Bermudez 1

Joshua Bermudez
Professor Frank
English 1030
24 November 2014
Lowering the Drinking Age
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 established punishments on every
state that allowed people under the age of 21 to purchase and consume alcohol by reducing these
states annual federal highway apportionment by ten percent (The 1984 National Legal
Drinking Age Act). After this act was passed, states obeyed rather quickly because highway
funds played a significant role in the expansion of infrastructure, big cities, and trade. At the
time, these funds were of the utmost necessity, but in modern times it seems they do not
contribute substantially to the value of transportation as much. The federal budget is often used
by the states on low-value activities, and the restrictions from the government on this federal
highway budget constrain innovation and increase highway costs (Roth). These funds are
considered a categorical grant because they come with guidelines of how to use them and what to
use them on. The guidelines attached to the grant are what holds the state governments from
creating projects they find more beneficial to the state. States raised the drinking age to 21 to
withhold the federal highway budget they were receiving, but now that this money is not critical
to the states expansion, the states should lower their drinking age. Lowering the drinking age
will benefit states and their citizens.
A common misconception in todays world is the belief that the minimum drinking age at
21 has directly decreased the number of traffic fatalities in newly-legal drinkers (Dee & Evans).
Regardless of the drinking age, people will drink and drive as soon as they become legal because
it is not solely youth who are guilty of being irresponsible. No matter the age, 18 or 21, newly-

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legal drinkers will continue to make bad decisions. At age 18, which is considered an adult in
United States culture, citizens are deemed responsible enough to vote, use tobacco, serve on
juries, get married, sign contracts, be prosecuted as adults, and endanger their own life by
enlisting in the army (Chiappetta). If these underage people want to drink, they should be
allowed to. The responsibility associated with the actions above is significantly greater than the
responsibility of monitoring your own drinking and making good decisions. Claas Kuhnen, a
commenter and follower of National Public Radio, replies to a girl named Katie, Katie what you
do not realize to see at all is that in the USA the system prevents a normal maturity and growing
up with responsibility (Singh). Kuhnen has commented and left a stale remark claiming
European teens are more responsible and thats why they can drink at younger ages. The United
States teens have too much responsibilities at age 18 for them to be discredited just because they
cannot drink. The drinking age should be lowered so the Europeans can realize their teenagers
are not more responsible, but either way the responsibilities of our youth should not be
questioned. It may seem like raising the drinking age directly caused the decrease of drunk
driving accidents, but truly it did accomplish. It has believed just because the statistics lowered
after the risen drinking age, but the lowering of drunk driving accidents is not correlated to the
risen drinking age.
Yes, there have been fewer drunk driving accidents since the drinking age has risen. No,
it has no relevance to the actual change in drinking age. Two years prior to the establishment of
the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 signs of alcohol related fatalities from car
crashes were already dropping. Before the deadline of enforcing the act in 1986, the percentage
of alcohol related fatalities had already dropped six percent (2011 Drunk Driving Statistics). This
proves the drunk driving statistics were already dropping anyway, and the act had less of an

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effect than people think. This may be questioned, but take a look at other countries with drinking
ages at 18 during this time period. These countries exhibit an increased lowering rate of traffic
accidents and fatalities than the United States during the 1980s (Sweedler). The statistics suggest
there could have been a confounding variable creating a drop in fatalities. The confounding
variable could be the enhanced precautions of drinking and driving or just an increase in overall
safeness of drivers. If the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 is not actually stopping
these accidents, but delaying them, then maybe the act is stopping underage drinkers.
The studies of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse show underage
drinking accounts for 17.5% ($22.5 billion) of consumer spending for alcohol in the United
States (Califano Jr.).In addition to this in 2006 72.2% of twelve graders reported drinking
alcohol at some time during their lives (Covey). Although this study assumes every answer was
honest, it still proves that no matter the drinking age, some underage people will drink. It is
proven now that a decent of amount of alcohol consumed is by minors. Raising the drinking age
to 21 did not stop underage people from drinking, but instead caused these people to have to
drink in unsupervised places and hope they do not get caught and ruin their future opportunities
in the workplace and college.
Only occasionally when underage drinkers get caught do they actually face the
ramifications of their actions, and these consequences are severe and can affect their potential in
a future career. Police are inclined to ignore underage drinking because of resource limitations,
statutory obstacles, perceptions that punishments are inadequate, and the time and effort required
for processing and paperwork. It is estimated two out of every 1,000 occasions of illegal
underage drinking result in an arrest (Wolfson). If cops very rarely enforce it, what is even the
point of having the law? If an underage drinker gets caught and is let go, he is more inclined to

