2008 Fall Critical Thinking Research Topic: Drinking Age

Please add findings below following the template on the Fall 2008 Critical Thinking Research Topics page.

Group members should also work to keep the page well organized. -Alfino

International center for alcoholic policies

research link

summary/reconstructionThe website "International center for alcoholic policies" is full of information about the drinking age. It holds information such as policy issues, building relationships, research, education, and publications. It catalogues news, periodicals, journals, and books series. I found some interesting facts about the Drinking Patterns of some individuals. It states facts about individual drinking and group drinking situations.

Arguments for Lowering the Drinking Age Are Misguided

Research Link

Summary/Reconstruction This article explains that the drinking age should be enforced. They go one to explain that lowering the drinking age won’t give teens the chance to learn to drink in moderation it will only allow lower age teens to access alcohol and distribute it to lower age teens. Also drinking in moderation doesn’t come through lowering the age it comes through maturity, which happens through, “marriage, and a first job”.

Ethan Fleming

Minimum Drinking-Age Laws Are Effective

research link

Summary/Reconstruction this article reviews another article called Journal of Studies on Alcohol, vol. 63, March 2002 which explains that the drinking age of twentyone is the single most effective tool that has curved underage drinking. It reaffirms this belief be stating that the law has saved seventeen thousand lives since 1975. Furthermore when individual states lowered the drinking age to 18, 19, or even 20 the driving fatalities dramatically increased.

Ethan Fleming

Why the drinking age should be lowered

research link

Summary/Reconstruction This site argues that the drinking age should be lowered to prevent. The reason they have include, treating alcohol as a forbidden fruit will only encourage students to drink illegally. They support this point by providing statistics of legal drinkers and underage drinkers. These statistics outline how the drinking amongst underage drinkers is more severe than that of legal drinkers.

Ethan Fleming

Minimum drinking age laws should be strongly enforced

Source Wagenaar, Alexander C, and Mark Wolfson. "Minimum Drinking-Age Laws Should Be Strongly Enforced." Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol. Ed. Scott Barbour. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. INLAN - Gonzaga University Library. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010217227&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gonzagaufoley&version=1.0>.

Summary/Reconstruction This site talks about how alcohol is easily obtained by minors. It goes on to give statistics about how easy it is for youth, particularly males, to obtain alcohol, as there are not many barriers standing in the way of this happening. It goes on to address how the reason for this is that law enforcement officers not on high patrol for this and most teen drinking does not result in arrest.

Rachel Wagner

Youth Drinking Leads to Alcoholism

Source Li, Ting-Kai. "Youth Drinking Leads to Alcoholism." Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol. Ed. Andrea C. Nakaya. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. INLAN - Gonzaga University Library. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010217279&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gonzagaufoley&version=1.0>.

Summary/Reconstruction The main argument given in this article is that the earlier one starts drinking, the more likely he or she is to become an alcoholic. It talks about how by preventing teen drinking, we can lower the number of alcoholics and lower the number of alcohol related health issues as well.

Rachel Wagner

Developmental Harm Caused by Alcohol is Overstated

Source Buell, John. "Developmental Harm Caused by Alcohol Is Overstated." At Issue: Alcohol Abuse. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. INLAN - Gonzaga University Library. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010276216&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gonzagaufoley&version=1.0>.

Summary/Reconstruction This article states that there is no true conclusion on whether alcohol inflicts damage upon teen brains or not. The author says there have not been enough studies done; it is also hard to measure cognitive ability in general; it also says many of the articles saying drinking does brain damage are done by the national institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, so they may be screwed as they are paid for by an interest group.

Rachel Wagner

Drinking Impairs Youth Development

Source Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human. "Drinking Impairs Youth Development." Opposing Viewpoints: Alcohol. Ed. Andrea C. Nakaya. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. INLAN - Gonzaga University Library. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010217267&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gonzagaufoley&version=1.0>.

Summary/Reconstruction This site argues that if youth drink alcohol than they could sustain brain damage that will last for life. He says this is furthered because teens often binge drink. It also gives a variety of reasons why youth drink.

Rachel Wagner

Debate on lowering the drinking age bubbling up

Finding and Link MSNBC

news http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/

Summary/Reconstruction I found this link to be helpful becaused it introduces reasons for and against lowering the drinking age. It put ideas into my head and possibly yours. Opening up the issue that having the age at 21 has reduced drunk driving, yet has also opened up the fact taht drinking underage is now done on the underground level. Having drinking behind closed doors leads to unsupervised and potentially dangerous drinking.

Landon Block

A Lower Drinking Age Would Be Unsafe

Finding and Link US News and World Report

http://proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tth&AN=34274767&site=ehost-live

Summary/Reconstruction This link is sends you to a good argument for why the age should be 21. It gives stats as well as on epoin tof view on the subject. It is however, a bias link because it only looks at one side of the matter. I find this link to be useful when trying to get a good backround on the subject because it does not dive to deep into the issue.

