Youth Rights: Ignored by the United States?
by Jennifer Crosby
At what age are you an adult? Most people would say 18. However, the United States doesn’t seem to have a clear answer. Earlier this week, New York City’s Health Commissioner released a statement saying that they were considering pushing the age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21. This would be the steepest age increase for tobacco purchase in history. Recently some states, such as New Jersey and Alabama have risen their purchase ages to 19. I am a non-smoker; in fact, I am practically a walking anti-smoking advertisement. So why does this law make me so irate? Because it is yet another example of the United States blatantly denying citizens 18-20 the basic rights of adulthood.
Of course, at the forefront of this debate is the United State’s drinking age of 21. It’s the second highest in the world, outdone only by one province in India with a drinking age of 25 (which is soon to be lowered, possibly to 18). What many people do not realize is that the states actually have the ability to set whatever drinking age they want. However, in the 1984, the US passed the National Minimum Drinking Act, requiring that states with alcohol purchase ages below 21 would lose all of their federal highway funding. Needless to say, 21 is more or less a federal usurpation of state’s rights.
Many would argue that those 18-20 are not being denied any basic human right, they are being protected. I would agree that drinking or smoking is not a “natural right.” However, equal treatment of citizens is. If the United States wants to ban drinking or tobacco use altogether, as is done in many Middle Eastern countries, then it is a different story. However, I’m guessing that this would not sit too well with members of Congress. When one turns 18, they are supposedly a full US citizen, and a legal adult. They can vote, they can be drafted and go to war, they can get married, and almost anything else imaginable. However, they cannot have a glass of wine with dinner. It seems almost ridiculous that the government trusts thousands of 18-20 year olds with tanks, planes and guns in Iraq, but not with a beer.
So are the youth protected by the laws preventing them from purchasing alcohol and tobacco? Yes and no. The Mother’s Against Drunk Driving estimate that because of the passing of the NMDAA, over 21,000 lives have been saved. The problem with this figure is that it is only looking at lives 18-20. In fact, all of the lives that have been saved in that age group have been lost in the 21-24 age group. Simply put, whatever your minimum drinking age is, will also be where the majority of drunk driving deaths are. I don’t think there is anyone in their right mind that tolerates drunk driving, but the US is going about combating it in the wrong way. They are refusing to allow young people to learn to drink responsibly, and instead have them learn how at unsupervised parties, creating even more problems with alcohol abuse. The United States needs to have a change in drinking culture.
I have taken several trips to France, and each time I go I see countless French families enjoying a bottle of wine with dinner, the children included. It’s just not that big of a deal. They have a purchase age of 16, and no consumption age. The French also have one of the lowest percentages of alcohol abusers in the world. With the US’s drinking age of 21, alcohol is viewed from childhood as a forbidden indulgence, creating all sorts of problems. I agree that if the US lowered its drinking age to 18, there would probably be a temporary increase in problems. However, I think that it would be the first step in changing a national culture that is not only denying equal rights to its citizens, but most likely causing more harm than good.
All of these observations aside, New York City’s tobacco law, if passed, will have no real effect on me. However, I consider it to be one of the biggest steps back in youth rights since the 1984 NMDAA. The US is treating legal adults like children, and yet they are still punished like adults. It is a clear double standard. In fact, they completely underestimate the responsibility of their young adults. In New York City, only one out of ten people aged 18-20 smoke. This is far less than roughly 25% of those over 21 who do. Why do they feel it is necessary to target a group who isn’t even a problem? The US making 21 the age of adulthood would be viewed as ridiculous. However, that is slowly what they are trying to do. Some might say I am merely bitter that I am denied rights available to me nearly everywhere else in the world. However, I am simply frustrated and saddened that I live in a country that not only denies equal rights to young citizens, but also refuses to place any trust in them.
http://www.madd.org/under21/4847
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act
http://www.youthrights.org/drinkingage.shtml
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2136644
http://www.gothamgazette.com/iotw/smoking/
