Readers Question: Evaluate the case that raising the legal drinking age to 21 will be more effective than other methods for reducing the harmful effects of alcohol. (15 marks) AQA unit 3
- Things to avoid: explaining all the costs of alcohol and negative externality diagrams. The question is about the best methods to reduce alcohol consumption. Basically, the question is: what is best way to reduce alcohol?
Raising the drinking age to 21 will reduce consumption amongst young people because it will be harder to buy alcohol. Also, young people are the most likely group to misuse alcohol; e.g. drinking to excess, which causes accidents, death and health problems. If people start drinking later in life, they may be more likely to drink in moderation and not get addicted at an early age.
However, it will still be possible for young people to drink at home. People will find ways to avoid the legislation e.g. asking older people to buy for them. Nevertheless, it will be more difficult. For example, a 16 year old may not be able to get away with drinking in a pub anymore.
This policy doesn’t address the underlying problem of why people want to drink to excess. For that education may be a better solution; education could help to explain the dangers of excess drinking and therefore encourage young people to drink moderation.. However, previous education policies have not seemed to be very effective. Young people don’t want to hear lectures from the government about the dangers of alcohol.
Other Solutions
Higher taxes increase the cost of alcohol and may have a significant effect in reducing demand amongst young people, who have lower disposable incomes. If demand is reduced by say 20% this may reduce many of the problems of over-consumption. This policy also raises revenue for the government. But, on the other hand, it may increase the incentive to import low duty alcohol from abroad. Demand for alcohol may also be inelastic and not effective in stopping consumption.
In practise there is very little that the government can do to change social and individual attitudes to alcohol, which is the root cause of most alcohol abuse.
In US legal drinking age is 21. They still have many alcohol related problems, but, it is significantly more difficult for young people to regularly drink alcohol.
What do you think - should alcohol be illegal for under 21s?
4 comments ↓
[...] See also: Should Legal age of alcohol consumption be raised to 21? [...]
I think the legal drinking age should be increased to 21 years. Recently there have been far too many violent incidents amongst 18-20 year old which have been either alcohol induced or drug induced or even both.
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Dolly
Alcoholism Treatment
i dnt think it should be!
pushing the age to 21 has nothing to do with underage drinking, The Goverment should be spending more time and money into tacking underage drinking, also it wont stop underage drinking, also it wont stop under age drinking.
so many teenagers from 14 - 17 are throwing away there lives all because they think its cool there getting wasted, and also because they havent been informed at a younger age before they drink of the consequensas. How ever changing the legal drinking age to 21 has nothing to do with underage drinking, it could just make criminals o 18-20 year olds, what impact does the “legal” drinking age have on the behaviour of 14 - 17 year old, why would you want to expand the behaviour to 18, 19 and 20 year olds.
The goverment should send more time and money on the issue to tackel and overcome underage drinking such as more in-school speakers to show and inform us the effects o drinking at a young age, more addvertisment in the street, in school, at clubs, in doctors and in alcohol stores of graphic pictures.
Changing the legal age to 21 will not stop underage drink it will just extend underage drinking to adults of 18, 19 and 20 years of age. 50% of alcohol consumed by underage drinkers was supplied by there parents.
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