Raising the drinking age

In 1999, the drinking age was decreased from 21 to 18. Since then, people have argued that the amount of deaths from drinking is too high, and that the drinking age needs to be raised again. Many people believe it will cure New Zealand’s drinking problem, or at least it is a start. Another reason to raise the drinking age is because so many people drink and drive. However, Raising the drinking age could cause some undesired effects. Another issue we are confronted with is the amount of resources that will be wasted by trying to enforce an already abused law.

Many people believe that raising the drinking age will solve everything, but is this really necessary? In my social circle, I have seen that the average 18 year old drinker will have spent the past three to four years of their life drinking illegally and going to parties. This shows that most teenagers do not care about the law, and will continue to drink if the drinking age is increased. I believe that the source of the problem isn’t because of the law being too low, but in fact the mindset of New Zealanders. In Germany, 16 year olds are allowed to drink a pint of beer and discuss their week’s homework. This shows that teenagers are able to drink responsibly below the age of 18, showing that raising the drinking age might not fix anything.

However, while New Zealanders are thinking about alcohol the wrong way, New Zealand does have a drinking problem, and something does need to be done. According to http://www.transport.govt.nz’s blood and breath survey, every year around 4000 teenagers are caught drink driving. According to the ministry of transport, a survey was conducted from 2008 – 2009. It showed that socially, $841 million is spent on damage and court costs, and an estimated 20% of this, is caused by youths under the age of 21. New Zealand law already has a law set up to stop drink driving for under 20’s. It states that “...anyone who is under the age of 21 must not have more than 30 milligrams of alcohol per 100millilitres of blood, or more than 150 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. This is effectively a zero limit; consuming just one drink will mean you can be charged with drink driving”. With this law, and the 21 age minimum for drinking, teens will be more scared to consume alcohol and drive.

Moreover, we should not be scaring children to teach them how to drink responsibly. A better solution would be to reaise the “off licence” to 21, and keep the “on licence” at 18. “Off licence” and “On licence” means off site or onsite of a pub or bar. This means that 18 year olds can still enjoy a night on the town with their friends. This also means that the only way for anyone under the age of 21 to get alcohol at home, is to be supplied by someone over the age of 21. An 18 – 20 year old isn’t exactly going to buy a pint of beer and walk outside to give to his 13 year old brother.

However, the amount of alcohol related deaths could be greatly reduced by introducing this law, as well as increasing the penalty for both having alcohol while underage, and supplying alcohol to minors. Every year there are around 119 alcohol related deaths with around 600 serious injuries. New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport conducted a survey in 2008 – 2009 about New Zealand crash statistics. It showed that the 15 – 19 year olds have a 5.3% higher chance of crashing than anyone over the age of 30, with no alcohol in their blood. With 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, 15 – 19 year olds are 5 times more likely to crash than anyone over the age o 30. This shows that today’s teenagers are irresponsible because they are unable to handle their alcohol intake.

In conclusion, raising the drinking age may help stop a few people drinking, and will also help catch out a few odd drink drivers, but the truth of the matter is that our current system isn’t catching all, or even most of the underage drinkers, so raising the bar will make little difference. I believe that with the idea of raising the “off licence” to 21, we can minimise the amount of teen drinkers and still allow 18 year olds to have fun. This way, the only way for someone under the age limit to get alcohol, is for someone over the age of 21 to supply them, but with that, we need to ask ourselves...

Should we really be blaming the teenagers?