-Committee B of the House of Lords European Communities Committee concerning evidence of safety effects of a lower legal limit for the blood alcohol level for drivers (1997), Brussels, Belgium.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amber Koterba
ENG 100
I-Search Paper
April 23rd, 2015
PROPOSAL
Being a 20 year old teenager, it may sound crazy to most older adults thinking, “Wow she just wants to be able to drink legally at her age she doesn’t know the repercussions.” No, me being a teenager I witness the effects drinking has on your body, I’ve been there. I’ve had alcohol poisoning from drinking far too much the night before, and yes it’s wrong. But who’s to say that adults don’t get alcohol poisoning? I have learned my limits, to never ever drink that much again. And if you ask any teenage girl or boy they will tell you the exact same. But that isn't the main point in lowering the drinking age to 18.
As a college student, I have been to college parties at multiple universities. At every single college I have been to, the cops have been far more worried about underage drinking opposed to the actual crimes going on and drugs being used at the school. Ask yourself this question, what seems more “illegal”, crimes and drugs or drinking with your friends. Just as if we were 21 drinking at a college party, as long as we aren’t being disruptive why should we face some type of penalty?
How I will be gathering data is by researching my topic sentence, “Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?”. I will be doing this by googling all different types of topics that I choose to pinpoint throughout my paper.