(Alsaab) 5 Mohammed Alsaab ENG 1225 Professor Lee Hinds 4 March, 2015 Should MLDA Be Lowered to 18? The History of MLDA (Minimum Legal Drinking Age) Most countries around the world have adopted MLDA laws for the purchase and /or possession of alcohol as a protective policy for the youth. Scientific evidence indicates that the lower the drinking age, the earlier the youth begin to decrease alcohol (at least in the United States). MLDA laws are vital components of any effort to control the production, marketing, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages (Philip, 528). Several studies have indicated that more accidents occurred as a result of lower drinking age. As a result there has been advocacy for restoring MLDA to 21. Due to such advocacy campaigns, 16 states increased their MLDA between September 1976 and January 1983. The US government also incrased this age to 21 too. Globally, many of the states who hold the minimum drinking age laws have been initiated for decades and they have never been changed at all except for one or two countries. One of the exceptions is the US. The minimum drinking age laws are much effective in the US. After the repeal of Prohibition in the US in 1993 the MLDA laws were established (David & Jon, 54). Many countries at that time sat the MLDA at the age of 21. Most countries lowered the drinking age to 18 from 21 in the year 1971 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. As a result of an increase in alcohol-related crashes which involved many youths between the age of 18 and 21 many countries that lowered the drinking age to 18, returned to an MLDA of 21 years. The earlier findings were later supported by other researchers that a raise in the drinking age resulted in a reduction of crash fatalities and other traffic crashes. As per David & Jon (62), a consequence the National Uniform Drinking Age of 18 was adopted by the US congress. As a result this was adopted by other countries since it provided an important financial incentive. MLDA saves about 800-900 lives according to the US department of transportation in a year over traffic fatalities only. Underage drinking is still very prevalent in the US despite the country laws and the federal incentive rising the drinking age to 21. Underage drinking causes a lot of injuries and deaths annually. Other legislations to address the underage drinking have been put in place to ensure a reduction in the deaths and injuries that are associated with underage drinking. This is to ensure that the drinking age law is strengthened. Social host laws are being adopted by the US and the laws targets the hosts of parties that allow underage drinking. Another law that deter youth from underage drinking is the zero-tolerance law which makes it an offence for youth drivers aged 20 and below to operate any vehicle with any trace of alcohol in their systems. Sanctions are now instituted for the youth who are going against the MLDA laws. With the two laws that are core, ...

1. (Alsaab) 5
Mohammed Alsaab
ENG 1225
Professor Lee Hinds
4 March, 2015
Should MLDA Be Lowered to 18?
The History of MLDA (Minimum Legal Drinking Age)
Most countries around the world have adopted MLDA laws for
the purchase and /or possession of alcohol as a protective policy
for the youth. Scientific evidence indicates that the lower the
drinking age, the earlier the youth begin to decrease alcohol (at
least in the United States). MLDA laws are vital components of
any effort to control the production, marketing, distribution and
sale of alcoholic beverages (Philip, 528). Several studies have
indicated that more accidents occurred as a result of lower
drinking age. As a result there has been advocacy for restoring
MLDA to 21. Due to such advocacy campaigns, 16 states
increased their MLDA between September 1976 and January
1983. The US government also incrased this age to 21 too.
Globally, many of the states who hold the minimum drinking
age laws have been initiated for decades and they have never
been changed at all except for one or two countries. One of the
exceptions is the US. The minimum drinking age laws are much
effective in the US. After the repeal of Prohibition in the US in
1993 the MLDA laws were established (David & Jon, 54). Many
countries at that time sat the MLDA at the age of 21. Most
countries lowered the drinking age to 18 from 21 in the year
1971 when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. As a
result of an increase in alcohol-related crashes which involved
many youths between the age of 18 and 21 many countries that
lowered the drinking age to 18, returned to an MLDA of 21
years. The earlier findings were later supported by other

