Kendal Vinales
Professor Frenkel
English 1520
October 30, 2014
Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered? In the recent years there has been much controversy on whether the United States should lower the legal drinking age to 18 years old. Many people feel that if someone is old enough to fight for their country and to vote they should be able to drink, but that is not the case. In actuality that is not the reasoning behind why the drinking age is at 21 and not 18. Truth is, it is not safe for minors to drink and minors who have drank have proved that they are just not mature enough. Taken from Binge drinking and associated health risk behaviors among high school students “Underage drinking contributes to the 3 leading causes of death (unintentional injury, homicide, and suicide) among persons aged 12 to 20 years” (76). Alcohol is already restricted to people under the age of 21, but minors still seem to get their hands on it. It is one of the leading causes of deaths for minors, which proves if it was legal to 18 year old that statistic would tremendously increase. Lowering the drinking age to 18 could potentially cause more crimes and deaths to occur among persons aged 12 to 20 years. Alcohol is restricted from people under the age of 21 because of its horrible health effects and the tragedies that have occurred. Minors tend to not be aware or informed enough about the seriousness of alcohol and are more likely to binge drink. According to Binge drinking and associated health risk behaviors among high school students “binge drinking, typically defined as consuming [greater than or equal to] 5 drinks on an occasion” (76). Binge drinking is a very serious issue and usually leads to more serious things such as violence and crime.
UNDERAGE DRINKING IS widely recognized as a leading public health and social problem in the United States (1) and is associated with the 3 leading causes of death among youth (unintentional injury, homicide, and suicide). (2) A number of studies have shown the harmful health and social consequences of underage drinking, such as neglecting responsibilities, getting into fights or arguments, missing school, driving after drinking, engaging in suicidal behavior, and engaging in risky sexual behavior.
Making alcohol available to 18 year olds is only going to make it more available to those even younger and is going to lead to more crime and violence among young people, but not only that it may potentially lead to more health affects in the future. Alcohol is very dangerous drug and has been linked to various deaths, crimes and injuries. Many believe that alcohol should to be available to people 18 and older, but the question is why? Nothing good would come from lowering the drinking age. Teenagers who drink illegal now have proved the horrible things it can lead too. Taken from Binge drinking and associated health risk behaviors among high school students “Underage drinking is also associated with carrying weapons, using illicit drugs, and having unprotected sexual activity” (76). Lowering the drinking age would only make these crimes more common and could cause one to make a bad life changing decision while under the influence.
When someone is under the influence of alcohol they are likely to make decisions they would not usually make while sober. Alcohol affects the entire body and could potentially cause someone to do something they usually would not do. According to the CDC alcohol causes “Impaired brain function resulting in poor judgment, reduced reaction time, loss of balance and motor skills, or slurred speech” (CDC). This is why there has been many cases of a teenager being raped at a high school party. Teenagers usually binge drink and are not contentious of how much alcohol they have consumed until it is just late. On one summer day at a high school party in Steubenville, Ohio a 16 year old girl was an example of this. On this night two football stars from Steubenville high school took