drinking age

A detailed Summary of drinking age

On May 29, 1995 Newsweek published a profound article that dealt with

the topic of teens, binge drinking and alcohol abuse. The article was written

by Elizabeth M. Whelen, the president of the American Council on Science

Early in the article Whelen brings out the point of how by prohibiting the

sale of liquor to responsible young adults creates an atmosphere where binge

drinking and alcohol abuse have become a problem. This is really the

backdrop for this whole article. Everything that she argues in the rest of the

article contributes to this "unsafe atmosphere". I partly agree with this

statement. Yes, when teens cannot personally obtain liquor it may make them

want it even more, and when they do get it they may consume more with a

"'lets make up for lost time' attitude"(85), as Whelen put it. But on the flip

side of this I don't agree that the only reason teens abuse alcohol is because

they are denied it. Early in Whelen's article, she declares that "It is

imperative that we explore why so many young people abuse alcohol"(83).

That's when she goes into how today's laws are unrealistic and the

atmosphere of binge drinking and alcohol abuse is created, as st

doing things to that of Europe's it causes the reader to think that Europe is

Will lowering the drinking age to eighteen some how cause teens to drink

would find this statement hard to believe, she should have included some

us how strongly she feels about this issue. "We should make access to

are just two examples of our failure to teach young people how to use alcohol

inexperienced. I feel this will result in even more tragic stories like the two

though. Whelen argues that her eighteen year old daughter and her friends can

no alcoholic beverage may be sold to anyone until that magic twenty-first

Whelen then compares American teens to European teens. Here in

our efforts at alcohol education for adolescents"(85). Whelen concludes her

Approximate Word count = 869
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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