The Legal Age for Drinking Alcohol Should Not Be Lowered To 18 (Essay Sample)

The Legal Age For Drinking Alcohol Should Not Be Lowered To 18
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The Legal Age for Drinking Alcohol Should Not Be Lowered To 18
The legal drinking age should not be a common controversial topic of debate that people argue about time and time again. It is blatantly obvious that when the law was passed to make the legal drinking age twenty-one years, it was the right. Alcohol is the main drug problem for the youth in the United States and as well as the world. This problem is carried over when teenagers get behind the wheel while intoxicated. Although, from studies carried out, young drivers are less likely to drink and drive however the severity of accidents caused by drunken teens far outweighs that caused by adults. The legal drinking age thus should remain as is and there are countless reasons to back this claim.
Lowering the legal drinking age would be detrimental for countless reasons. Alcohol has been known to cause alterations in the development and structure of the brain, more so in an adolescent brain. According to research, the brain continues to develop until the age of twenty-one. The consequences of consuming alcohol at this crucial stage that is below the age of twenty-one years when the brain is still young and developing can have dire irreversible effects reaching far beyond adolescence (Speak Up Coalition, 2012). Lowering the legal drinking would be tantamount to giving a right to ruining the young minds of our nations.
Lowering the legal drinking age would see more teenagers drinking. This phenomenon has been documented in history. When the legal drinking age was lowered in the 1980s, a steep rise in the number of kids and teenagers who took up drinking and corresponding accidents and fatalities was observed. Later when the age was adjusted accordingly, there was a drastic drop in accidents and fatalities related to alcohol (Archer, 2012). On lowering the legal drinking age in the present day, it would pose a significant risk to the high school community as most kids reach eighteen years while still in high school. The seniors would undoubtedly influence the other kids into drinking over time. Lowering the drinking age would thus promote such harmful behaviors as unwanted and unplanned sexual activities in schools which would certainly lead to unplanned pregnancies violence and ultimately alcohol poisoning (Brezina, 2014).
Data from studies carried out on the issue of alcoholism shows that the earlier an individual, or a teenager in this instance, starts drinking the higher the chances are for that teenager of having alcohol problems in the future and the higher the chances of becoming an alcoholic (Archer, 2012). Lowering the legal drinking age would thus be an affront to the community. It would mark the commencing of the increase in the percentage of alcoholics in the society that is already a huge problem in today’s society. As teens are continually and simultaneously undergoing physical changes, new situation and urges, and peer pressure, lowering the age limit and allowing them to consume alcohol will make them more vulnerable to drugs and substance abuse, depression, and other social ills (Speak Up Coalition, 2012).
Lowering the legal age for drinking and letting younger people drink is equal to giving immature and inexperienced individuals more of the ability to make bad decisions that not only affect them but are also harmful to the people around them as well. According to the American Medical Association, "the laws have saved an estimated 20,000 lives since states began implementing them in 1975, and they have decreased the number of alcohol-related youth fatalities among drivers by 63 percent since 1982." The irrefutable truth is that the number of accidents and innocent drivers who get hit by teens driving under the influence has reduced drastically. This is more than enough proof that raising the legal drinking age is beneficial to all. Lowering it would only cause more accidents and more torment (Archer, 2012).
In the United States, every state has the right to set its own legal drinking age. However, according to George Will in an article he wrote about the legal drinking age, "drinking age paradox" "lowering the drinking age will cost the state ten percent of its federal highway funds and cause a significant uproar from contractors and construction unions." It is therefore in the best interest of every citizen as well as the state not to lower the legal drinking age. States funds would be affecte...