Keeping The Drinking Age Essay

Alcohol is a prominent feature of American culture, that only people after a certain age are allowed to enjoy. In the United States, there is a law that prohibits youths twenty-one and younger from drinking any alcoholic beverages. However, upon reaching eighteen years of age, every person is considered to be a legal adult and receive the obligations that go with the title. At age eighteen, adolescents are relied on to use the rights and responsibilities to vote, serve on juries, join the military, which incorporates going up against the burdens of life and death, and be charged as a grown-up in the court of law. With all the obligations put upon a person once they become a legal adult, the question becomes clear for people to ask why an eighteen-year-old

There are countless facts and data on the dangers of drinking and driving and the consequences it has had and is continuing to have on society. An article written by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of twenty-one die as a result of underage drinking. The most known cause of death is due to motor vehicle crashes with 1,900, next would be 1,600 as a result of homicides, followed by 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings. (1). Alcohol can cause adolescents under the influence to drive more reckless and dangerously. Alcohol slows down their reaction time and causes them to be less likely to prevent an accident if presented with one. By leaving the drinking age at twenty-one it reduces the number of injuries and deaths that would be caused by drunk driving. Alcohol related accidents involving those under the age of twenty-one prove that those who are drinking under the legal age are irresponsible and incapable of using it