One controversial debate in the United States concerns the legal drinking age. Some believe the drinking age should be reduced from 21,and others believe it should be remain the same. The minimum legal drinking age varies from 0 to 21 around the world. In my opinion the National Minimum Drinking Age Act should be changed to allow 18 to 21 years olds the ability to purchase and consume alcohol. The legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems than it prevents. First, it is necessary to question this law. Why is 21 the magical age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? We all know some people under 21 who can drink responsibly , and some over 21 with no hope of ever drinking responsibly. Today's teenagers face more responsibility and are treated more like adults than their parents were. This makes the 21 restriction seem out of date. At 18,people are considered adults. If it is legal for 18 years old to drive cars, fly planes ,vote,marry,pay taxes, take out loans and risk their lives in the armed forces then should be legal for them to drink alcohol. Today's legal drinking age is unrealistic. The bottom line is responsibility. If drinking alcohol in moderation is acceptable, society should teach responsible drinking rather than set an age limit. In our values as parents and educators, we have a responsibility for the socialization of our children, for preparing them for life in the world. We should be brave enough to tell them the truth, that moderate drinking need not lead to abuse; that drinking can be done in an appropriate civilized way without shame and gilt. I fully believe the drinking age should be lowered because the current age has no real basis. With the focus on education about safe drinking instead of restriction,...
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added: 01/17/2012
Congratulations, it is your eighteenth birthday! You are now legally mature enough to sign contracts, fly airplanes, serve in the military, serve on juries, vote, and hold public office. So why are you not able to sit down, relax, and have a nice cold beer after launching nuclear weapons at your job in the military? There are only seven countries on the entire planet that have a drinking age of twenty-one. Most countries have lower drinking ages, and many countries do not have a drinking age limit at all. So why does the American government feel that it is necessary for this age limit? A popular argument raised when discussing this topic is drunk driving. If the age limit was decreased to eighteen, would this age group be mature enough to avoid driving intoxicated? Well, I believe that if you can hold the responsibility to be part of a jury, that can sentence someone to the death penalty, then you are fully responsible to make a decision whether to drive drunk or not. The truth is, as researchers David Levy and Peter Asch state it, the "minimum legal drinking age is not a significant-or even perceptible- factor in the fatality experience of all drivers or of young drivers." An in depth study proved that raising the drinking age simply transferred lost lives from the 18-20 bracket to the 21-24 age group. Raising the drinking age in America to twenty-one has not done its job (YouthRights.com). The government Chase 2 needs to look at the problem of drinking and driving openly to find better options for dealing with it. Your mind and body develop all throughout your life. A twenty-one year old is no different from an eighteen-year-old; just as a 42-year-old is no different from a 39-year-old. Maturity is a gradual process that continues...
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added: 01/18/2012
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, referred to hereafter as EEOC was established in 1965 and was given the authority to investigate claims, against employers, arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). EEOC investigates discrimination claims against employers based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, as well as sexual harassment, and retaliation. If someone feels they have been wronged or discriminated against based on any of the above criteria, they have the right to file an EEOC claim (also known as charge); charges can be filed either in person, or by mail. Before a lawsuit can be filed, the statutes require that the employee file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC first. This paper will discuss the process and the time frames of filing a complaint, as well as provide information on the civil litigation process from the State to the Supreme Court levels. The claims process begins with issuance of the initial charge of discrimination against an employer, which must be filed within 180 days of the incident. If EEOC determines, after reviewing the complaint, that unlawful discrimination did actually transpire, it will then assign an investigator to the case. The employer will then be notified within 10 days, and is given the opportunity to respond or appeal the charges and explain actions and the recourse they took in regards to the charges. After the investigation is complete, EEOC then makes a determination on the merits of the charge. If it is determined that the charges were unfounded then a "Dismissal and Notice of Rights" letter will be sent to the charging party (a copy of this letter is also sent to the employer). This then gives...