2. researchers that a raise in the drinking age resulted in a
reduction of crash fatalities and other traffic crashes.
As per David & Jon (62), a consequence the National Uniform
Drinking Age of 18 was adopted by the US congress. As a result
this was adopted by other countries since it provided an
important financial incentive. MLDA saves about 800-900 lives
according to the US department of transportation in a year over
traffic fatalities only. Underage drinking is still very prevalent
in the US despite the country laws and the federal incentive
rising the drinking age to 21. Underage drinking causes a lot of
injuries and deaths annually. Other legislations to address the
underage drinking have been put in place to ensure a reduction
in the deaths and injuries that are associated with underage
drinking. This is to ensure that the drinking age law is
strengthened.
Social host laws are being adopted by the US and the laws
targets the hosts of parties that allow underage drinking.
Another law that deter youth from underage drinking is the
zero-tolerance law which makes it an offence for youth drivers
aged 20 and below to operate any vehicle with any trace of
alcohol in their systems. Sanctions are now instituted for the
youth who are going against the MLDA laws. With the two laws
that are core, purchase and possession there is significant
reduction in underage drinking despite the enforcement and
current variability in underage drinking. If all the exceptions to
the laws concerning MLDA were limited and all the 16
components adopted then these laws can potentially be more
effective.
Thesis
Many people say that government must lower MLDA to 18,
because 18 years old people are considered adults and they have
the right to make their own decisions. However, I disagree with
them because lowering MLDA will cause more traffic accidents,
easier access for high school and middle school students to
alcohol, and will make more use of drugs among 18-21 people.

3. The arguments involved in this issue deserve serious
consideration. There are strong point supporting the amendment
of raise the MLDA -21 as well as opposing it. Perhaps, the most
complicated idea involves the concept that the Youths from
Europe learn from the tender age on drinking thus a culture of
drinking responsibly is instilled in them ( McDonald,
& William, 211 )
In an event whereby the government will lower the drinking age
such that the MLDA is lower than the usual 21 there will be
severe negative consequences of this approach. First, youth who
start drinking at the age of 18 usually have twice the odds of
drinking to intoxication in contrast to those who start drinking
at later ages of 21 years and above. The country will therefore
be losing its productive manpower as a result of this kind of
approach. These youths also who start drinking at the, age of
18 have 33-52% greater chance of being injured as they are
under the influence of the drugs such as alcohol in the event of
their lifetime when compared to those who start drinking at
older ages (McDonald, & William, 208). In fact, it has been
established that 15% of the youths who started drinking at the
ages of 18 years develop alcohol dependence in due course of
their lifetime when contrasted with a lower percentage, that is,
9% which comprise those who started drinking at the ages more
than 21(Interventions for addiction, 950). The government will
thus be spending busloads of budget allocation geared towards
rehabilitation of drug addicted youth. Besides, more money
will be spent in the hospitals’ nursing department in the use of
non-pharmacological mitigations in pain treatment for the
addicted. This money would be directed elsewhere so as to aid
in building the economy. Thus, the youth who start drinking at
the age of 18 years have a 2.4-fold increase in risk of being
involved in motor vehicle crash (McDonald, & William, 207).
Additionally, the youths who started drinking at the earlier ages
of barely 18 have 50-60% greater chance of being in physical
fight while drinking or after drinking compared to the youths
who start drinking at the age of 21.

