Lower the Drinking Age, Increase the Risk
According to a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) article, keeping the drinking age at 21 saved more than 25,000 lives. The national drinking age was lowered to 18, 19, or 20 by 29 states between 1970 and 1975, according to an article from CNN. As a result, the states lowered the drinking age when the government lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. However, by 1988 the federal government raised the legal drinking age to 21 because of a strong push from MADD. Ever since then, there continues to be argument over what the legal age should be. Even though it is legal to serve in the military when 18 years old, the government should not lower the legal drinking age because alcohol-related crime would rise, alcohol has
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Megan Abba, Editor in chief at Chapman University, says that “40 percent of all college students binge drink” (Abba). She talks about how college students under 21 would drink before they leave and if college students could buy alcohol it would lessen the pressure to drink before leaving the house. Drinking before leaving the house causes some college students to black out and have alcohol poisoning because of the amount of alcohol consumed. Megan also says that “in European countries where the drinking age is mainly 18, one in 10 drinking occasions result in intoxications” (Abba). Lowering the drinking age would promote safer drinking habits, However, evidence supports alcohol should not be readily available for teens and young adults.
Alcohol flows through the bloodstream and to the internal organs, your brain being one of the organs. Males and female brains develop at different speeds, for example the frontal lobe in females fully develops by age 18 but in males it is not fully developed until age 25. With alcohol affecting the many different parts of the brain, lowering the legal drinking