This is going to be an argumentative essay about Legal Drinking Age in the UK and the USA, and why the legal drinking age should be raised to 21 in the UK.
I need someone to edit my essay as well as adding more resources for both sides of the argument and please please please no plagiarism or changing my style of writing. and here is my essay
Yazeed Alkhaldi
Expository writing 1
Kevin Smith
21 April 2015
Legal Drinking Age
Is it true that some countries have legal drinking age problems and should be looked at in another perspective. Drinking has been a tradition for lot of people and countries for so many centuries, therefore so many people drink nowadays. Alcohol might have benefits but it also have many disadvantages, which society face these days and it can go to many different problems. In the United Kingdom the legal age of drinking is 18, which frankly tells us that they are considered old enough to be drinking. On the other hand people who live in the United States of America are not allowed to drink when they are at the age of 20 or younger. In this essay I will write about the legal drinking age of both countries. I will also attempt to discuss the benefits, as well as the drawbacks of 18 year old drinking and look at the difference of drinking age in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. My main goal in this essay is to explain why the legal age drinking should be 21 or over.
The problem is that 18-year-olds should not legally drink in the UK due to the fact that teenage drinking causes accidents and health problems. When getting drunk, your focus starts to get blurry; Younger people focus less than older people and when adding alcohol to the equation, younger people focus less even more. Therefore, driving requires focus so losing focus even for 5 seconds can cause accidents. That’s why the age limit should be stricter in the UK just like the US. Drinking can also cause problems and as William Turvill mentions in his article “Hospital Treating Teenages”, he says “Teenagers across the UK are being treated for liver disease usually associated with a decade or more of heavy drinking. “Here are the following examples of other health problem that drinking may cause: Heart disease, Digestive problems, Eye problems, one loss and birth defects. In the UK, Drinking causes teenage pregnancies.
The law in the UK allows 18 year olds to drink. Usually, they are looked at as independent individuals who can make their own decisions but in reality even the ones whom are younger than 18 are already drinking and it is also part of their daily life activity. For example, in Glasgow city where I grew up, which is a city in Scotland, you would see kids who are no older than 13 holding a bottle of beer sharing it, while they enjoy talking about who they are going to stab next, what makes you wonder more is that how did they lay their hand on it and how did they got to get it. However if the drinking age in Scotland is over 21 and if they would make a much strict and clearer law the, violence in Scotland will decrease dramatically and Glasgow city will be much safer.
Furthermore, drinking from a younger age can cause lots of health issues and that can be from mental to physical problems. In Health and Behavioral Consequences of Binge Drinking in College, by Henry Wechsler and some of his research partners, they say that “Almost half (47%) of the frequent binge drinkers experienced five or more different drinking-related problems, including injuries and engaging in unplanned sex,” which can be an opening for bigger problems such as unplanned pregnancy or in the UK case “teenage pregnancy” that has been one of the major known things of a teenage life disaster in Britain as we speak. Not to mention that the ones whom are going to suffer the consequences can also be the other side, due to the fact that drinkers can cause or share their problems to the nondrinkers as it said in the previous research “Binge drinkers create problems for classmates who are not binge drinkers.” and those kind of students can cause big issues on their own and the victims of it are the non drinkers, it can affect their academic performance, daily life in school or college and their behavior. As it was mentioned in the article “Changes in Binge Drinking and Related Problems”, “Students who were not binge drinkers but lived on campuses with large numbers of binge drinkers were at heightened risks for experiencing secondhand effects,”. so what should be done at this point is separation between drinkers and nondrinkers if there is no other cure for such an issue, where they would separate the floors into two sections.
On the hand, some people think that teenage drinking has nothing to do with the problems or what so ever and should be a normal activity of a their daily life activities. they also think that underage drinking has no relation to the traffic accidents and it should not be looked at as main cause of the problem. For example, Michael Grossman and Henry Saffer in their essay “BEER TAXES, THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE, AND YOUTH MOTOR VEHICLE FATALITIES”, they say “We also find that the death rate of 18 through 20 year olds is inversely related to the minimum legal age for the purchase of beer.” Which does not make it a big deal at all, and they should keep doing what they are doing.
Drinking age must be taken as a serious topic and must addressed to those who drink and also must be studied well from scientists and whom are related to it. More researches must be done as well, to prove the concept of teenage drinking problems, they should also have to take quick decisions.
