Weekly Writing Assignment #3

[1] CBS News: The debate on lowering the Drinking Age
[2] US News World Report: The Drinking Age Debate: Time to Go from21 to 18, But It's not an Easy Call
[3] LA Times: At 18, is it time for a drink?
[4] ABC News: Group stirs debate on Legal Drinking Age

The debate on lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 in the United States has been sparked with controversy since two years ago when one hundred college presidents (including Dartmouth, Virginia Tech and Duke) across the country signed a petition to lower the drinking age to 18. The movement was started by John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont.

According to CBS News, the history of the law began in the 1980s’, when the goal was to reduce highway fatalities by lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.

The debate that McCardell has been trying to provoke is that he does not think the law is working at all—and instead of pushing kids to begin drinking at 21; kids have taken it underground, behind closed doors, allowing them to become uneducated in alcohol and instead abusing it heavily and binging on it excessively.

Being 18 is considered an adult in America, you can vote, drive, buy cigarettes, and be potentially drafted—and McCardell is arguing that they can make the right choices about drinking if they are educated about it at an early age.

The opposing side includes Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), who helped implement the law in the 80s’. Siding along with MADD, includes other prominent groups such as the American Medical Association, the National Transportation Safety Board, the National Safety Council, the International Association Chiefs of Police, the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, the Surgeon General of the U.S., as well as the U.S. Transportation Secretary.

Their beliefs include that they don’t think that kids can decide for themselves the right choices when it comes to alcohol—and that will mean an increase in teenage deaths in American families.

Another side pro-lowering the drinking age would be first-hand witness accounts of authority figures that know how kids abuse alchol.

Police officers and sheriffs in college towns are well aware of how kids abuse alcohol, and most would agree with McCardell’s stance on the issue—no matter how many kids they cite or arrest; kids are going to keep drinking.

Most of the people on both sides of the debate would agree that alcohol education starts at home—and that parents should be responsible in introducing it to their kids in a safely and well-educated manner.

Both sides of the debate would also agree that not only is education important in the manner, but that safety is the first issue to address when it comes to alcohol.