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Antwon Kirk
GP Research Paper
5 April 2017
Lowering the Drinking Age

The Highlights of the 2010 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) asserts that in

2010, there were approximately 189,000 emergency rooms visits by persons under age 21 for

injuries and other conditions linked to alcohol. This means a lot of people get injured due to

alcohol and they are younger than 21. Even now many young adults are getting in accidents

because of underage drinking. Therefore, lowering the drinking age would not make these

statistics any better. Some 18 year olds might think keeping the legal drinking age at 21 is a

harsh punishment, but keeping it at 21 will give young adults more time to learn how to be

responsible with alcohol. In the article Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered? by Michael

Goncher, Lowering the drinking age would be harmful to young people, those most likely to be

harmed from drinking due to the greater access to alcohol. Even though some people believe

that lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) from 21 to 18 would diminish the

thrill of breaking the laws to get a drink, the minimum drinking age should not be lowered

because lowering the drinking age increases alcohol related accidents, increases the risk of

substance abuse, and impairs the the decisions of younger people while under the influence

more so than it does older adults.

It is important to address this brewing concern because lowering the drinking age to 18

will be harmful to the community and may cause more death from alcohol poisoning and other

problems. In the late 60s and early 70s, 29 states lowered their drinking age to more closely align

with the newly reduced military enlistment and voting age (Madd) . The results were immediate
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for crashes caused by drunken drivers and for alcohol-related fatalities increased significantly in

those states. Madds History article says President Reagan agreed and on July 17, 1984, he

signed into law the Uniform Drinking Age Act mandating all states to adopt 21 as the legal

drinking age within five years. This shows that President Reagan witnessed how people under

21 was acting with alcohol so he decided to reverse the law. By 1988, all states had set 21 as the

minimum drinking age. Since that happened the 21 minimum drinking age law has save 900 live

per year and there are more than 25,000 people alive today because of the 21 drinking age laws

in every state.

Lowering drinking age can cause more accidents. According the article Drinking Age is

21 for a Reason in 1990s the government raised the minimum drinking age back to 21 has

saved more than 25,000 lives. Teen drinking result in more 4,700 deaths per year,lowering the

age won't help it decreases. On june 15, 2013 a young teen named Ethan Couch was witness

stealing two case of beer from walmart while driving with seven passengers in his father's pickup

truck ,while driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.24% three times the legal age limit for texas,

he was speeding then a car was stop in front of him so he swerved off road into another car none

of the passengers was wearing seat belt 4 passenger was killed and 2 injured.According to madd

article "Drunk Driving Statistics" Every two minutes a person is injured in a drunk driving

crash. If students are driving back from parties and not driving sober, there is a high chance that

they or someone else will get an accident and hurt. According to centers for Disease control and

prevention Young drivers (ages 16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they

have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% than when they have not been drinking. NoflexinD

states nearly one million high school teens drank alcohol and got behind the wheel in 2011.
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Teen drivers are 3 times more likely to be in fatal crash than more experienced driver.

Drinking any alcohol greatly increases the risk for teens.According the article "Teen Drinking and

Driving" research has shown that factors that help to keep teens safe include parental

involvement, minimum legal drinking age and zero tolerance laws, and graduated driver

licensing systems. These proven steps can protect the lives of many young driver and others.

According to the article Age-21 drinking laws In one study, researchers found that, in 2011, 36

percent of college students said in the past two weeks they'd engaged in heavy episodic drinking

(five or more drinks in a sitting, sometimes called "binge" drinking).Since 1998 the first year all

states change their law to 21 it been a difference. There was an even bigger decline among high

school seniors--from 35 percent to 22 percent stated in "New Report on Minimum Drinking

Age Makes Strong Case for Existing Laws | SPH | Boston University." . evidences shows if the

law kept the drinking age to 21 it will save lives.

Lowering the drinking age increases the risk of substance abuse. According to WebMD

Teen tend to try new thing and take risks, so they may take drugs or drink alcohol because it

seems exciting. Although drinking by persons under the age of 21 is illegal, people aged 12 to

20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States. According to"Teen Drinking and

Driving" that More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinks. Which

mean binge drink is cause by drinking back to back. On the other hand teens or adults under 21

years old will choose to drink alcohol or turn to substance abuse to try to escape from their

problems that life can bring. Children of alcoholics are at at an ever higher risk for developing

problems with alcohol and other drugs; they often do poorly at school, live with pervasive

tension and stress, have high levels of anxiety and depression and experience coping problems.
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According to the article Teens alcohol problems most of the young people who get

drunk or binge gradually outgrow this dangerous behavior as they become adults with jobs and

family responsibilities. If they are lucky, they may simply miss a class or two because of a

hangover. Others experience more serious problems that alter their lives in significant ways:

premature death, injury, smoking and using illicit drugs, academic failure, arrest, unplanned

pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease all are associated with drinking among young

people. These are depressing statistics for parents to take in. Even teens showing no overt signs

of problematic behavior could be at risk for a variety of dangers associated with underage

alcohol consumption.Studies consistently indicate that about 80 percent of college students drink

alcohol, about 40 percent engage in binge drinking, and about 20 percent engage in frequent

episodic heavy consumption, which is bingeing three or more times over the past 2 weeks. As a

community do not want our youth to be become more reachable to alcohol and be addicted.That's

why I feel lowering the drinking age increases the risk of substance abuse and lowering the legal

drinking age to 18 is a bad idea.

