Drinking Age Should Stay At 21 Persuasive Essay

📌Category: Drinking Age, Social Issues
📌Words: 1209
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 05 April 2022

“According to a meta-study on the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA), higher legal drinking ages are associated with lower alcohol consumption” (ProCon.org). This issue is how lowering or raising the legal drinking age will affect young adults. The issue impacts young adults. The legal drinking age is a controversial topic since people argue whether or not raising or lowering it can save lives. In my opinion, the legal drinking age shouldn't be lowered as a lower legal drinking age will result in more drunk driving accidents, binge drinking, as well as affecting the brain development of young people.

It won't stop young adults from drinking alcohol if the legal drinking age is lowered. According to “Minimum Legal Drinking Age”, “Lowering the minimum legal drinking age would allow access to alcohol by young adults or adolescents, and alcohol can have long-term effects on young people whose brains are still in developmental stages” (Gale 2). The evidence shows that lowering the drinking age would not be beneficial, as alcohol would be available to young people whose brains are still developing. Since the brain fully develops at age 25, lowering the legal age would not help. According to “Should The Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?”, “Alcohol consumption can interfere with the development of the young adult brain’s frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization. When alcohol consumption interferes with this early adult brain development, the potential for chronic problems such as greater vulnerability to addiction, dangerous risk-taking behavior, reduced decision-making ability, memory loss, depression, violence, and suicide is greater” (ProCon.org). Alcohol consumption can affect a young person's brain development. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), “while many factors played a role in the increase in DUI arrests, lower minimum drinking ages may have resulted in increased drinking among young people” (Gale 7). The lowering of the legal drinking age resulted in an increase in drinking among young people, according to BJS. Hence, the minimum legal drinking age of 21 must stay the same.

It would be best if the drinking age remained at 21 for the sake of saving lives. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, “about 900 lives are saved annually due to fewer alcohol-related traffic crashes involving underage drivers” (DeJong 2). By keeping the legal drinking age at 21, approximately 900 lives are saved annually. According to Patrick O'Malley, a former Illinois State Senator, and Alexander C. Wagenaar, a professor of health outcomes and policy at the University of Florida College of Medicine, “Studies indicate that when the drinking age is 21, those younger than 21 drink less and continue to drink less through their early 20s, and that youth who do not drink until they are 21 tend to drink less as adults” (ProCon.org). It has been proven that a legal drinking age of 21 will save lives through these studies. More people will drink alcohol if the MLDA is changed, resulting in more deaths.

The MLDA of 21 should remain unchanged since young people binge drink. According to James C. Fell, a Senior Research Scientist at Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation, “binge-drinking among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has been declining since the legal drinking age was raised from 18 to 21” (Ogilvie 18). It has been proven that raising the legal drinking age to 21 reduces binge drinking among young adults. According to Fell, “many states lowered the legal drinking age from 21 to 18, and alcohol consumption by youths increased as a result. Since raising the drinking age to 21, we have seen a decrease in alcohol consumption” (Ogilvie 19). Lowering the legal drinking age to 18 will lead to more consumption of alcohol by young adults. As reported in “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?”, “Binge drinking peaks among 21- to 25-year-olds at 45.4%, while the binge drinking rates of those aged 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, and 18-20 are 0.3%, 3.7%, 10.2%, and 26.2% respectively (ProCon.org). Statistically, a drinking age of 21 helps to prevent underage binge drinking. Alan Greenblatt, who wrote an article on the age of responsibility, states “They note that binge-drinking on campus is rampant despite the stricture, and argue that if students were given the right to drink at an earlier age, they might handle it more responsibly” (Greenblatt 5). College students typically binge drink, which is why some believe that lowering the legal drinking age would reduce this drinking trend. Keeping 21 as the MLDA should not change, since it could threaten public safety.

Lowering the MLDA could threaten public safety. According to William DeJong, a professor of community health at Boston University, “After the legal drinking age dropped from 21 to 18, a study showed that there had been significantly more alcohol-related crashes among 15-to-19-year-olds than would have occurred had the law not been changed” (DeJong 6). After the MLDA was lowered from 21 to 18, more alcohol-related crashes among 15-19-year-olds have increased. DeJong points out that, "College administrators need to accept the current law and then redouble their efforts to see it enforced on their campuses, not for the sake of forcing underage students to abstain altogether, which is probably an unrealistic goal but to help keep their drinking—and its associated problems—in check” (DeJong 7). In my opinion, college administrators should accept the law and enforce it on campus to make underage students stop drinking. Based on what is stated in “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?”, “A survey for the Center for Alcohol Policy found that 86% of Americans support the legal drinking age being set at 21” (ProCon.org). Almost all Americans support a legal drinking age of 21. As a result of keeping the legal drinking age at 21, plenty of lives are saved every day.

When you turn 18 you are given the right to vote, play the lottery, and join the military. When they make all these important decisions, shouldn't they be allowed to drink? According to the article, “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered from 21 to a Younger Age?”, “Lowering MLDA 21 would reduce the number of underage people who are hurt from alcohol-related injuries or accidents due to fear of legal consequences if they sought medical attention” (ProCon.org). By lowering the legal drinking age to 18, we would reduce the number of young people who are injured or killed in alcohol-related accidents. Alan Greenblatt, who wrote “Age of Responsibility”, states “In most respects, people are considered adults at 18. That’s when they can vote and enter into legal contracts-including the purchase, if not rental, of a car. But a 20-year-old Marine, just back from patrolling the streets of Baghdad, would have to turn 21 before he could join a local police force in most cities in the United States. A 20-year-old college junior, far more educated than the average American, cannot buy alcohol or enter a casino” (Greenblatt 8). While there are valid arguments in favor of lowering the drinking age, lowering the drinking age has far more cons than pros. By keeping the drinking age at 21, we are saving lives every day.

The minimum legal drinking age should not be lowered to the age of 18. Undoubtedly, consuming alcohol is dangerous and unhealthy, especially for people under 21. At age 25, the brain fully develops and lowering it will increase traffic accidents. Therefore, it should not be reduced. A lower legal drinking age will not result in better outcomes for the future. Consequently, the legal age to drink should not be lowered to eighteen years old and it would be better to keep the drinking age of twenty-one because alcohol is unhealthy, does not improve your life, and is not necessary. In addition, young people in this world can live safer lives, reducing the drinking age does not solve this problem.

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