Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered for Many Reasons Term Paper

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Against Lowering the Drinking Age

In the United States, underage drinking has been cited as creating immense problems. It has contributed to numerous unnecessary youth deaths and has been the predecessor to various crimes. However, some argue that it is the illegality attached to alcohol consumption that has led to these occurrences. The latter support lowering the legal age of alcohol consumption, while opponents argue that the health risks involved are too high. Despite the support for lowering the legal drinking age, doing so will bring more danger to an already unruly group of teenagers.

A variety of health concerns are attributed to early alcohol consumption. The earlier an individual starts drinking alcohol, the more like they are to become an alcoholic (Doraiswamy). This in itself brings about the psychological concerns that are attributed to the disease. Alcohol consumers are more likely to get depressed because they can experience a wide variety of mood swings. Individuals who have started drinking during their teenage years report being more psychologically unstable than those that did not start drinking until their 20s; this presents them with a more dangerous type of living (Giaimo). Lowering the legal drinking age will in fact exacerbate an already growing problem.

Consuming alcohol at a young age interferes with the proper brain development of an individual. At the age of 18, teenagers are still developing. Their brain is still molding itself, and introducing alcohol into this process can hinder the proper development of the frontal lobes; this will interfere with organizational and planning skills, as well as with emotion regulation (Doraiswamy). The earlier that this developmental process is interrupted, the higher the risk of chronic impairment to the brain (Giaimo). This is a danger that can be avoided if the legal drinking age were to stay the same.

At the age of 21 young adults are able to more responsibly handle the responsibility of alcohol consumption. The older an individual is, the more mature they are, and are therefore more careful when consuming alcoholic beverages (CBSNews). They will be more likely to drink responsibly, as they have a better understanding of the possible negative consequences, compared to an 18-year-old teenager.

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It is this misunderstanding of the consequences that eventually leads to unfortunate occurrences. The lower the drinking age, the more irresponsible the decisions made will be.

Drunk driving leads to the untimely death of those who engage in alcohol consumption as well as individuals who may innocently get caught in the cross fire. Over 17,000 people die each year as a consequence of drunk driving (Nagin). There is already a significant amount of underage drinkers that get behind the wheel while intoxicated; lowering the legal age at which this can be done will only increase this already growing number. 15.1% of young adults between the ages of 18 to 20 drive drunk (Nagin); these fatalities could increase if the drinking age is lowered.

When young adults engage in alcohol consumption, they are more likely to engage in dangerous behaviors such as binge drinking. This is a problem among teenagers and college students between the ages of 18 to 23. According to Fox News, there were 157 cases of college students who died of alcohol poisoning between 1999 and 2005 (Nagin). These are 157 cases too many. If the legal age of drinking were to be lowered, the number of cases could rise even more. Preventing these deaths is simple if the correct precautions are taken.

The risk of suicide increases as an individual consumes alcohol. If this act is then mixed with the imbalance of hormones and impulsive behaviors that teenagers biologically experience, consuming alcohol will only make this worse. The consequence of the physical effects that alcohol can cause an individual, allow them to make more vulnerable and rash decisions (Cloud). Along with a loss of inhibition, a depressed state of mind, and the ability to feel as if nothing matters, the perfect ingredients for teenage suicide are established (Cloud). Lowering the legal drinking age will as a result increase the number of teenagers who end up killing themselves after a spur of the moment feeling while under the influence of alcohol.

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