Turning eighteen brings not only more responsibility, but more rights as a Missouri resident. Eighteen-year-olds gain many rights that make them not only an active voice in their community, but looked upon as an adult. The one right some eighteen-year-olds believe they are responsible enough for is the right to drink alcohol. According to Richard Bonnie, the author of the article Reducing Underage Drinking : Collective Responsibility, “underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success” (675).With the law stating residents must be twenty-one years of age to drink alcohol, many underage teens are trying to hide
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Missouri should consider lowering the drinking age to eighteen to help better monitor and control teen drinking habits while also teaching them how to be responsible while drinking. Heavy or “binge” drinking is more common among underage drinkers than drinkers over the legal twenty-one age limit. According to the MADD organization “one in six teens binge drinks, yet only one in one hundred parents believe that his or her teen binge drinks” (1). Parents need to play a more active role in their children’s lives. Part of the reason teens get away with drinking is because parents do not get involved in their children’s life for reasons like working too much, being drinkers themselves, believing that kids need their own space, believing they raised good kids, and they would simply not drink because they were raised to make good choices. Law makers cannot hold all of the responsibility of stopping underage teens from drinking. Parents need to step in and help by monitoring where their teenager goes when not at home, who they are hanging out with, make sure they always have parental supervision, and get to know their friends and their friend’s …show more content…
It is however something which can be controlled if the right guidance is given. Law enforcement cannot do it on their own. The help of parents, teachers, and other teens are needed to help stop the drinking from getting out of hand. If the law was to change to allow eighteen year olds to drink they could go to a bar and drink instead of a friends unsupervised house party where something could happen and their friends would be too scared to call for help for fear of getting into trouble themselves. Parents could also monitor teens drinking at home to make sure not too much alcohol is consumed. Some parents and teens may feel that eighteen is too young to have the privilege to drink legally, but what they don’t realize is that most teens are going to do it regardless of what the law says so why not give them the right to do it responsibly so that less accidents will happen like alcohol poisoning, less peer pressure from friends, even drinking and driving could be lowered if teens were not too scared to go home in a cab instead of their car for fear their parents would find out about them drinking. Teens just want to have fun with friends and with all the access to alcohol It’s just a matter of continuing to do it safe or unsafe, and with lowering the age limit Missouri voters are saying they want our kids to be safe and not hide drinking from parents and run the risk of something bad happing like another life being lost
Missouri should consider lowering the drinking age to eighteen to help better monitor and control teen drinking habits while also teaching them how to be responsible while drinking. Heavy or “binge” drinking is more common among underage drinkers than drinkers over the legal twenty-one age limit. According to the MADD organization “one in six teens binge drinks, yet only one in one hundred parents believe that his or her teen binge drinks” (1). Parents need to play a more active role in their children’s lives. Part of the reason teens get away with drinking is because parents do not get involved in their children’s life for reasons like working too much, being drinkers themselves, believing that kids need their own space, believing they raised good kids, and they would simply not drink because they were raised to make good choices. Law makers cannot hold all of the responsibility of stopping underage teens from drinking. Parents need to step in and help by monitoring where their teenager goes when not at home, who they are hanging out with, make sure they always have parental supervision, and get to know their friends and their friend’s …show more content…
It is however something which can be controlled if the right guidance is given. Law enforcement cannot do it on their own. The help of parents, teachers, and other teens are needed to help stop the drinking from getting out of hand. If the law was to change to allow eighteen year olds to drink they could go to a bar and drink instead of a friends unsupervised house party where something could happen and their friends would be too scared to call for help for fear of getting into trouble themselves. Parents could also monitor teens drinking at home to make sure not too much alcohol is consumed. Some parents and teens may feel that eighteen is too young to have the privilege to drink legally, but what they don’t realize is that most teens are going to do it regardless of what the law says so why not give them the right to do it responsibly so that less accidents will happen like alcohol poisoning, less peer pressure from friends, even drinking and driving could be lowered if teens were not too scared to go home in a cab instead of their car for fear their parents would find out about them drinking. Teens just want to have fun with friends and with all the access to alcohol It’s just a matter of continuing to do it safe or unsafe, and with lowering the age limit Missouri voters are saying they want our kids to be safe and not hide drinking from parents and run the risk of something bad happing like another life being lost