Should the Drinking Age be changed?

Minimum Legal Drinking Age

Findings

"Minimum Legal Drinking Age." American Medical Association - Physicians, Medical Students & Patients (AMA). Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/public-health/promoting-healthy-lifestyles/alcohol-other-drug-abuse/facts-about-youth-alcohol/minimum-legal-drinking-age.page>.

Summary This article will be helpful when comparing the amount of fatal crashes when the minimum legal drinking age was 18 or now 21. It gives a brief history of when and how many states had lower drinking ages than 21 and why all the states changed the age to 21. At the end, it talks about Europeans and how they have more diseases because of the alcohol consumption compared to the US, but the fatal car crash percentage is lower because they don't get their license till they are older. This site gives a few numbers we could use.

Anna Brajcich

Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths?

Findings

Wechsler, H., & Nelson, T. F., ScD. (2010). Will increasing alcohol availability by lowering the minimum legal drinking age decrease drinking and related consequences among youths? American Journal of Public Health, 100(6), 986-986-92. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/347533689?accountid=1557

Summary This article is very long but has some great information in it. It talks about reasons for being in support of lowering the legal drinking age to 18, one being so people know how to react to alcohol and controls themselves at a younger age reducing the chance of being an alcoholic or have alcohol problems when they get older. It talks about health issues, for example alcohol consumption is the third most common cause of death. It again gives a brief history of the past drinking ages. It talks about college drinking and lastly it talks about reducing underage drinking and its consequences. Very detailed article but worth reading.

Anna Brajcich

There's no benefit to lowering the drinking age:

Finding

Voas, R. (2006, Jan 12). There's no benefit to lowering the drinking age. The Christian Science Monitor, pp. 09-09. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/405547019?accountid=1557

Summary This article is very against lowering the drinking age back to 18. The author argues that the lower the drinking age the higher the percentage of fatal crashes occur. It talks about New Zealand and what happened when they lowered the drinking age. It gives the number of deaths, injuries, physical assaults, and sexual assaults for college students each year. Good article for an argument against lowering the legal drinking age.

Anna Brajcich

Fact Sheets-Underage Drinking

Finding "CDC - Fact Sheets-Underage Drinking - Alcohol." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact- sheets/underage-drinking.htm>.

Summary This is a very good article to read because it gives specific consequences for underage drinking. It provides statistics on how much alcohol youth actually consume compared to adults. It provides results from surveys that were taken in 2009 by high school students on how much alcohol they consumed in the last month.

Anna Brajcich

Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research

Finding Engs, Ruth C. "Why Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: Dr. Ruth Engs." Indiana University. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html

Summary This article is written by a professor at Indiana University. Her main arguments is that the higher drinking age is restricting youth to be able to drink in controlled environments where the drinking is more monitored than at random house parties. She believes that many kids see alcohol as the "forbidden fruit" and that the currently legal age of 21 is really not benefiting anybody. At the end she gives percentages of bad behavior habits that actually went up after the minimum legal drinking age was increased in all states to 21 in 1988.

Anna Brajcich

Legislation of Drinking Age

Findings

Koroknay/Palicz, Alex. "Legislative Analysis of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act." National Youth Rights Association. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. <http://www.youthrights.org/issues/drinking-age/legislative-analysis/>.

Summary This article helps to give background information on why the minimum drinking age is 21. It gives the drinking age legislation credit to Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It also goes into detail about the path this bill took to make the legal drinking age 21, such as the disputes over it and some of the other people who helped to push to make this a law. It breaks it down to show who was for the bill and who was not. It also highlights the media's role on the passing of the bill.

Colleen Meyers

Blog from Youth about Drinking Age

Findings

"National Youth Rights Association » Drinking Age." National Youth Rights Association. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <http://www.youthrights.org/tag/drinking-age-2/>.

Summary This site has frequently new blogs posted by youth about the drinking age. I do not know how resourceful some of them are, but many bring up good points about why the drinking age should be lowered. Usually the points do not go into much depth as they are stated usually as opinions, but they bring up ideas that can easily be further researched.

Colleen Meyers

Drunk Driving Article

Findings "Prevents Drunken Driving among 18-20 Year-olds and the Rest of the Population. - Choose Responsibility." John McCardell - Drinking Age - Choose Responsibility. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/article/view/15589/1/2641/>.

Summary There is evidence in many other sources that because of the 21 year minimum drinking age, there have been less fatalities in motor vehicle accidents. This site provides a chart to show that this is true, yet it is more relevant to the fact that seatbelts are required, cars are being built safer, and police enforcement are more of a higher cause of this decrease.

Colleen Meyers

International Perspectives on Adolescent and Young Adult Drinking

"International Perspectives on Adolescent and Young Adult Drinking." Alcohol Research and Health 28.4 (2004): 258,258-268. ProQuest. PROQUESTMS. 26 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/222392591?accountid=1557>.

Summary This article tries to explain the different drinking habits and tendencies among different areas and cultures. It tries to find different behaviors among adolescent drinkers in different countries. Examples include levels of intoxication, lifetime frequency of drinking, time spent drinking and many others. It is a very useful article because it uses school-based surveys and facts.

Riley Mackey

Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain: Human Studies

Tapert, Susan F., Lisa Caldwell, and Christina Burke. "Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain: Human Studies." Alcohol Research and Health 28.4 (2004): 205,205-212. ProQuest. PROQUESTMS. 26 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/222396060?accountid=1557>.

Summary The actual effects that alcohol on the adolescent brain are explained in this article. Brain structure and function is affected by the consumption of alcohol at an early age according to the findings of this research. It goes on to say how not every young person will be affected the same way because some are more tolerant and some are more sensitive. Different factors can alter this such as family history, drug use, frequency of drinking and so forth.

Riley Mackey

18 or 21? Drinking age debate heats up

Leder, Dave. "18 Or 21? Drinking Age Debate Heats Up." Yakima Herald - Republic Sep 03 2008: A.1. Washington State Newsstand. PROQUESTMS. 26 Oct. 2011 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/371838984?accountid=1557>.

Summary This article is about the debate on wether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 years old or stay at the already existing age of 21. Examples on both sides are given with the main points for 18 being that because at this age we can participate in even more important things such as voting and war, why cant we consume alcohol. This stand is more about personal choice and freedom. The argument for it to remain the same is that it would be more accessible to even younger ages now and put more people at risk on the roads. Finally a neutral point is that the key to being safe while drinking is not age but education and this needs to play a bigger role than it already does.

Riley Mackey