The Reason For Raising Legal Drinking Age In Australia
Increasing the legal age of alcohol consumption to twenty-one in Australia is widely talked about and is a controversial topic. The legal drinking age should be raised to twenty-one, this is because the Australian Government and average day to day people debate that increasing the age will prevent and reduce the alcohol related harm in Australia. A teenage brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25 which may cause the abuser to misuse alcohol. By increasing the legal drinking age, it will reduce harm physical and mentally. It will provide greater safety for the surrounding community by reducing crime rates and helping to reduce deaths to minors and other health issues resulting to substance abuse.
By increasing the legal consumption for alcohol to the age of 21 will reduce the number of misuse users. For instance, the pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain which controls rational thinking, this part of the brain does not fully mature until the ages of 21 through to 25. If damage were to occur to in the pre-frontal cortex it could possible lead to lifelong consequences. Nowadays, research has shown teenagers use alcohol as an excuse of cheating, falling pregnant, drug usage and many more. Essentially, people say that they should not be held accountable for their behaviour while drunk this is because when taking a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time causes the blood to rapidly rise. However, they will be able to maintain a conversation but within minutes they’ll forget the conversation. The dimensions of health that are impacted by increasing the legal age of consumption to 21 are Physical, Mental and Emotional Well-being. Therefore, the Australian Government should definitely raise the legal age of alcohol consumption to the age of 21.
More reasons as to why the age must be raised, is because it will reduce the number of health-related harm. Alcohol is a depressant drug, it slows down the important functions which can lead to unsteady movement, slows brains function, disorientation, lack of coordination and many more. In today’s society teenagers are pressured to drink which can lead to the teen being mentally unstable and/ or people taking advantage of the user. As the United State of America Government stated: Each year, approximately 5,000 young people below the age of 21 die as a consequence of underage drinking. As well as roughly 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings.
When people are drunk, they are more vulnerable to take actions they wouldn’t do if they weren’t intoxicated. Adding onto that, interviews with some of Australia’s violent prisoners report that almost half of them were intoxicated during their most serious criminal offence. According to Australasian Medical Publishing Company in 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for 28% of all traffic-related deaths in Australia and another 1,233 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2016, 214 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver. Research has suggested that in some case (Australian Government) If the legal drinking age were able to raise, many of these statistics could decrease and have a much better impact in the community of Australia.
Conclusion
Through the research gathered in this report it is recommended to enforce the new rule that the legal age for consumption of alcohol should be raised to 21, will guarantee greater protection towards citizens of Australia such as; decreasing acts of violence and helping to protect the young teenager’s vulnerable brain that is still developing. Raising the age may also prevent dangerous injury and accident from occurrin
