2. The Law
National Minimum Drinking
Age Act
1984
Withheld federal highway
funds unless state made the
age to purchase alcohol 21
3. Old Enough to Fight
At 18, a man must
register for the Selective
Service
Old enough to die for
your country
Not old enough to buy a
beer
http://blog.honeycreekcamapts.com/files/2011/06/american-flag.jpeg
4. Old Enough to be
independent
Responsible enough to
choose next president
Old enough to emancipate
self from parents
Old enough to accept risk to
smoke
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-amber/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-
wh_b_1931281.html
http://jimjosephexp.blogspot.com/2011/03/white-label-packaging-for-cigarettes.html
5. Legally an adult
At 18, if charged with a crime
you are tried as an adult
If arrested, you no longer go
to a juvenile detention
facility, instead you go to jail
Responsible for your crimes
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scale_of_justice_2_new.jpeg
7. Forbidden Fruit
It is a thrill to break the law when drinking alcohol
At 18, teens are searching for independence that other
adults have
Alcohol seems to be a right of being an adult
8. Barrett Seamen
“When I began researching binge
drinking on American college
campuses…I was struck by the
unanimity of the culture on these
campuses that seems to revolve
around
heavy, dangerous, determinative
drinking, where people set out to
get drunk and the whole notion of
pregaming and doing shots in the
dorm room. The sort of
clandestine behavior I just didn’t
remember from my days in
college, which were definitely a
long time ago. But back in the
’60s, when the drinking age in
New York, where I went to
school, was 18, we didn’t feel a
need to do that stuff because it
was legal.”
http://my.hamilton.edu/excelsior/excelsior-the-campaign-for-hamilton/a-salute-to-a-generation-of-hamiltonians
Daniloff, Caleb. "Drinking: 18 vs. 21." BU Today RSS. Boston University, 21 Oct. 2010. Web. 01 July 2013.
Former editor and correspondent for Time
Magazine
Researched drinking in relation to college
campuses
9. Learning Responsibility
At 18, teens often live with their parents
If they could drink at this age, they could learn how to
drink responsibly from the people who should be
teaching them, their parents
If the drinking age were 18, teens would be able to
drink in the presence of responsible adults who could
monitor how much they drink
Drinking with parents will help diminish the “excitement”
of drinking
10. Teens will often “pregame” an
event
This means that they will try to
drink enough to stay at least
buzzed when they go to an
event
This most often requires them
to binge drink right before
leaving to go to the venue
http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/baseball-field-dimensions/
•If 18 year olds were able to order
a drink they would not have to
pregame
•They would be able to drink
either less or the same amount,
but spread over a few hours
11. Alcohol can be Good and Bad
Good
In moderation, perfectly
cheerful
In moderation, no damage to
youth development
In moderation, no one is
harmed
Bad
In excess amounts can
devastate families, jobs, and
soceity
In excess, can damage youth
development
Drinking excess and driving
can take lives
12. Some claim that changing the drinking age to
21 has prevented so many driving accidents
From 1982 to 1992 the
incidence of drunk driving in
the following countries
dropped:
UK 50%
Germany 37%
Australia 32%
Netherlands 28%
Canada 28%
United States 26%
While the US has seen a
drop in drunk driving, it
cannot only be attributed to
the change in the drinking
age
The other countries, unlike
the US, did not change their
drinking ages
Sweedler, Barry M. “The worldwide decline in drinking and driving”. National Transportation Safety Board. Washington D.C., 1993. Web. 8 Jul. 2013.
13. Solutions
One possible way that an 18
drinking age could be enacted is
by requiring 18 year olds to go
through alcohol education classes
and obtain a “learner’s permit” to
drink
“We should prepare young adults
to make responsible decisions
about alcohol in the same way we
prepare them to operate a motor
vehicle: by first educating and
then licensing and permitting them
to exercise the full privileges of
adulthood so long as they
demonstrate their ability to
observe the law” – John
McCardell
John McCardell, President and Vice
Chancellor of the University of the
South in Sewanee and founder of
Choose Responsibly
http://wlunews.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/mccardell
.jpg
McCardell, John M. “Let Them Drink at 18, With a Learner’s Permit.” Nytimes.com. New York Times, 28 May
2012. Web. 1 Jul. 2013
14. In Review
18 year olds are old enough to Die for country, smoke, live
on their own, and be punished like adults
The change in the drinking age has brought about higher
incidence of binge drinking
Teens should learn how to responsibly drink
Alcohol is inherently a good thing, but its abuse has many
devastating side effects
Instead of pushing for a total ban, we should put policies into
effect which would teach moderate drinking
