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Essay Against Lowering The Drinking Age

2155 Words9 Pages

In today’s world, many people think the legal drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen for reasons such as teens binge drinking, age requirements for military, and college students already doing it anyways. I disagree with these people after looking at the statistics and facts I found from several sources. This debate has gone on ever since the prohibition and will continue well into the future. The United States is one of few countries that has a drinking age of twenty-one. When considering the rates of drunk driving, college violence, and the negative effects alcohol has on teens physically and emotionally, one can conclude the legal drinking age should not be lowered.
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People from the age of twelve to twenty drink about twelve percent of all alcohol consumed in the US. Even though it is illegal for these ages to drink alcohol, they usually drink more than the average adult. Ninety percent of alcohol consumed by teenagers is all consumed at once, which is considered binge drinking (NIAAA). Binge drinking is the leading factor of all problems created by alcohol for underage drinkers.
Binge drinking can lead to aggressive behavior, property damages, injuries, violence, unprotected sex, and death. Data provided by the CDC shows that alcohol is a factor of death for 4,358 teens each year. These deaths consist of 1,580 deaths by vehicle crashes, 1,269 homicides, 492 homicides, and 254 from alcohol poisoning, falls, burns, and drowning. Another set of data in 2011 alone shows that 188,000 people under the age of twenty-one visited an emergency room for alcohol related injuries (Hanes). Drinking can effect teens in more ways than just physically hurting

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