Over the years, there has been the question of should the drinking age be lowered back down to 18 because of adulthood and being able to join the military. On the other hand, binge drinking in the United States has led to many serious health, education concerns and fatalities. “In 2015, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 10% of 8th graders and 35% of 12th graders drank alcohol during the past 30 days, and 5% of 8th graders and 17% of 12th graders binge drank during the past 2 weeks (cdc.gov)”. This means that even at the legal drinking age there are middle school and high school students drinking. Results show that underage people cannot handle alcohol. This impacts their education, could cause more serious health issues, and ultimately, …show more content…
“A federal study, found that as rates of alcohol use by 12-17 year olds increase, grade point average decrease” (alcoholcostalculator.org). This means that underage students that drink are more likely to have “decreas[ing]” grades. Their performance declines as in effect of the use alcohol and/or the impairment the brain has suffered. The student will not do well in school because the brain is intoxicated and will not be able to hold on to knowledge compared to healthy hippocampus. A decrease in grade point average, will limit the opportunity of having a higher selection of colleges. Furthermore, the article continues explaining, “among high school students, those who use alcohol are five times more likely to drop out than those who don’t use alcohol” (alcoholcostcalculator.org). This portrays that high school students are more probable to drop out of school when there is alcohol use. It is because hangovers and drinking leads to missed classes which makes it hard to be familiar with all the material and instruction taught in class. Even if they are drinking and attending school, alcohol damages areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory. This increases their likelihood to have a lower grade point average and if the student carries on, unfortunately, “drop