“The average age at which young people ages 12 to 17 begin to drink is 13 years old. The average age that underage drinker ages 12 to 20 begin to drink is 16.2 years old” (John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). Thinking about those statistics makes me sick. I feel that the drinking age should not be lowered because it is too harmful to the body. Parts of our body’s that can be effected by drinking alcohol is your brain, heart, stomach, and liver. Those are vital organs and are all connected, if you do not have one it impossible to stay alive. Did you know that the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25? So anything that inhibits, such as alcohol, your brain growth can be very harmful in how your brain develops. When …show more content…
Consuming alcohol “could cause diseases such as cirrhosis, inflamed liver (hepatitis), or even can of the liver. The liver is the largest organ in our body. Its job is to keep poisons like germs and bacteria out of our blood. The liver also makes the protein that causes our blood to clot, and clotting is what causes scabs to form and makes us stop bleeding when we get a cut. We need our liver so we can stay healthy and so our bodies stay clean. Cirrhosis is a disease that damages the liver. It weakens the liver's ability to clot and keep our blood free from poisons and bacteria. People can get cirrhosis in different ways, but drinking too much alcohol is the most common way” (Alcohol Effects). Knowing what the effects of alcohol can do on the entire body that is more of a reason why I think the drinking age should not be lowered to 18. It is a fact that if people want to drink, even if they are under the legal drinking age, they are going to find a way to do it and they do not care is it is illegal. Some minors choose to wait to have a drink when they reach the age of 21. By making it legal at 18, it gives way for a lot more people to be under the influence of alcohol and they could possibly choose to drive, which is a scary