Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths?

Summary

The issue of underage drinking among college students is serious and has opened up a debate about the minimum legal drinking age. Some colleges, through the Amethyst Initiative have questioned the minimum legal drinking age set by the national legislation and seek to have the legal drinking age lowered to 18 years. This effort is meant to reduce drinking and associated problems among students. However, comprehensive research review and history paints a different picture. Compelling evidence shows that minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has resulted in less drinking and fewer drinking-related deaths. On the other handing drinking age of 18 is associated with more drinking and injuries. When the states chose to lower drinking age to 18 in the 1970s, drinking and deaths increased. Contrary to the claim that nations with lower minimum drinking ages fare better, heaving and binge drinking is common among European youth (988).

Explain why this article is an acceptable source to use for a university assessment

This is a valuable article to use for assessment because it touches on harmful and underage and college drinking, which is a serious public health concern. Underage drinking is an issue of concern within institutions of higher learning, which exerts a significant toll on both social and intellectual lives of learners on colleges and campuses. Majority of the youth (17 to 21 years) who consume alcohol happen to be college and university students. This source also discusses the pros and cons of lowering the minimum legal drinking age from 21 to 18 with concrete evidence and credible examples. This comparison yield helpful information that policy makers can use to set the most effective minimum legal drinking aged.

Strategy: summarizing

I used the summary strategy to read and understand the article. After going through the text, I went through it again but this time underlining the main idea statements that contained important ideas. I used phrases and key words to locate the most important ideas while ignoring  any information deemed irrelevant. Then I selected the underlined statements and arranged them in logical manner. Finally I related the most key points in the text in my own words. This strategy made it easy for me to focus on most important phrases and words of the source that are worth remembering. Summarizing involves listing the key ideas, underlining the most essential ideas, arranging the underlined states and then writing the summary. I found these steps very helpful and memorable. I intend to improve my academic reading skills by practicing regularly and paying more attention to instructions.

Works Cited

Wechsler,Henry and Toben F.  Nelson, Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths. American Journal of Public Health, 100,6(2010): 986-993