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think less of law enforcement agencies. He got away with breaking the law and that is all he
knows. Who is to stop him from doing it again if he knows he will get away with it? Additionally
when people are punished for the laws broken and tell their friends, it generates a source of
disrespect for law enforcement officers. The intolerance towards drinking gives the United States
law agencies a negative reputation in young adults. Minors now see cops and get scared instead
of feeling protected, and this generates a dislike for law enforcers. Young adults should learn to
respect cops instead of feeling afraid whenever they see them. If these young adults see drinking
as breaking the law it will desensitize the feeling of breaking any law therefore cause young
adults to be more willing to steal and purchase fake IDs to their, and if they get caught with any
of those charges they could be facing serious sentences. With this being said, we should not
worry about the harm done to their future when sometimes they can harm themselves in these
unsupervised environments.
A drinking age set at 21 has caused underage drinkers to find some sort of thrill in
breaking the law and when young adults find a thrill in something, they do it to an extent. Many
adolescents drink just to do something illegal and by the time they reach the age of 21 they do
not care to drink anymore and this is because of binge drinking. Binge drinking is a common
problem in underage drinkers now, and it sometimes leads to serious alcohol related injuries.
There are too many occasions where underage kids have found themselves in risk of hurting
themselves and they do not call for medical attention because they are scared for the
consequences. It is not right to force these underage drinkers to make a decision of calling an
ambulance and dealing with not only legal consequences, but also repercussions from their
parents, or choosing to not call and hope the person pulls through the night without alcohol
poisoning. The times the underage person makes the wrong decision and does not call the cops

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are detrimental and have an effect on that persons family and all his friends. If it is possible to
prevent these risks, why are they not being prevented? Lowering the drinking age will allow
these underage drinkers to drink in a more secure environment where they will not be able to
binge. Also it gives more students the ability to become responsible with drinking at a time when
it is more beneficial to make a mistake. If a 20 year old makes a mistake it becomes more
detrimental to him than if a 17 year old made that same mistake. Lowering the drinking age will
increase the rate of maturity in adolescents, and this is important because now a days some
people do not mature until they are out of college. These supervised environments where
managers can cut them off. Adding supervised environments like bars, restaurants, and other
licensed locations to places where 18-21 year olds can drink will cause them to see drinking as
more casual like matures instead of some kind of thrill like underage drinkers now (FAQs).
Nonetheless, young adults should be allowed to drink alcohol because it is an enjoyable
activity and an easy way for these stressed adolescents to socialize with their friends. As
mentioned earlier, underage drinking will happen just because it is perceived as a fun event. Lots
of entertaining things are associated with drinking like being social, relieving stress, and
sometimes playing video games. It is a common to see alcohol ads purposely targeting underage
kids. In the Appendix below there is an ad by Heineken, a brewing company. In this
advertisement Heineken is trying to appeal to specific set of viewers in hope of getting a quick
response for the sweepstakes they are holding. The winner of these sweepstakes will win a
Nintendo Game Cube. The biggest problem with this ad is that Heineken may have mistakenly
influenced underage drinking. Associating video games like the Game Cube immediately appeals
to younger males, but not only young males but teenagers. 97% of teenagers play video games
every day or almost every day (Marketing Charts Staff). This means when teenagers see this ad

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they will associate Heineken with something they know far too well and enjoy. Whether or not it
was done on purpose teenagers will see this and link the fun they have with gaming to alcoholic
drinks they are not allowed to drink. Also since the controller is taped to the bottles and the text
below reads Add two more features to your controller, it seems as if the beer bottles are related
to features which resemble something special or unique. Additionally at the top of the ad it reads
Its Game Day which appeals to almost any athlete, and younger men play sports
competitively more often. Game Day appeals to all watchers of college and NFL football.
Teenagers are commonly watchers of these. Overall underage drinkers find this ad interesting
because of the Game Day reference, the Game Cube, and the two new features (beers). These are
two very fun and enjoyable parts of peoples lives that should not be restricted.
Lowering the drinking age will definitely cause problems amongst some people in the
United States, but this is an action more beneficial than disadvantageous. If people cannot see
that, then compromises can be made. People still may argue that 18-21 year olds are too
irresponsible with their alcohol. Then create a course solely on alcohol to provide to kids in high
school. This course can teach youths the dangers of alcohol, and how they can truly harm
themselves through drinking. If there are still some worries within the citizens, just lower the
drinking age anyway and see what happens.

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Works Cited
"APIS - The 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act." APIS - The 1984 National Minimum
Drinking Age Act. N.p., n.d. Web.
Califano Jr., Joseph. "The Commercial Value of Underage and Pathological Drinking to the
Alcohol Industry," (168 KB) National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University, May 2006
Chiappetta, Annie. "Should Drinking Age Be 18?," www.abcnews.com, Apr. 14, 2005
Choose Responsibiltiy, "FAQs," www.chooseresponsibility.org (accessed Mar. 28, 2012)
Covey, Charlie. "Drinking Age Requires Necessary and Proper Action," www.youthfacts.org,
Nov. 11, 2007
Dee, Thomas S. and Evans, William N. "Behavioral Policies and Teen Traffic Safety," American
Economic Review, May 2001
Marketing Chart Staff. "Nearly All US Teens, 53% of Adults Play Video Games."
MarketingCharts. Watershed Publishing, n.d. Web.
Roth, Gabriel. "Federal Highway Funding." Downsizing the Federal Government. Cato Institute,
n.d. Web.
Singh, Maanvi. "Legal Drinking Age Of 21 Saves Lives, Even Though It's Flouted." NPR. NPR,
n.d. Web.
Sweedler, Barry M. "The Worldwide Decline in Drinking and Driving: Has It Continued?,"
Presentation for the 15th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety
in Stockholm (Sweden), www.ntsb.gov, May 2000

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Wolfson, M., Wagenaar, A., and Hornseth, G. "Law Officers' Views on Enforcement of the
Minimum Drinking Age: A Four-State Study," www.hcbi.nlm.nih.gov, July 1995

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Appendix