DRINKING AGE MEDIATION

Background Information

Alcohol and the legal drinking age have been issues in the United States since Prohibition in 1919

After Prohibition failed and ended in 1933, the drinking age has been 21, except for a few years in the 1970s due to the amounts of young people going off to fight in Vietnam During these years, twenty-nine states lowered

their drinking ages to 18, 19, and 20 In 1988, the drinking age was raised back up

to 21 for all fifty states

Thesis Statement

In order to arrive at a mediator of establishing a drinking permit at a younger age, one must examine the arguments concerning the effects of binge drinking, age consistency and brain maturation.

Binge Drinking Binge drinking is when one engages in

“heavy episodic consumption” according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

For Lowering the Drinking Age Dr. David J. Hanson, a sociologist at the

State University of New York at Potsdam, wrote, “Research suggests that the reduction in teenage alcohol-related fatalities that some point to as a reason for keeping the drinking age at 21 is in fact a result of nothing more than those fatalities being shifted to an older age group—21, 22 or 23”

For Keeping the Drinking Age James C. Fell, a senior program director at

the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation in Calverton, says, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that raising the drinking age to 21 saves about 800 lives a year”

Age Consistency

For Lowering the Drinking Age If you’re old enough to fight,

you’re old enough to drink Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes,

“The higher drinking age doesn’t stop college students from drinking, as anyone who’s been on a college campus in the past several decades knows. It does drive drinking out of the bars and restaurants and into dorm rooms and fraternity houses, where there is less supervision from the non-intoxicated and less encouragement for moderation”

For Keeping the Drinking Age Argue that science and statistics

trump over fairness

Brain Maturation

For Lowering the Drinking Age Argue that young people from different countries such as

Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, where they grow up exposed to alcohol and are able to drink it at a younger age, have no evidence that it may harm them intellectually or behaviorally

For Keeping the Drinking Age Brain doesn’t finish maturing until age 25 High-resolution brain scans on a sample of 29 weekend

binge drinkers, aged 18 to 25, found that binge-drinking was linked to cortical-thinning of the pre-frontal cortex, the section of the brain related to executive functioning such as paying attention, planning and making decisions, processing emotions and controlling impulses leading to irrational behavior

Mediation

Lower the drinking age to 18 with a permit

Permit should be obtained after taking alcohol education classes

Permit only allows drinking in bars and restaurants

Only allowed to buy alcohol and drink elsewhere at age 21

Works Cited

"1 in 4 High School Students and Young Adults Report Binge Drinking." CDC Press Release. 05 Oct 2010: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 28 Apr 2012.

"Binge Drinking: Nationwide Problem, Local Solutions." CDC Press Release. Jan 2012: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 02 Apr 2012.

Fuller, Dawn. "UC Study Reveals Possible Brain Damage in Young Adult Binge-Drinkers." Targeted News Service. 27 Jun 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Apr 2012.

Ogilvie, Jessica Pauline. "Pro/Con: Should Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18?." Los Angeles Times. 30 May 2011: E.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Apr 2012.

ProQuest Staff. "Underage Drinking Timeline." Leading Issues Timelines. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Apr 2012.

Reynolds, Glenn Harlan. "Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Drink." Wall Street Journal. 13 Apr 2011: A.17. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Apr 2012.

Overall Comments: Your Response Team has one of the same misgivings I do, namely the way your mediation about the drinking age in America tends to gloss over a lot of complex, knotty issues. Still, there’s a lot to admire about the presentation, such as the way you use topics as sorting devices, among your slides for and against lowering the drinking age. Thus the slides allow you to pause over separate topics like “Age Appropriateness” and “Brain Maturation.” You worked in a few visuals as well, stock materials but pertinent. I also admired how you worked the thesis-mediation in early, then circled back to it when logically appropriate. The idea of education as part of any change in the drinking age is indeed sound, and you handled the team questions well, too. A- or 92.

 

 

Carly Colosimo, Jacob Schoneman, Erin Tepper

 

Britni Andreassen, VF: Response

 

Summary

Andreassen’s presentation was mediating whether or not the drinking age should be lowered or stay the same. She first gave some background information on why the drinking age is 21 today, for example all fifty states raised the age back to 21 in 1988 after accidents increased in the 70s when the age was 18. Andreassen’s arguments for the drinking age staying at 21 included, it is proven that 800 lives are saved a year, science and statistics also prove the brain doesn’t mature until age 25. Her arguments for lowering the drinking age to 18 stated, it drives drinking to safer places, while other countries show no evidence that it harms them having the younger age. Her final mediation included lowering the age to 18 with a permit only to be obtained after taking classes. The permit would only allow drinking in bars and restaurants until you turn 21.

 

Critique

Andreassen’s mediation was thoughtful but it would be hard to regulate teens only drinking in bars and restaurants and not other places. She also could have provided more in depth facts about why the drinking age should be lowered.