It is dark, quiet, and all eyes are focused on Detective Reynolds. 400 middle school students, myself included, gather together for yet another D.A.R.E. assembly. We have heard it over and over again. Do not do drugs. Do not drink alcohol. Do not feel like you have to be cool. As a young teenager sitting in that audience listening to this policeman talk my mind begins to wander. What is it like to drink alcohol? What happens in college? Why is this guy telling us this? The same thoughts run through the brains of my surrounding peers. These officials understand the amount of underage drinking that occurs in our country and they are here to address it, but what is the real effect they are having? Speaking to kids about a topic that they have little to no knowledge only does one thing; It makes them think. It makes them question. In turn, it makes them experiment.
In America, alcohol has grown to become the new forbidden fruit. With the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) being 21, teenagers are inclined to take their social activities underground. No supervision. No rules. No police on standby. So, Instead of a having a beer in a controlled public environment, kids are binge drinking in their parent’s basement. According to Too Smart To Start, an underage drinking information site, “In 2013, 52 percent of 12 to 20-year-olds who drank reported that they last drank in someone else’s home, and 34 percent reported that the drinking occurred in their own home.” In these settings all it takes is for one kid to drink too much to the point where death is a possibility and everyone goes into a panic. Before they know it, they have waited too long to call and by the time the cops arrive the kid has already died. Excessive drinking handles more than 4300 deaths among underage teens each year and on average underage drinkers consume more alcohol per occasion than adult drinkers (CDC). As a teenager in high school, I am often compelled to think that there is no way around this problem for it has become such a normal activity in schools across the country. But a lot can be done to fix the norm, and it all starts with the drinking age.
If our government were to lower the MLDA to 18, like the other 60% of countries on our earth, we would see a major decline in accidents occurring from binge drinking. You might be the star of the football team, a human calculator who is taking college level math as a sophomore, or just an innocent kid from Mamaroneck who has a kind heart. It does not matter. Facts do not lie. By age 15, about 33 percent of teens have had at least one binge drinking experience and by age 18 about 60 percent of teens have had at least one experience (NIH). I’m sorry to all the parents who look at their children and see someone who will never grow up. Someone who will never try these bad remedies, but it’s reality. Now, in order to fix what we have started, we must chip away at the core, the foundation.
Over time, alcohol has received this mantra for being “rebellious”. In hindsight, it sort of is. Telling kids, “you must be 21 in order to drink this” immediately peaks their interest. It labels it as illegal and that, in turn, makes it cool. It isn’t the feeling of being drunk that teenagers take pleasure in, but it is the feeling of breaking the law that relieves some sort of inner desire. When kids hit puberty, they grow a capacity for strong emotions, impulsive behavior and need for sensation even when they know better (Drink Aware). For peat sake, in 2003, the average age of first use of alcohol was about 14, whereas in 1965 it was about 17 and a half (NIH). The numbers say it all. Kids are starting at a young age because they have a while to go before they turn 21, and that day is too far into the future to be worth waiting for. But what if we were to take this aspect out of the equation? What if at the age of 18, students were given the right to have a beer. What if the day where they could finally drink was no longer in the distant future, but in a couple of years. Would they be as inclined to do so? Would it seem as rebellious and turbulent? Or would it would it completely change the reputation alcohol has, making it less intimidating and less exciting. Changing student’s attitude towards the drug, even just the slightest bit, could be extremely effective in reducing the amount of alcohol that students consume each year. It is a step worth taking and it could save countless amounts of lives.
Nowadays, the trouble that kids get in from drinking alcohol is just as high as the trouble they get in from buying it. The struggle that buying alcohol used to present is now gone, and it is because of fake IDs. With the easy access that students have to Fake ID manufacturers, buying alcohol isn’t a problem, however, it can become one, a dangerous one. If a freshman at college goes to a bar where a cautious bouncer notices any sort of suspicion, that student is immediately put at federal risk. In the short term sense, getting caught using a fake ID at a club can result in a fine and jail time varying from state to state. A first time ID offender may receive a fine of up to $1,000 or more, whereas a common misdemeanor offender can be charged with a fine of $500 or less (Kavehkar). On top of this, if you are pulled over in a car with a fake ID, the DMV can suspend your license for up to a whole year (Wang). In the long run, any suspension, fraud, or felony that you have been charged with will most likely go onto your personal record. As an upperclassman in high school or underclassmen in college, having a criminal offense on your record can really hurt your chances of receiving future jobs and recommendations. That is something no student wants to deal with.
