Many claim that parents should own the responsibility, as well as the blame, for their children’s bad decisions about alcohol use, and certain alcohol companies would like to help them do that. Carol Clark, vice president of corporate social responsibility for Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., prides her company for developing a program “to help parents continue talking with their children about drinking.” However, many factors remain outside the home, which adds to the difficulty of helping students make good decisions about drinking. Among the factors are peer pressure, the illegal sale of alcohol, and media romanticism.
To curb the effect of these external pressures, many are calling for reforms in school curriculum (which some claim should integrate more “alcohol education”), and law enforcement, the social responsibility companies demonstrate in the advertising campaigns of their products, and the drinking age.
Those calling for a change in the drinking age fall on both sides of the debate – some call for a universally lower drinking age, and some call for better enforcement of the current U.S. standard of 21.
Some who support stronger enforcement of the current standard argue people generally are more mentally and emotionally mature at 21 than 18, and therefore, more likely to drink responsibly. Other supporters point out brain development slows significantly at age 21.
Supporters of lowering the drinking age, on the other hand, note the U.S. Constitution’s 26th Amendment grants citizens age 18 and older the right to vote, thus establishes the legal age of adulthood; the same advice and decisions that serve well at age 21 serve well at age 18; the practice of drinking weighs more heavily than the age of drinking; and America is one of the few countries with a drinking age of 21.
Where do you stand on the drinking age issue? Do you feel like the problem with teenage alcohol abuse is with the drinking age or with other issues? What issues do you see contributing to alcohol abuse among teenagers?