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added: 01/09/2012
In 1984 the federal government passed the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act, there has been a lot of controversy as to whether the government has a right to create such legislation. (Berg 1) This law was passed to encourage each state to change their legal drinking age to twenty-one years of age. Congress believed that if they raised the minimum drinking age that it would save a significant number of lives. They figured that a twenty- one-year-old person was more mature than the average eighteen year-old. That, in my opinion, was a huge mistake. Just because a person lives to be twenty-one does not determine how mature they are. There are many teenagers in the world that are considerably more mature than the average twenty-one year-old. The legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen years of age. Setting the legal age to purchase and consume alcohol is unrealistic in today?s way of life. Prohibiting the sale of alcohol to people under the age of twenty-one may cause habits such as binge drinking and alcohol abuse. It just causes a rebellion. Keeping the age at twenty-one makes it seem as if an eighteen year-old is not a real adult. Drinking is then viewed as a glamorous activity since it is only for adults. Then, in rebellion, those who are underage will just find a way around it. For example, many have fake identification cards, steal alcohol from their parents? liquor cabinets, or even put another person in jeopardy by asking someone whom is twenty-one to illegally purchase the alcohol for the underage drinkers. This kind of deceitful attitude does not encourage responsible drinking habits. In addition, this gives young individuals the urge to drink even more when they get older so that they could make...
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added: 11/30/2011
INTENTION My intention for my text production exposition is to write a formal exposition on whether the sale of alcohol should be prohibited. The audience that my exposition is aimed at includes young adults and the general drinking population, which may include some late-teenagers and anyone older. The language used is formal and is therefore not aimed at children or early teenagers. In deciding whether the sale of alcohol should be banned it is necessary to examine a number of arguments both for and against the sale of alcohol before making a decision. In almost all countries in the world, adults are allowed to buy and consume alcohol with very little restriction, whereas other drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, acid, and heroin are illegal to be consumed or have possession of. To be able to make a decision on the sale of alcohol, the positives and negatives will need to be assessed, the ways in which people will be affected by the banning of alcohol will need to be considered. To take alcoholic drinks away from the world would create a void in the lives of people everywhere. The main reason why alcohol is different from other drugs is that alcohol is a social drug which can be used safely if in moderation. Alcohol, unlike other drugs, is socially entrenched. It is an important part of the social life and culture of most countries and try to ban it is completely impractical. If alcohol is taken from clubs and pubs there will be business loss and the vibe or atmosphere that these venues create will be lost and become a thing of the past. Alcohol can be used as an icebreaker between people and enables people to become more comfortable and accept situations. In selling alcohol, premises expect that consumers will act...
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added: 02/03/2012
For many decades, women in Australia have been subject to inequality and unfairness in a wide range of areas in employment. They have been discriminated based on gender, marital status, pregnancy and family responsibility. As well as this, many women have faced the most common form of discrimination based on sex – sexual harassment. In the past years, however, the legal system of Australia has redressed the discrimination which women have faced in society through a number of legislative bodies that women may access. According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1989, the definition of sexual harassment is any form of unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. This may include unwanted physical contact, sexual advances, sexual comments and crude jokes, offensive body gestures, the display of pornographic material in the workplace, threats of violence, sexual assaults and rape. Many women have been subject to sexual harassment but have been unable to do anything about it, because of the belief that they may be fired or they may not have enough knowledge or English language skills to file a complaint. Another very common form of discrimination of women in employment is not limited to sexual harassment, but extended to behaviour which is discriminatory in terms of gender in that the discrimination which had occurred is based on the social construction of gender roles and definitions of appropriate behaviour in society. Women who worked in areas which were predominantly male, or held positions of authority in the work place were discriminated against because the positions they held were not harmonious with traditional beliefs about gender roles. In most cases where this has happened, women have been reluctant to complain about sex discrimination in their workplace because of the fear that they may lose their...
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added: 01/01/2012
Marijuana is a major part of society today in the United States. It can be found in many parts of our culture from music to attire. It also is the most widely used illegal drug; almost 18 million Americans used it last year. It is the fourth most widely used drug in the world behind caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine. Approximately 200 to 300 million people worldwide use marijuana (Hollister 660). More than 65 million Americans will try it in their lifetime (Dawsey 73). In recent years the debate on whether marijuana should be legalized or not, has been growing. In both California and Arizona legislation was passed to make marijuana available by prescription for people with diseases like glaucoma or cancer. This is a very tough debate because there are many good reasons why and why not to legalize marijuana. Marijuana is nothing new to American society. It has been around for a very long time. Hemp, a fiber in the plant's stem, was once used to make clothes. It was so valuable in the mid-1800's that it could be used to pay taxes (Dawsey 74). The legalization of marijuana could positively impact our society. The first way marijuana legalization could help our society is from a crime aspect. If marijuana were legal, then there would be less marijuana related crimes. For instance, during prohibition there were a lot of gang wars over alcohol, but once prohibition was repealed, the violence stopped because gangsters no longer controlled the alcohol supply. All of the marijuana brought into the United States is brought in by criminals and sold by ruthless people like gang members. If it were legal, companies instead of gangs and drug dealers would sell it. Also, when something is illegal its price is higher because of supply and demand. This causes...