Landon Block

Younger Males Drink Most, and Sometimes Too Much.

Finding and Link The Gallup Poll

http://proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tth&AN=11348594&site=ehost-live

Summary/Reconstruction If you are looking for stats, come to this site. The stats were done by the "Gallup Poll" whether or not that is credible. One thing you may want to consider is that the stats were done in 2003, however, it is a good basis for comparison.

Landon Block

Hypertension, Alcohol can Mix -- just a little

Finding and Link USA Today

Alcohol Good?

Summary USA Today wrote this article on how alcohol can be good for some men. When alcohol is used in moderation it can actually benefit the health of some men. It does not lead to a higher risk of heart attack or health problems like once presumed. Binge drinking can, however, lead to other possible health problems, including addiction.

Landon Block

Health Alliance on Alcohol

Finding and Link

Health Alliance

Summary The Health Alliance on Alcohol is urging parents to talk to their teens. It gives a whole description on how alcohol effects the body. It explains the effects that are felt during intoxication as well as the long and short term effects after sobering up. Long term effects such as a slow loss of balance or the degeneration of the liver. This site gives a good explanation for being drunk and is on the side of teens not drinking.

Landon Block

Minimum Age Limits Worldwide

http://www.icap.org/PolicyIssues/YoungPeoplesDrinking/AgeLawsTable/tabid/219/Default.aspx

this page just has a table that lists all the minimum drinking ages for countries around the world. It has the laws for buying on and off premises as well as some notes for countries that have special circumstances

Austin Larson

Drinking Age

http://inst.sfcc.edu/~hfl/speech/drinkage.htm

This site contains no actual information but has links to many sites that are for the drinking age or against the drinking age as well as more neutral articles.

Austin Larson

Legislative Analysis for the National Minimum Drinking Age Act

http://www.yria.alcade.net/essays/leg-an.htm

This page contains a brief(not very brief, but that was the description) history of different laws that have to do with the drinking age in America. It also has some statistics on what way Republicans and Democrats voted on these laws.

Austin Larson

Experience, Science And The Drinking Age

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/125135.php

This article states that it is from the Wyoming department of health and talks about how recently 100 college presidents argued for lowering the drinking age to 18. The writers mainly argue against their idea to lower the drinking age.

Austin Larson

Alcohol Information System Website

http://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov

This site provides information on all the policies regarding U.S. Law, and links to exceptions to those rules

Drew Baldassarre

College Presidents Seek Drinking Age Debate

Source "College Presidents seek drinking age debate." MSNBC News. 19 August 2008 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26271328/.

Summary 100 college presidents want to have a national debate on the drinking age which could possibly result in the drinking age being moved back to 18 because they think that will help prevent binge drinking from occurring on their campuses and elsewhere. MADD (Mothers against drunk driving) disagrees with this proposal, saying drunk driving will increase and the safety of college campuses will decrease.

Rachel Wagner

Brain Damage Risks

Source "Brain Damage Risks." AMA-Assn. 12 February 2008 <http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/9416.html>.

Summary From the american medical association website, this is a“summary of two decades of comprehensive research on how alcohol affects the brains of youth. The report's aggregation of extensive scientific and medical information reveals just how harmful drinking is to the developing brain and serves as a wakeup call to parents, physicians, elected officials, law enforcement, purveyors of alcohol – including the alcohol industry – and young drinkers themselves.” It includes statistics and talks about how two specific areas of the brain are negatively affected, too.

Rachel Wagner

Don't lower the Drinking Age

Source Acohol Policies Project. "Do Not Lower the Drinking Age." Contemporary Issues Companion: Teen Alcoholism. Ed. Laura K. Egendorf. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. INLAN - Gonzaga University Library. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010084223&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=gonzagaufoley&version=1.0>

Summary This article gives the common arguments for why the drinking age should be lowered, such as it will help people drink responsibility, the current laws don’t work, and if people can join the military and vote they should be able to legally consume alcohol. It lays out these common arguments and then refutes them, giving reasons why these arguments are not valid, such as kids in high school will drink more, the current laws do work, etc.

Rachel Wagner

Alocohol related brain damage

This page gives you several articles related to the issues of alcohol related brain damage specifically in Australia. IT is a government site so i would say its pretty trustworthy. It has some good things to say about the negative effects of alcohol consumption.

"Alcohol Related Brain Damage." Better Health Channel. Nov. 2007. Government of

    Australia; State of Victoria. 13 Nov. 2008 
    <http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/ 
    Alcohol_related_brain_damage?open>.      

Drew Baldassarre

Assessment

There's some work to do here. I can't tell much about your sources from the wiki page. Please add citations between now and Monday. Someone should step up to organize the page. That will help all of us determine more about the coverage of topics and issues. I think we're going to need additional sources about some of the health claims. -Alfino 11/13/08