I wanted to write my last regular blog post about a true story that happened to one of my good friends. It was a Thursday night, which is a typical night to go out in college, and my friend got invited to go out with a bunch of people. They were all going to go to a bar to hang out, but of course they were not twenty-one yet so they were not going to be able to drink while they were there. One girl out of the group decided to have everyone come to her place to “pregame” (drink a lot) before they headed out to the bar. My friend decided to go to the pregame, but she got there a little late and everyone else was ready to go. Therefore, she ended up drinking wayyyy too much and way too fast because she knew she was not going to be able to drink anything when she was at the bar. It turns out that my friend lost complete control over her body when they arrived at the bar, and was falling around everywhere and they kicked her out of the bar. Her eyes began to roll in the back of her head and she continued to go in and out of consciousness; her friends decided that she needed to go to the hospital. She got there and she was okay but her BAC was ridiculously high and she had to get IVs in her arm to help her stay hydrated; she ended up having to spend the night in the hospital.My friend got very lucky that she was okay, and she was with people that cared about her. If she had taken one more drink or one more shot of alcohol who knows how things could have turned out for her. These types of experiences are becoming more and more popular among college drinkers and underage drinkers in general. Groups such as the Amethyst Initiative and myself believe that lowering the drinking age along with alcohol education will reduce these bad habits.
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ReplyDeleteVery interesting point you bring up. There is a lot of education that also must come with lowering the drinking age since are mindset won't easily change with lowering the law. Your blog has been extremely convincing, however, to it's possibility but the problem may need to be further analyzed with all the problems that can occur. I appreciate your real life example that you shared about your friend. It does create appealing pathos for me as a reader and I am able to understand your argument better. Thanks for sharing that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support and response mediabully7! I really felt like this real life example might help put some of my ideas that I have been blogging about into perspective. People need to realize that these types of experiences are occurring on a daily basis in college, and it is only getting worse.
ReplyDeleteYou also mentioned that people need to do more research on the effects of lowering the drinking age, and more studies on it in general. I completely agree with you; right now it is somewhat just a theory that lowering the drinking age may decrease deaths and bad drinking habits overall. Maybe they could have a period to somewhat test out this idea, but I am not exactly sure how they could do that. Overall I believe that some more studies need to be done before the government makes any huge decisions.
Most states in the nation adopted a minimum drinking age of 21 soon after federal passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which required states to maintain a minimum drinking age of 21 in order to avoid a reduction in federal highway funds. The original intention of the law was to reduce the incidents of alcohol-related accidents among people under 21. But since passage of this legislation, and the raising of the drinking age in many states, the percentage of people who drink between the ages of 18 to 20 has skyrocketed. Many say the prohibitions have actually encouraged secretive binge drinking, more dangerous behavior, and less educational programming targeting this age group. Respected law enforcement officials and university presidents have recently called for changes in the federal law to permit states to lower the drinking age.
ReplyDeleteIt's time for the nation to repeal these Prohibition-era laws and adopt a more intelligent, progressive, and educational approach to drinking among younger adults. These laws simply don't work, they aren't enforceable any longer, and if anything they are counterproductive. Literally millions of responsible young adults are already consuming alcohol and that's not going to change. What we need to do is stop wasting the taxpayers money chasing, charging and prosecuting responsible young adults who want to have a beer, and start putting the money where it ought to be, in promoting smart education about responsible drinking, and in pursuing far more serious criminals, including those at all ages who drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
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Eric Paine
President & Founder
Drink At 18
www.drinkat18.com