4. When drinking age is 21, people that have their ages below 21
have depicted a trend of drinking less through their early
twenties. These lower rates of drinking prior to the age of 21
are not compensated for by a higher rate of drinking after they
reach 21 years, as some do conjecture. The intricate opposite is
true! The early legal access, at the age of eighteen, is linked to
increased rates of drinking later in life. A full approximate
40% of those who start drinking prior to the age of 15 hit the
criteria for alcohol dependence at some incidences in their
lives. This is estimated to be roughly four times greater than
those who begin taking drug such as alcohol at the age of
21.Twenty eight percent of the youth who commence drinking at
the age of 18 develop dependence on alcohol. Notably, the
youth who start drinking at age 18 have been found to be 1.4
times more likely to become alcohol dependent than those
beyond this age, i.e., older, even after gender, age, race or
ethnicity, educational status, marital status, history pertaining
family alcoholism, depression in children, anti-social behaviors,
the smoking history as well as drug sue have been kept in check
(Interventions for addiction, 951). There is no evidence that can
be seen to make indications that the youth can lean to drink
responsibly since they are allowed to consume legally at
younger age. Furthermore, the countries across the globe
whereby their drinking age limit is lower are seen to suffer from
alcohol related problem that are similar to or greater than those
in the United States of America (McDonald, & William, 200)
The US government should not lower the drinking age to
eighteen as the MLDA-21 has been working so perfectly. When
the government initiated the MLDA-21 restriction across the US
states, driver control involvement in fatal accidents reduced
significantly among the 16-to 20-year old people as compared to
those drivers aged 21 years and above. However, the 21-years
and above drivers involvement in fatal accidents reduced
significantly by a margin of 33% from the year1982 through
2004 (Interventions for addiction, 947). The result for the same
in the drivers aged less than 20 years and younger was

5. surprising. It reduced by a margin of 62% during that period in
time. Instead of rushing for lowering the age limit for drinking,
the government should bring in tougher legislations; better
enforcement as well as greater public awareness of the drink-
driving problem as this significantly contributes to the overall
decline in drinking behavior.
We can well base my argument against the lowering of the
drinking age by making a case study with New Zealand. This
country recently changed its MLDA from an earlier limit of 20
to 18 years. The result of this was an increase in the traffic
accidents among those youths who were affected by the changes
in the law. A comparison with four years earlier on prior to the
lowering of the drinking age, the rate of traffic crashes also
injuries increased 12 % and 14 % in light of the 18 year olds
and 19 year olds respectively. The result was not appalling at
all for the female as the effect was more devastating. There was
also article down’ effect, as youth even younger than the MLDA
increased their alcohol consumption. Could the limit be shifted
to 20 years of age, the three were possibilities of reducing 400
fatal accidents in addition to curbing 12 deaths (Interventions
for addiction, 952).
MLDA can also be correlated with the binge drinking by youth.
There has a remarkable decline in the binge drinking by the
youth once the ages were increased to 21 year nationally and it
remained stable over the 1980’s. Binge drinking, that is,
reaching a BAC that is equal to or more than 0.8; normally
taking from a minimum of five and above drinks for a male
also four and above bottles of drinks for a female at a drinking
session has remained a problem in many colleges. In the US, the
binge drinking has remained steady over the past one decade.
Reflecting on the ages between 1997 and 2006, the proportion
of the college students who reported binge drinking were
between the ranges of a high of 41.7 percent in the year 2004 to
a low of 38.55 in 2003. In a similar way, the percentage of
college student that reported of being drunk within the last 30

6. days shows similar fluctuations and results between 1991 and
2006 but with numerous ups and downs during this period.
The culture of drinking and especially excessive drinking on
and around various college campuses is prevalent in the most
industrialized nations whereby the US is inclusive. The negative
consequence of this alcohol consumption by the college students
include academic problems include academic problems,
assaults, rapes and deaths from unintentional and intentional
injuries not forgetting alcohol poisonings. A close analysis of
the USA population shows that 83 percent of college students
do report of drinking whereas 41% report binge drinking. This
kind of heavy episodic, high risk or binge drinking patterns of
alcohol is especially dangerous pattern of alcohol usage.
The above result will be made worse through reduction of the
MLDA. This will show the alcohol dependence rates being
highest in the USA youth who are between the age bracket of 18
to 24 regardless of these youth being in college, workforce or
military service. These students as long as they may start u with
lower rates of binge drinking as compared to their non-college
peers, they all swiftly catch up. The address to the hazardous
effects of drinking for the college students is quite complicated
as half or even more that half of the college students’ age lies
below the age of 21 years here in the United States. The college
officials have been faced with serious questions about how to
and whether to enforce MLDA-21 on the various campuses. In
this course of action, they ought to balance on safety, liability,
and law enforcement with the colleges’ historic role as havens
for experimentation, personal freedom, self-expression as well
as individual responsibility. Beyond the harm of college
drinkers themselves other problems that may be encountered
include damage of property, drop in academic performance,
violent behavior physical injury and mental damage. (Yörük,
1844 - 1854).
According to (Tara, 2015), the lowering of the MLDA -21 to
MLDA-18 is unsound also as this will have deviated from the
World Health Organization(WHO) which is a coordinating

