Alcohol: effects, uses, and health considerations

¶ … drinking age in America. The writer argues that the legal drinking age should be raised to the age of 30 years old. The writer cites several reasons for this belief including the number of drinking related accidents and deaths among college students, the interference that drinking can cause when it comes to education and the health benefits of not drinking at a young age. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

College is a time when students expand their horizons. They explore the philosophical side of life, learn that professors love verbal discourse within the classroom, and begin to form their political views. It is also a time in which many students have their first taste of freedom from parental eyes and this can often lead to experimentation with relationships, drinking and other elements of life that were not encouraged or allowed before the student left for the dormitory. Unfortunately the desire to experiment with drinking just as a student is completing a higher education can potentially lead to disaster. The incidence of accidents, poor choices, and flunking out of school all become real possibilities when students start drinking. To provide a safe transition from the teenage years to the adult world the legal age to drink should be moved to 30-years-old.

THE FACTS

Before one can understand why raising the legal drinking age limit would benefit college students, one needs to have an understanding about what is currently happening on college campuses around the nation and how it impacts the students' lives.

Research indicates that college students represent the largest number of binge drinkers in the nation. According to one recent survey 40% of college students asked, admitted to a binge drinking episode within the past two weeks. Binge drinking, for the purpose of the study was defined as quickly downing more than five alcoholic beverages at one sitting (Cobb, 1997).

Another study researched the incidence of drinking and subsequent problems among respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 years old (Chou, 2004).

The study found that a large percentage of students had participated in binge drinking within recent weeks (Chou, 2004). Heavy drinking can produce several issues for those who take part in it. It can have a negative impact on the student's ability to focus on studies and there can be a subsequent drop in grades. This can lead to depression that can create a cyclic affect if the student decides to drink to alleviate the feelings of depression (Chou, 2004).

In addition, drinking can lead to unplanned sexual activities which can also lead to unplanned pregnancy or the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

Impaired driving abilities, problems with authority and injury or death caused by accidents while drunk are all possible outcomes from drinking.

In a report prepared for the College Task Force of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Hingson et al. (2002) estimated that, in the year preceding the 1999 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, over 500,000 full-time 4-year college students were unintentionally injured as a result of drinking. The number injured by another student who had been drinking was even greater. The authors estimated that approximately 1,400 students ages 18-24 and enrolled in 2- and 4-year colleges died in 1998 from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including those from motor vehicle crashes (Chou, 2004). Only one national study to date has examined the prevalence of alcohol use disorders in the college population, despite the public health significance of this correlate of heavy drinking. Knight et al. (2002), also using 1999 data, found that more than one third of college students met the DSM-IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994) for alcohol abuse (31.6%) or dependence (6.3%)(Chou, 2004). "

Those who want the legal drinking age to remain the same point to programs across the country to help college students not become heavy drinkers or binge drinkers. There are counseling centers and mentorship programs set up on campuses nationwide that are aimed at slowing down the drinking of the students. A recent study, however, found that all of the programs did nothing to change the binge drinking among college students, nor has it had any impact on the statistical rate of injury or death related to college age drinking (Hang, 2002).

The study also discovered that "binge drinking was often accompanied by educational difficulties, psychosocial problems, antisocial behaviors, injuries, overdoses, high-risk sexual behaviors, and other risk taking, such as alcohol-impaired driving. (12) A recent study (18) indicated that, under existing patterns of alcohol use, nearly 1 in 3 college students (31.6%) qualified for a formal diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 1 in 17 (6.3%) could be diagnosed as alcohol dependent, according to criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) (Hang, 2002)."

In addition, the study discovered that it is not only the drinkers who are being negatively impacted by the problem. Students who don't drink find themselves dealing with noise issues, violence issues, disruption of sleep and property damage as other students do drink and create a chaotic atmosphere (Hang, 2002).

The 2001 CAS surveyed students at 120 of the colleges that participated in each of the previous three surveys. The participating schools were located in 38 states and the District of Columbia (Hang, 2002)."

The number of schools involved in the study indicates it is a nationwide issue and not an isolated one.

Another study was conducted to determine if one begins drinking at approximately 19 years old, whether or not they have a higher chance of developing a later dependency on alcohol and abusing it (Wechsler, 2003). The study examined almost 15,000 students. And asked questions about drinking habits and driving habits after drinking (Wechsler, 2003).

Persons who start to drink at younger ages are more likely to engage in behaviors after drinking that increase their risks of unintentional and intentional injury; the reasons for this are not fully understood. One potential explanation is that people who start drinking at a younger age are, in general, greater risk-takers, who are more likely to engage in behavior that increases risk of injury and other health problems even when they are not drinking (Wechsler, 2003)."

The incidence of injury and later alcohol dependency was proven to be much higher if the person began drinking between the ages of 19 and 25.

The incidence of sexual assault also increases with drinking. Women are five times more likely to suffer a sexual assault if she has been drinking or has been around others who were drinking than a woman who avoids such scenarios is at risk for.

Figures released by the drink industry's own watchdog, the Portman Group, suggest that thousands of young women are at risk while under the influence of alcohol (Nisbet, 2005)."

CONCLUSION