Are you for or Against Lowering the Drinking Age?
"Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight."
-- Proverbs 18:17 (modern translation)
Alcohol, possibly the world's oldest drug made for thousands of years from a natural, or in these days artificial, blend of fermented fruit, fruit juices, and honey.
Cons
The graph to the left represents the number of teens drinking by eigth grade, sophmore, and senior years of high school from 1975 to 2005.
The Path of Alcohol as it is Ingested Into the Body:
It enters through the mouth, then goes to the stomach where some alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream. However most of the alcohol passes to the small intestine, where it then enters into the bloodstream through the walls of the small intestine. It then travels to the heart where it is pumped throughout the entire body. Next the alcohol passes to the brain affecting the regional brain functions causing decreased attention span, slurred speech, blurred vision, and a decrease in hearing.
The Effects of Alcohol on the Brain: 1Binge Drinking: The consumption of dangerously large quantities of alcoholic beverages in one setting. |
Flirting With Disaster?
Are our nations youth flirting with disaster? According to the AMA (American Medical Association) they are. More than 10 million youth ages 12 to 20 admit to drinking alcohol in the past month. The average age a boy tries alcohol for the first time is just 11 years old, the average age for a girl is about 13 years old. The AMA considers this an epidemic worth investing in now, to prevent the costly social and physical consequences in the future.
Get the Facts (according to the AMA):
Underage drinking is a condition in approximately half of all teen vehicular accidents.
Alcohol use subsidizes youth suicide, homicides, and fatal injuries; the domiating cause of death after vehicular accidents.
Alcohol abuse is associated with as many as two-thirds of all sexual assults and date rapes of young adults and college age students.
Alcohol is a major factor in unprotected sex among youth, increasing their risk of falling victim to HIV or other STD's (Sexually Transmitted Diseases).
According to the graph (right) the 21 year old drinking age actually saves lives. The greater part of my official time is spent on investigating collisions between propelled vehicles, each on its own side of the road, each sounding its horn, and each stationary. ~An English Lord Chief Justice, quoted in 2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs by Edward F. Murphy |
Jaqueline Subiardo's Story:
Early on Sunday morning, September 18, 1999, Jacqueline Saburido, 20, and four friends were on their way home from a birthday party. Reggie Stephey, an 18-year-old star football player, was on his way home from drinking beer with some buddies. On a dark road on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Reggie’s SUV veered into the Oldsmobile carrying Jacqui and the others. Two passengers in the car were killed at the scene and two were rescued. Within minutes, the car caught fire. Jacqui was pinned in the front seat on the passenger side. She was burned over 60% of her body; no one thought she could survive. But Jacqui lived. Her hands were so badly burned that her fingers had to be amputated. She lost her hair, her ears, her nose, her left eyelid and much of her vision. She has had more than 50 operations since the crash and has many more to go.
In June 2001 Reggie Stephey was convicted of two counts of intoxication manslaughter for the deaths of Jacqui’s two friends. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $20,000.
Pros
President William Durden, a member of Amethyst Initiative, from Dickinson College Says:
"I am supporting the Amethyst Initiative for a very simple reason. I would like the Dickinson College community—students, parents, faculty and staff and alumni—to be part of a collective effort to reexamine—using all the intellectual and research capacities of higher education in the United States—an issue that truly maters for our society and that appears now to be compromising not only the health and welfare of many college-age students, but also, contributing to the ever increasing cost of an undergraduate degree through the student life, public safety and counseling resources that are applied to it without apparent success. That issue is the national drinking age and the extreme abuse of the use of alcohol associated with it. Our collective reexamination of this issue though public debate contributes directly to the role that American colleges and universities can play in serving the public interest."
Things the Government Doesn't Want you to Know
Pictured below is our very own President George W. Bush's arrest record. The president was arrested? Yes, for drunk driving. What other politicians voting against the 18 year old drinking age have hiding?
Celebrity Spotlight Charged with a DUI:
Tennessee Senator Jerry Cooper pleaded guilty to a DUI in February after crashing his car.
Former Vice President Al Gore's son checked into rehab after DUI charge
Georgia State Representative Ben Harbin charged with DUI
Arizona State Representative Trish Groe agreed to a DUI plea
Carson City, NV Mayor Marv Tiexeira pleads guilty to DUI
And the list goes on and on..
These are the people voting against the lowering to 18 year old drinking laws.
“Candy Lightner, MADD’s founder, says she disassociated herself from the movement in 1985 because she believed the organization was headed in the wrong direction. ‘It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned,’ said Mrs. Lightner, who founded MADD after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. ‘I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.’”
— The Washington Times, August 2002
The Candy Lightner Story
Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 1980 after her twelve year old daughter, Cari was killed by a drunk driver. Candy left the organization in 1985 when it became the largest organization against drunk driving with over 600 chapters sprung up nationwide. Why leave when her organization was huge with lots of support? It had become something greater than what she had hoped for. Instead of being just about helping spread the word about drunk driving and the effects MADD had become a neo-prohibitioist group. The group became almost totally against alcohol. This is not what Candy had envisioned so she left. Furthermore the organizations credibility was challenged when it was proven that certain numbers in thier so-called "reports" were falsified. This lead to Candy's disapproval of where her organization was headed.
As an 18 year old you have the same rights as a 21 year old, Except for one, legally drinking alcohol. For more information on what exactly is in your rights as you turn 18 click here.