Should the Legal Drinking Age be 21

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Recommended: Effects of lowering the drinking age to 18

People consume alcohol for many different reasons: celebration, depression, anxiety, boredom, and peer pressure. This group of “people” includes teenagers. It is incredibly simple for a teenager to find a way to attain alcohol. Even though it is illegal, it is available for their disposal through liquor cabinets at home or even older acquaintances who buy it for them. Up to 81 percent of high school students have tried alcohol at some point in their lives, compared with 70 percent who have smoked cigarettes and 47 percent who have used marijuana (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). I remember the first high school party I went to my first year of high school. On that night I had never seen so much alcohol in my life. I was not familiar with the high school parties, moreover under age drinking and remember feeling a sense of nervousness, as if I was doing something wrong, even though I was not drinking. I now think if the drinking age were eighteen, high school parties like that would be normal, even worse college parties with alcohol would be legal. Although eighteen year olds have many rights besides drinking, the government should not lower the drinking age because it would enable high school students to legally drink, it would enable the trickle down effect, and it would increase automobile accidents and deaths. Those who oppose with keeping the drinking age at twenty-one believe that lowering it to eighteen will help solve a lot of problems. When a teenager turns eighteen, he or she is considered an adult; this consists of the ability to vote, go to war, buy cigarettes, get married, and go to clubs. Radley Balko, a writer for Reasononline, comments, “It makes little sense that America consid... ... middle of paper ... ...4. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17893 “Editorial: Legal Drinking Age Should Be Kept At 21 Nationwide.” Pantagraph, The EBSCO. 02 Feb 2014. Engs, Ruth C. “Why The Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion Based Upon Research.” CQ Researcher. 21 April 2010. “Keep The Drinking Age At 21.” Chicago Tribune (IL) (28 August 2008). EBSCO. direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W62W61887285996&login.asp&site=ehost-live> Snyder, Edgar. "General Statistics (According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)." Edgar Snyder & Associations. N.p., 2009. Web. 01 Feb 2014. http://www.edgarsnyder.com/drunk-driving/underage- drinking/underage- statistics.html Pike, Kevin. Personal interview. 01 February 2014.

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