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Drinking Alcohol Under 21 Should Stay Illegal Essay

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Drinking Alcohol Under 21 Should Stay Illegal With the growing changes in the world, teens are being more like adults nowadays and are starting to consume products and take part in adult behavior. Teens should not risk ruining the rest of their lives for one or two good parties, because. Drinking can and will affect you down the road. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “4300 deaths annually are caused by underage drinking (N.I.A.A). Alcohol can put you in a dangerous position where anything can happen. The drinking legal drinking age should remain the same, because Teen’s brains are not well developed to be consuming alcohol, more drinking and driving accidents occur more for teens than adults, and alcohol also has an negative effect on youths mindsets and thoughts far more than adults. …show more content…

Drinking can negatively impact and slow down parts of your brain memory. Consumption causes your mood to change and become different than what you once knew. “The parts of your brain that are affected is the hippocampus and the prefrontal lobe” (Parts of the Brain - Memory & the Brain). The hippocampus is responsible for memory and learning. Prefrontal lobe is your impulse control and language. With that being said, drinking can destroy and your knock your brain of of whack. “Several decades of research have shown that drinking is associated with adverse effects on the central nervous system” (N.I.A.A). Drinking alcohol damages brain structure for youth in various ways. It can damage the “intracranial volume: volume enclosed by the skull.” (According to Parts Of The Brain Article.) The liver is also a major part of your body that can be put at risk when consuming alcohol. The liver helps your body gets away with waste and absorbs

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¨Long-term overconsumption of alcohol causes death of brain cells, which can lead to brain disorders as well as a lowered level of mental or physical function.¨ (Patterson) People who have consumed excessive amounts of alcohol no longer have basic control and functionality of their mind and body. ¨Alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, occurs when the body cannot function without alcohol. Alcohol affects certain neurotransmitters in the brain. When the brain becomes accustomed to the way that alcohol affects these brain chemicals, it can no longer send proper signals to the rest of the body without the presence of alcohol.¨ (Patterson) Once someone has developed a dependence on alcohol, he or she will continue to drink regardless of any serious physical symptoms caused by alcohol.

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This is why there are different limits in order to drink alcohol. Thinking about lowering the age is a bad choice to consider making. The United States shouldn’t allow this to happen to society. Lawmakers should not make eighteen the legal drinking

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There has been many discussions all over the United States is whether they should change the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. Most teens will argue that they should change the age because they can go to a store or a gas station and they can buy a pack of cigarettes, a black n mild, play the lottery at the age of eighteen so they will ask so why can they not buy a beer or alcohol at the age of eighteen. Underage drinking has been out of control in the United States because teenager use fake identification cards and they will also try to go to the club with their identification card. As a teenager when I was in high school I have proof that these things happen not only in college but high school it happens more often than college students. What is

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One of the first reasons the drinking age should be raised because it can cause brain damage. From the time humans are in the womb until the age of 25 the human brain is developing and building new parts and new nerve stems. As the brain is continuing to grow humans are learning new information and the alcohol is ruining that. For example, most alcohol-related road accidents

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This is true, but if the minimum legal drinking age is lowered to 18 years old and drinking is only allowed under parental supervision the drinking will be more responsible and will not damage the adolescent brain because the drinking is not severe. Preliminary studies suggest that rats exposed to high levels of alcohol during adolescence may be more sensitive to alcohol-induced memory impairments later in life (White et al., 2000).Although the causes of these long-lasting changes are unclear, they may in some cases involve alcohol-induced injury to the nervous system. In rats, exposure to high amounts of alcohol produces more extensive brain damage in adolescents than adults (Crews et al., 2000). To summarize, supporters of a higher minimum legal drinking age believe that alcohol has adverse affects on the adolescent brain. Although some may believe that a higher legal drinking age is the solution to all of our underage drinking problems, it most definitely is not, the MLDA should be 18 and between 18 and 21 consumption of alcohol is only legal under parental supervision, this is because teens will become more responsible drinkers, it will decrease underage drinking, and the legal age of adulthood is

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The legal drinking age has it harder for young adults to get their hands on alcohol, but that hasn’t stopped them from finding a way to get a hold of it. The legal drinking age has been a problem since its start in 1984 when congresses passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. With this act, teens weren’t allowed to purchase alcohol or drink in public, but now teens have a way to find and drink without getting caught. This could mean that teens get older people to buy drinks from them, or that they buy alcohol from a shady store that doesn’t need a ID to purchase things. This begs the question, is alcohol really bad for teens.

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One con of lowering the drinking age is that it may interfere with the development of an young individual’s brain. Especially the frontal lobes, emotional regulation, planning, and also organization. When a young adult consumes alcohol it increases the potential of having chronic issues, like greater vulnerability to addiction. It also plays a role in depression, violence, and reduced decision making ability (Ives2008).

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Should the legal age for alcohol consumption be lowered? In the United States, The legal drinking age is 21, but in my research, I have found that it is actually allowed, under certain circumstances and situations, to people of even lower age. Though all 50 US states have set their minimum drinking age to 21, exceptions do exist on a state-by-state basis for consumption at home, under adult supervision, for medical necessity, and other reasons. In fact, all but 5 states, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, under age drinking is permitted. Parents are allowed to furnish alcohol to minors if they are under proper supervision.

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The brain cells in the brain of a heavy drinker happens to not work as correctly as a kid that does not drink. Alcohol slows down the cerebral cortex and the way it works to get information from a person’s senses. Underage drinking also messes with the Frontal Lobes their important for planning, forming ideas, and making decisions. If alcohol was to damage part of the brain where the Hippocampus is located it could be very hard for the person to learn new

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Another risk of drinking at a younger age is the increased chance of addiction, studies have shown that the earlier an individual start drinking the higher the chances are of becoming an alcoholic. One of the last reasons the legal drinking age should stay at twenty-one is possibly the biggest reason why it is. Driving under the influence is one of the leading causes of accidents in the US, killing approximately one person every fifty-two minutes. The age group of sixteen- nineteen-year-olds are three times more likely to be in a fatal crash, due to the involvement of alcohol, than someone in their twenties. One of the leading causes of DUI’s is peer pressure, usually from teenagers attempting to impress friends or acquaintances.

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