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David Brown
English
Mrs. Love
12/3/12
Drinking Age: To lower or not to lower
Many people throughout the country believe that the men and woman who are 20 years
old or younger who fight for our country should be able to sit down at a bar relax and have a
couple drinks. Others think that it’s unethical for people under the age of 21 to have a drink for
the main reason of safety. Ultimately the drinking age should not be lowered to 18. The facts
don’t lie and it has been shown that when minors are given the opportunity to buy alcohol at the
age of 18 traffic accidents rise and so does the death toll.
Now a lot of people would base this decision on ethics, saying it is unethical or immoral
to lower the drinking age to 18, but there are many more reasons why this will not stand. For the
simple fact that they are too young, they don’t have as much experience as a 21 year old would,
whether it is driving which nobody should do while under the influence or just the way that one
would act while under the influence. They are not mature enough while under the influence to
make the decision to find a designated driver. Now, not to say that 21 year olds don’t make bad
decisions while they are intoxicated but the death toll and other accident related problems due to
drinking are much lower when the drinking age is at 21. “Lowering the drinking age would be
medically irresponsible because the brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as
emotional regulation, planning, and organization, continue to develop through adolescence and
young adulthood” (Procon). Underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries,
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which are the main cause of death for people under the age of 21. Approximately 5,000 people
die each year from underage drinking.
While it is a known fact that the action of underage drinking causes more problems than
solutions why do people still do it? There are multiple reasons one would drink underage, most
of the time though it is to have fun. While having fun is a great thing 5,000 young people dying
every year from this action is not so much fun. These people who drink underage have nothing in
their head telling them not to drive or not to do something that could get you seriously hurt, or
even somebody else hurt. That is another huge problem, when other people suffer from teenagers
being stupid while under the influence whether it is driving or something else it shouldn’t even
be happening in the first place. There are actions being put into place, for example “all states
have passed zero-tolerance laws that make underage drinking illegal”(Underage Drinking). Now
while this is justified there will always be some rebels who drink anyways, but it is good to know
that we as a nation actually care about underage drinking and its horrible effects.
On the other side of the spectrum one might bring up how “18 year olds are allowed to
vote, smoke cigarettes, serve on juries, get married, sign contracts, be prosecuted as adults, and
join the military which includes risking one's life” (Procon). These are all good reasons but given
the statistics of drunk driving, this action far outweighs any deaths caused by voting and jury
duty. One might say that you learn from your mistakes, when a person is drunk and making
mistakes about every 10 minutes they are not going to remember any of the lessons they learned
from the night before so it is better to stay safe and avoid drinking by all means than to get
seriously injured or have something terrible happen. Another reason to lower the drinking age
would be to take away the thrill of drinking and breaking the law. It is said that if the drinking
age is lowered it will begin to become secondary, whereas now the main focus is how to get the
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alcohol, how much one will drink and so on. Usually when underage people drink they drink a
lot because they are at a party rather than a casual night where they could sip on a beer or drink.
This is another problem where if the age is lowered it will be less of a necessity to drink as much
to have a good time; teens will learn not to abuse the alcohol.
Nonetheless drinking has caused many innocent and young people to lose their lives.
Now while it would be okay to sit down with the family and drink a little bit, who would do that?
Teenagers are all about living in the moment, they want to go out have a good time and be
popular, and according to this generation that means going out and getting messed up. The
drinking age should not be lowered because of many reasons but mainly for the sole reason that
it will continue to save a numerous number of lives.
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"Drinking Age ProCon.org." Drinking Age ProCon.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012.
<http://drinkingage.procon.org/>.
"NIH Fact Sheets - Underage Drinking." NIH Fact Sheets - Underage Drinking. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012.
<http://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=21>.