National Binge Culture

In 1984, President Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in order to help with the drunk driving epidemic that groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving had argued was the fault of drivers between the ages of 18 and 21. This law was one of the 39 suggestions made to the President by the Presidential Commission Against Drunk Driving, amoung the suggestions were youth education courses about drinking responsibly, harsher punishments for driving under the influence of alcohol that mimic those of foreign countries, and public information campaign. (cite) The United States became one of the few countries in the world to have a drinking age over 18. In the mid 1970s, 60% of traffic fatalities involved alcohol (cite). The national …show more content…
We shop in bulk, we eat in bulk, and we drink in bulk. Drinking is probably where the heaviest evidence of bingeing can be found. About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 is in the form of binge drinking. (cite) This statistic shows that there is a serious problem in our culture with alcohol. Presidents of some of the countries best-known universities including Dartmouth and Duke have publically supported a lowering of the national drinking age in efforts to end binge drinking by coeds (cite). European countries do not have the epidemic of binge drinking that Americans do, while they do consume more alcohol than the average American it is all throughout the day and not in a single sitting. Europeans do not see alcohol as taboo, a problem mainly in The United States. In America, alcohol is not something that young adults can ask genuine questions about without reprimand. Since prohibition, alcohol has been given negative connotations something that wasn’t an issue in foreign countries. This has caused Americans to see alcohol much different that the rest of the world. Alcohol is seen as a novelty to young people, so when they can get their hands on it they drink as much as they can as fast as they can. The way alcohol is presented in schools also contributes to the “forbidden fruit” factor that causes binge …show more content…
Binge drinking is a dangerous habit that kill too many underage drinkers in The United States. Driving under the influence of alcohol also kills innocent Americans every year. Taking a more European stance on drinking could alleviate these epidemics. Lowering the drinking age could help curb the obsession with alcohol that underage drinkers have making everyone much safer. Drunk driving and Binge drinking will not end overnight, but if the nation makes more strides to make alcohol a beverage to be used responsibly by everyone and not a novelty that is abused by those who cannot have it, the death tolls caused by alcohol will