The problem is, we’ve come to live in a world where kids have 24/7 online access to any product imaginable. I mean, what can’t you buy on the internet. With a high drinking age, the majority of students are using the internet to purchase ‘fakes’. In 2013, LiveScience did a study where they found that out of 1,000 students at a U.S. university, almost two-thirds of students had used fake IDs to buy alcohol at least once during college. Is that worth it? No, but teenagers will do whatever it takes to get what they want, and apparently cheap beer has become a bigger priority to them than their careers. So, as ridiculous as that may sound, there is nothing we can do to stop students from drinking, but we can stop them from getting in trouble. The current MLDA is forcing students into an unnecessary sticky, no-win situation. A situation that is the consequence of a higher drinking age yet one that can be easily eliminated.
Now, from first glance, lowering our minimum legal drinking age from 21 to 18 may not seem like a smart thing to do. Drinking a lot over a short period of time can interfere with the development of a growing body and can have serious side effects on young adults. Strokes, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, alcoholic hepatitis, fatty liver, and a series of different cancers are all possible consequences of drinking alcohol (NIH). To add onto this, alcohol can seriously disrupt a student’s brain. Changes in mood, behavior, coordination, and intelligence can all be harmed severely with the consumption of alcohol. So why lower the drinking age to 18 and risk the consequences? Well, why don’t you ask Gordie Bailey?
On September 17th, 2004, Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr. (“Gordie”) was found dead at the Chi Psi Fraternity house at the University of Colorado at Boulder. One night, he drank too much to the point where he couldn’t function, yet his brothers were too scared to call the police. They waited till the morning came and by then he was already lying on the floor dead. It was his third week at the school. Gordie was 18 years old. Sadly, almost all college students take part in drinking activities week in and week out, and our current MLDA is not doing anything to prevent it. Gordie Bailey represents a life that could have been saved if our MLDA had been 18 at the time. With a lower drinking age, Gordie’s brothers would have had no reason to not call the police. What they were doing would have been legal. However, they were afraid of getting in trouble, so they waited. Gordie is one of almost all college students who drink illegally on a regular basis. Gordie is also one of many students who has died from alcohol poisoning. An MLDA of 18 would provide a safer community where college students would feel inclined to notify the police when something goes wrong. It’s time we make that change.
The light begins to brighten, the projector shuts off, and Detective Reynolds exits the stage to a round of applause. I stroll back to my classroom and take a seat in the back next to the window. As middle school students, there are no greater words you can possibly hear than “class, we will be having an assembly on drugs and alcohol this period”. To the majority of us, that meant 30 minutes of nap time. And by the majority, I mean 95 percent. Over and over again I have been told to not drink alcohol. They have enlightened me with the effects of alcohol poisoning. They have spat numerous facts at me about drunk driving . But frankly, as a 12-year-old, I don’t care. As far as all the students in the room think, they will never have a drink until they are 21. That isn’t reality. That isn’t the truth.
Since we have a while to go before we turn 21, Detective Reynolds tells us why we should not drink alcohol, as if we aren’t going to. This is why we need to change the MLDA in our country. Young students should be informed that the majority of them will drink alcohol and that it is completely ok. As a 12-year-old, that is all I want to hear. I want to know that I am in good hands. I want to know that the activities I may or may not partake in are completely normal, yet are extremely dangerous as well. In doing this we are preventing these common incidents that occur every day. Every day that goes by another kid from Colorado has died, another college student in New York is being caught with a fake ID, and another teenagers’ heart is stopping right as the cops arrive at his doorsteps. Until our MLDA changes to 18, kids across the country won’t be prepared for what is to come, and that is scary. The time has arrived where we must accept reality. We must accept the reality that most teenagers begin to drink way before they have turned 21, and we must begin adjusting our constraints for the benefit of our country.