Against Lowering Drinking Age

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is a privilege not a right. The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one, and I believe that this is a fair age. There are so many statistics that show drinking to be bad to begin with, but there are many more statistics that show why the drinking age of twenty-one should not be lowered. Teenagers do not show enough responsibility when drinking, and it would do everyone a lot more harm if they could do it legally.

There is no argument that drinking and driving is bad because so many people are put at risk when someone does drive drunk. Teenagers drink, which is against the law to begin with, but also drive while they are intoxicated. This is bad because teenagers are still growing and are at the age of rebellion, so alcohol has a different effect on teenagers than adults. Teenagers feel that they are grown up enough to make adult decisions, but drinking and then driving is a sure sign of immaturity. In many studies researchers have found that the number one cause of death among young adults are car crashes and out of all of those, nearly half are alcohol related. Long-term loss of drivers license and large fines and possible jail time, are consequences of driving drunk for persons twenty-one years and younger. There is zero tolerance in all fifty states and D.C. for underage drinking and driving.

The drinking age is also good where it is, because scientists have proof that teenage brains are not as well developed as those of adults. The teenage brain is still developing between childhood and adulthood. Dr. David Fassler says that teenagers are more likely to act out on impulse rather than to stop and thoroughly think about the consequences. Bright colors on scans represent brain activity and structure, show that the teenage brain is fundamentally different from and adult one. Scientists agree to disagree on when a brain is fully mature, some say early twenties and some say mid-twenties. With this in mind, some could say that we are privileged enough to even have the drinking age at twenty-one because the brain could not develop fully until the mid-twenties.

Teenagers drink because they feel that it relieves them of their stress by putting them in a different state of mind. They become worry-free and can say anything they want to, and not be held accountable for it. "It feels good to be 'away' from things that stress us out," says Armondo Aguilar