Reducing Minimum Legal Drinking Age to Decrease Alcohol Related Consequences Among Youth

Angel Gallegos Source Analysis Essay Rhet 104 Drinking Age At 18? How do we react when young adults are acting obnoxious and completely out of control due to extreme alcoholic consumption? Over the years tensions and arguments have risen to many peoples understanding about whether or not the minimum drinking age should be lowered to the age of 18 years old. This major topic has popped up in the heads of many U. S citizens over the years due to the facts that have popped up by many science based and informational research programs. Where has most of the illegal age drinking been taking place?According to the two authors of the scholarly reviewed article, â€Å"Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking And Related Consequences Among Youths? † Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, they state that in college is where most young adults take on the role of binge-drinkers and take a major advantage of their ability to consume alco hol illegally. The real question here is, â€Å"should the drinking age be lowered? And why? † and we will see the methodology of both authors in their opinions on towards lowering the drinking age.Both authors’ main argument in the reviewed article is obviously to lower the drinking age. To lower the drinking age would mean so much to the nation in their opinion because of the facts that have been showing up in the U. S. According to the authors based on research that has been made, alcohol tops the list of causes for deaths and injuries in young adults. It is sad to see that this information is very true up to this day and both authors prove it very well by showing images of the information they are stating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System.This image in the article seems credible because its coming from a administration in which they strictly focus on the fatalities caused by underage drinking over the past 20 -30 years and it is clearly visible that back when the drinking age was set at 18 years there were fewer deaths then when it was raised to 21 years and so since then only assumptions and arguments have been made to why those facts pop up. This evidence is effective to us the readers because if we were really interested in the topic we would be able to see the facts on the image shown on the article and be able to argue the age differences in the drinking ages.The authors give information on how in college is where the heavy binge drinking takes place for most of young adults. Based on a national survey, stated by the authors, found out that 1 out of every 10 students that consumed alcohol illegally underage reported experiencing any bad consequences for breaking the liquor/alcohol policies given at their respected schools. I believe that this is ineffective in a way because if the government is imposing the drinking age to be at 21 then why aren’t they acting upon all the und erage drinkers.It’s not like they don’t know how much alcohol consumption takes place at colleges. This is where their next argument arose and gave the knowledge about the â€Å"The Amethyst Initiative Argument†. They give reference to this petition, which involves presidents and chancellors of over 135 colleges in the signing of lowering the drinking age to 18 years of age due to various college drinking experiences. I find this petition to be really interesting to me because of the way they use their words to argue that the drinking age should be lowered.The authors use words like â€Å"not working† to target the fact that the drinking age at 21 is not â€Å"preventing† young adults from consuming alcohol illegally. The credibility in everything they say can be easily accounted for but overall there could be some authorial bias coming from the presidents and chancellors of these colleges because of the fact that it is hard to reasonably support t he overall position of drinking but overall it does not seem to carry over the authors themselves because they are simply stating the information given by the presidents and chancellors.In this petition they state that 18 year old through the age of 20 year olds have driven underage drinking underground in unmonitored areas and it is bad to for the nation because only the underage drinkers are aware of what is going on but in reality they really don’t know what can be the outcome of the night because they have as much access to as much liquor they would please. They argue how the government wants to reduce fatalities in the nation and underage drinking so why not lower the drinking age to 18 and let young dults do wise decisions on their own while still being able to come out to the bars and drink responsibly in a more protected and controlled environment as oppose of their unmonitored areas. Lastly in the petition they say a sentence that caught my attention over all in whic h I believe they could evaluate more as authors to the article and this sentence basically showed the comparison of Western Europe’s young adults ranging from 18-20 year olds drink more responsibly and they make that assumption because the drinking age in Europe is lower then the drinking age here at the United States.I feel that both authors could’ve made an effort to support this assumption better by going to other resources and getting information in where they show some type of facts that can be used to argue this statement against the drinking age and not only in comparison to Europe but to all the other countries as well, but other then that the authors have cited and backed up their information well even though a bias point of view can be seen because maybe other people view the idea of consuming alcohol completely different. In reflection to the article I believe I stand with the opinion or views of those who want to lower the drinking age.Not because I am unde rage and just view it as I want to legally buy drinks faster but I see it as a completely different way. I think that if the United States government is able to give drivers licenses to young adults, why not be able to give them the choice to drink as well. Driving is a big responsibility in which any person has to take on and I believe that if they trust a young adult by making a choice to drive a vehicle and place their life in danger every day they do it then why not give them the trust to drink responsibly as well.I feel that given that right it will ultimately lower binge drinking because they wont be doing it illegally. I support the views of the authors as well because even though it might come in a bias way at the end of it, it really does not because we see that they will never be able control alcohol related problems but there are always ways to try and prevent more from breaking out. http://web. ebscohost. com/ehost/detail? vid=4&sid=8db21b3f-0745-49b5-b020-7285e730bd01%4 0sessionmgr114&hid=128&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=50616981