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added: 07/10/2011
Introduction "Hey man, you wanna get high?" Unfortunately, this phrase is said a countless number of times a day by high school students, referring to the use of marijuana. They have to sneak around, lie to adults, and they will do almost anything to get the feeling that marijuana creates. They risk getting arrested just to get this "special feeling". People should not have to go to such great lengths to use marijuana. The use, production, and sale of marijuana should be legalized in the U.S. Marijuana, also known as Cannabis Sativa, or pot, is defined by www.soyouwanna.com as a dioecious plant containing upwards of four hundred chemicals. Affirmative Marijuana is helpful in many medical cases. It is very helpful to people with anorexia. Anyone who knows marijuana is familiar with the "munchies". Every time you smoke pot you get a desire to eat. This helps anorexia patients gain weight. Synthetic forms of THC, the main active chemical in marijuana, such as Marinol are ineffective substitutes because they often put patients to sleep before they start to eat, which is the whole point. Marijuana also helps cancer patients. According to an article on www.soyouwanna.com, cancer patients smoke pot to dispel the nausea they get from chemotherapy. Doctors recommend it for epilepsy, arthritis, migraines, and glaucoma patients. In Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Use, Denele Campbell said, "The outrageousness of the situation and a personal experience with a cancer patient is what prompted me to get involved; people risking arrest, dignity and the quality of life just to find comfort is outrageous," while speaking on why marijuana should be legalized. "Prohibition of marijuana doesn't work. It has only spawned an enormous black market, eroded our civil rights and corrupted our justice system." On average, we sentence nonviolent drug offenders to five times more jail time than those...
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added: 11/26/2011
A study done at a Southern California high school in 2001 reported that 78% of the graduating class had consumed alcohol at least once while in high school. Not one of those 2500 students is of legal age. The United States has the strictest youth drinking laws and ironically has the most drinking-related problems among its young adults. Some researchers conclude these laws restricting 18-20 year olds to be counter-productive in that the laws force them to resort to alternative methods to consume alcohol. Others adamantly believe 21 is the appropriate age for one to be responsible enough to drink alcohol. Decreasing the legal drinking age to eighteen would reduce the youthful abuse of alcohol and prove to be a beneficial modification. Since the law passed in 1984 mandating every state in the United States to enforce 21 year old alcohol purchases, there's been controversy over the effectiveness of the regulation. The determination of legality in drinking should not be age, but rather maturity and ability to handle responsibility. The drinking age around the world varies dramatically from no age limit at all to the highest of all, the United States. Scientific research supports that early introduction to drinking alcohol is the safest way to reduce juvenile alcohol abuse. Young adults in Spain, France, Argentina, and China rarely abuse alcohol despite how readily available alcohol is to them. They learn how to drink naturally, in moderation with their families. Alcohol is not perceived as rebellious intoxicant, reckless behavior is not tolerated, and there is a clear consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking. If twenty-one is considered mature, then why is eighteen considered an adult? Setting the age of alcoholic responsibility at 21 is arbitrary. At the age of eighteen an individual can vote, serve on a jury, pay taxes, leave home,...
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added: 11/28/2011
When you let your 16 year old go to a party, what do you really think they will be doing? Playing board games and watching movies are not things that go on at teen parties anymore. The main purpose of going to these parties is not to beat so and so in a board game, or to see Brad Pitt in a movie. The reason why the majority of these adolescents go to parties is to get DRUNK!! This has been a major problem for many decades now, since young adolescents are more and more involved with alcohol everyday. Underage drinking has been a problem in society for a lengthy time now. Unfortunately underage drinking has been a major cause of death. Although many people consume alcohol for a number of reasons it is very harmful. One of the most common problems associated with underage drinking is, driving under the influence of alcohol. It was stated that, " Although the degree of magnitude varied among the states and provinces studied the majority of research concluded that lowering the minimum legal- purchase age led to significant increases in alcohol- related automobile accidents among young drivers (Wagenaar, 1983). " If lowering the legal drinking age increases accidents why would we even think to do such a thing. Previously when the legal drinking age was reduced, immediately the number of alcohol related automobile accidents relating to adolescents escalated tremendously. After reviewing this information an individual will easily see that alcohol related accidents are very common; and something must be done to guarantee that they do not continue. In addition to drinking and driving, there are many other issues, which linked alcohol to death. Intoxication is a major cause of death, which unfortunately many young adults have experience. Intoxication includes a number of stages....
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added: 09/18/2011