Lowering the drinking age impairs the the decisions of younger people while under the

influence more so than it does to an older adults. According to the NIAAA, underage drinking

will also damage brain cells in people whose brains have not fully formed more than in mature

brains. This damage in premature brains is particularly the case with binge drinking, which

includes a lot of alcohol in a small amount of time. The alcohol can harm the liver spreads to

the rest of the body, including the brain. Sexual violence and unplanned and unprotected sexual

activity constitute yet another set of alcohol-related problems. (National Institute on Alcohol

Abuse and Alcoholism , 2002) stated more than 70,000 students aged 18 to 24 are victims of
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alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. Studies of date rape and sexual assault on college

campuses are under the influence of alcohol.

According to Alcohol and Sexual Decisions 55% of female students and 75% of male

students involved in acquaintance rape admit to having been drinking or using drugs when the

incident occurred. The article continues by asserting that:

It is also a particularly cruel irony of nature, I think, that right at this time when
the brain is most vulnerable is also the time when teens are most likely to
experiment with drugs or alcohol. Sometimes when I am working with teens, I
actually show them these brain development curves, how they peak at puberty and
then prune down and try to reason with them that if they're doing drugs or alcohol
that evening, it may not just be affecting their brains for that night or even for that
weekend, but for the next 80 years of their life.

With the incoming class of freshmen being exposed to the college experience, it's not uncommon

to hear students talk about lowering the drinking age. The proposal to lower the drinking age was

almost put on the ballot in California and is a hot topic everywhere else in the States. Alcohol

culture is one that has a constant presence on college campuses; unfortunately, it has severely

negative effects on how well students perform in their studies. Drinking too much can harm the

growing brain. Today we know that the brain continues to develop from birth through the

adolescent years and into your mid-20s. The prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that

involved in planning and decision-making, does not completely mature until after your teen

years. Using alcohol can harm a teen's ability to reason and weigh options instead of just doing

something because it is fun or feels good it can mess up your life. Lowering the drinking age

impairs the the decisions of younger people while under the influence more so than it does older

adults. This damage in premature brains is particularly the case with binge drinking, a lot of

dangerous stuff can happen to young adult under 21. Alcohol can damage the brain and have bad

influence on them.
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Lowering the legal drinking age would be the worse thing for our youth and community.

Lowering the drinking age would give high schoolers and even middle schoolers easier access to

alcohol. Also increase on accident and death or injuries.underage drinking is also extremely

dangerous to brain cells in people whose brains have not fully formed more than in mature

brains. Even though some people believe that lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age

(MLDA) from 21 to 18 would diminish the thrill of breaking the laws to get a drink, the

minimum drinking age should not be lowered because lowering the drinking age increases

alcohol related accidents, lowering the drinking age increases the risk of substance abuse,

and lowering the drinking age impairs the the decisions of younger people while under the

influence more so than it does older adults. On the other hand, some people say if the drinking

age were lowered to 18, the majority of college students would be able to purchase alcohol while

out, lessening the pressure to have to get drunk beforehand. This would give students the ability

to spread out their alcoholic intake throughout the night and allow them to drink in more

controlled environments with security present or a bartender to cut them off. If the drinking age

was lowered to 18 that would just make it easier for people below 18 you can alcohol too

because they can just ask someone from their school to get it for them. Then there be 16 year old

or below drinking alcohol damaging their brain. After hearing these arguments, why would

legislation lower the legal age to 18?

Works Cited

Abba, M. (2015, 09 Nov). Lower the drinking age, lower the risk.<i> University Wire</i>

Retrieved from <a href="http://sks.sirs.com" target="_blank">http://sks.sirs.com</a>

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"Drinking Age is 21 for a Reason." University Wire, 16 Apr 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher,

http://sks.sirs.com.

Fox, Emily. "Lowering the Drinking Age can Ultimately Lower Student Success." University

Wire, 13 Sep 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher, http://sks.sirs.com.

Gonchar, Michael. "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?" The New York Times. The New York

Times, 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/should-the-drinking-age-be-

lowered/comment-page-2/?_r=0

"Highlights of the 2010" Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related

Emergency Department Visits." PsycEXTRA Dataset (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

http://archive.samhsa.gov/data/2k12/DAWN096/SR096EDHighlights2010.pdf

"Teen Drinking and Driving." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 02 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

Madd. "Drunk Driving Statistics." MADD. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

Madd. "History." MADD. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017

http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/history.html?referrer=http://www.quetex

t.com/

McAloon, William. &quot;A Too Dry Fourth of July.&quot;<i> Wall Street Journal</i>, 03 Jul

2015, pp. A.11.<i> SIRS Issues Researcher</i>, <a href="http://sks.sirs.com"

target="_blank">http://sks.sirs.com</a>.

"New Report on Minimum Drinking Age Makes Strong Case for Existing Laws | SPH | Boston

University." School of Public Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

NoFlexinD. "The Percentage of Teens in High School Who Drink and Drive Has - ENG - 101."
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Drive Has - ENG - 101. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

"Why Colleges should Support a Lower Drinking Age." University Wire, 2015. SIRS Issues

Researcher, http://sks.sirs.com.