The Legal Drinking Age Should Not Reflect Today s...

Task 1: Law and Society Evidence and research proves that the laws related to the legal drinking age does not reflect today’s societal values and that the legislations ‘Liquor Act 2007 No 90 (NSW) Part 7 Division 1 Sections 117 116’ should be reformed to raise the drinking age in Australia from 18 years of age to 21. Through surveying different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds of society, information has been gathered to demonstrate that the current laws do not reflect society’s opinion on the legal drinking age in Australia. Research suggests that there are many social consequences related to alcohol in young people including alcohol fuelled violence and major health issues. Despite evidence from leading health experts,†¦show more content†¦Consuming alcohol at 18 years of age can interfere with the development of the young adult’s brain and studies show â€Å"physical changes in the brain and evidence of impaired problem solving and other cognitive fun ctioning†. This results in influencing the child’s ability to reach their full educational potential. An article from Oct 2015 ‘15 Shots of Vodka Killed Our Daughter’ by Andrea Todd explains the death of 17 year-old Shelby Allen and is just one example of the influence alcohol has on young adults. Shelby was at a party where she and her 18 year old friends had decided to take shots. Her friends state that they wanted to see how many shots it would take for them to pass out. Eventually 15 shots later, Shelby’s body was unable to comprehend the toxicity of the alcohol and had died. This article is just one of the many stories where young adults are clearly unaware of the dangers of alcohol and its alarming consequences. Through surveying different age groups of societies we were able to identify that young adults where greatly more unaware of the health problems associated with consuming alcohol rather than adults. This alone indicates that older adul ts of 21 years and over have better knowledge on the dangers of alcohol and its impacts. The need to increase the drinking age to 21 years of age is indicated through health studies,