The Benefits of increasing Drinking Age Research Paper

The Benefits of increasing Drinking Age - Research Paper Example In many developed nations such as USA and Australia, the legal age for consuming alcohol is 21, but there are sections of society, which claim that lowering drinking age is the best solution to curb this habit among youngsters and specifically students. However, those who propose lowering drinking age as a feasible solution in this regard does not understand the salient disadvantages associated with allowing drinking at teen-age. Alcohol consumption is no more a habit or just a beverage option among youngsters; it has become a way of life, a part of the culture in today's scenario (Alcohol and Drug Information Service). There is a dire need to restrict their access to alcohol because it is a proven fact that starting to drink early can impose several short-term as well as long-term disadvantages on human health and society. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the benefits of increasing the drinking age from various aspects of an individual’s life as well as the impact on gove rnment and society in a broader spectrum. Health-related benefits of increasing drinking age: Increasing drinking age restricts young students from consuming alcohol at an early age, and as they reach adulthood, the craving for alcohol is likely to die-down or controlled. Various critics of increasing drinking age argue that when people can vote and marry at 18, why cannot they drink according to their choice? The problem is that voting and marriage do not harm a person’s psyche, mental development, and physiological health. However, consuming alcohol is susceptible to infinite life-risking implications from every possible aspect of human health and also considerably deters public welfare. The most significant point in the debate upon lowering or increasing drinking age is that, Is drinking suitable for individual health at all? Then the other point that arises is that will it benefit young people in any way if they are allowed. to drink at the age of 18? The fact which canno t be ignored is that alcohol in itself is extremely injurious to health, and its impact can be devastating. Frances Webb and Ellie Whitney claimed that â€Å"Age does matter. Young people do not benefit their health by drinking; rather, they increase their risk of dying from all causes; young non-drinkers are found to have a lower risk of dying than even light drinkers† (101). There is enough substance in this claim from Webb and Whitney, since if medical science research is anything to abide by, then it is true that drinking is not a healthy habit at all, instead, it becomes the base for various life-threatening ailments. It is a reality that alcohol consumption paves the way for more than 60 fatal diseases in the human body (Freeman). James Garbutt, a psychiatry professor and researcher of Alcohol studies at the University of North Carolina, revealed that â€Å"Alcohol does all kinds of things in the body, and we're not fully aware of all its effects. It's a pretty complic ated little molecule† (Freeman). Diseases like Anemia, Cancer, Cardiovascular problems, Gout, Depression, Nerve damage, Dementia, high-blood pressure, Pancreatitis, and Cirrhosis are all caused by alcohol consumption, and the virus gets triggered more intensively if one starts drinking at an early stage of life (Freeman).