7. authority in international public health. As per its report that
was released in March 2010, it documented strategies that a
possibly reduce the harmful use also effects of alcohol. It laid
special emphasis on the implementation and enforcement of
laws which set the minimum age for the purchase of or
consumption of alcohol or both as they depict clear reduction
in the alcohol-related harm to youth. The general MLDA for
most countries is 21 thus the US ought to follow sooth
(Rowman & Littlefield, 105). Thus, the US should restrain from
lowering the age and instead embark on other worthwhile
strategies such as reduction of the alcohol selling hours, the
control of marketing and advertising of alcohol and the increase
of alcohol price through taxation.
Another devastating impact of the use the reduction of MLDA-
21 to 18 is the contribution this will have in the usage of other
illicit and other drugs on campuses. Whereas alcohol will
remain the drug of choice for most campus students, the
reduction the drinking age will make the youth feel “more
adult”. The result of this will be their inclination to the use of
other drugs in extension, both illegal and prescription. Since the
1960’s,illegal drugs such as marijuana, LSD, cocaine, and a
variety of chemicals have been ingested, injected and smoked
with a variety of motivations. In addition, prescription drugs are
used for nonmedical reasons Marijuana or cannabis, which is
also referred to as pot, weed, and Mary Jane, being the most
popular drug in the USA will most likely be abused by most of
these youth. In the1930’s , marijuana was characterized as the
most dangerous ,leading to silence, crime, and bizarre behavior,
often threatening to people around an individual who has abused
the drug. In an article in the Journal of Nursing, it is stated that
continual use of marijuana is reported to be the cause of a
specific sort of insanity gong by the name” loco weed”. A user
under the influence of the drug in this kind of scenario goes
berserk with weapons such as a knives, axes, guns else anything
that is a hand and will end up killing or maiming minus no good
reason(Robert &, Kevin, 234). This will be the case with the

8. some of the US youths should this reduction in age limit be
implemented. This is based on the fact that marijuana is the
most popular drug on campuses besides alcohol.
Thus, a higher minimum legal drinking age is effective in
preventing alcohol-related deaths and injuries among the youth.
With lowered MLDA, there is increase in injury and death rates,
and when MLDA is increased, death and injury rates decline.
The US government should keep MLDA as it is because if they
don’t, there will be many consequences such as more accidents,
easier access for below 18 people to alcohol, and more use of
drugs.
Works Cited
Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University, 2002 - Alcohol.
Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University. Print
Ceren Ertan Yörük a, *, Barıs¸ K. Yörük. "The impact of
drinking on psychological well-being: Evidence from minimum
drinking age laws in the United States." Socisl Science and
medicine (2012): 1844-1854. Print.
David M & Jon S. 2013.Alcohol and Drugs in North America: A
Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical
Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. Print
McDonald S, & William S.2013. Interventions for
Addiction: Comprehensive Addictive Behaviors and Disorders,
Volume 3. Cengage Learning. Print
Philip J. 2011. Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of
Alcohol Control. Academic Press .Print
Robert N &, Kevin J. 2013. Alcohol and Violence: The Nature
of the Relationship and the Promise of Prevention. Princeton
University Press. Print
Rowman & Littlefield. 2011.College Drinking: What it Is, and
what to Do about it: a Review of the State of the Science.
Princeton University Press. Print
Watson, Tara." 2015."Lowering the Drinking Age Has Serious
Consequences The New York Times. Print