Pros And Cons Of Keeping The Drinking Age At 21

Although many individuals think that teens under 21 have the capacity to handle drinking, studies found that legal drinking ages and traffic accidents found higher legal drinking ages associated with lower rates of traffic accidents. Alcohol shouldn’t be consumed by ages under 21 because it will lead to more drunk driving, higher chances of alcohol poisoning, and it lowers the alcohol consumption and illicit drug use across age groups.

With restrictions, young adults have the time to mature and learn how to make better choices. According to an organization that looks at both sides of an argument, by keeping the drinking age at 21, America is maintaining a rite of passage. This rite decreases drunk driving because many respectful families explain

Alcohol is one of the leading causes of life threatening diseases, and it causes a profuse amount of Alcohol poisoning. Therefore, being able to drink alcohol should be kept at the age of 21. Alcohol poisoning causes detrimental health problems and brain deficiencies. For example, “Alcohol can damage or even destroy the cells that make up the hippocampus, which is why some people experience fuzzy memories or blackouts after drinking”. The hippocampus is an important part of the brain which is a brain structure that is embedded deep into the temporal lobe. When you drink alcohol that temporal lobe slowly starts to get destroyed. Even when drinking at the age of 21 your brain is still developing, so you're slowly killing your brain every sip you take of alcohol. Drinking alcohol can not only lead to alcohol poisoning but it will lead to poor decision making. According to Queensland Health, they state, “We often hear that teenagers can be quick to react, make seemingly poor decisions or act in an irrational way. This is because the prefrontal cortex of their brain, responsible for things like rational thinking, planning, personality, impulse control and language, is still maturing”. Some may say that kids under the age of 21 can make their own decisions and that drinking doesn’t affect their brain as much as articles say they do. However, a study shows that the prefrontal cortex being

The law stating that you have to be 21 or older to drink alcohol is significant because it lowers alcohol consumption and illicit drug use across age groups. 87 % of studies, according to a Meta study on MLDA, says, “we have found that higher legal drinking ages are more associated with lower alcohol consumption”. This means that there have been more cases of teenagers who are under the age of 21 who have been associated with alcohol more than those of the legal drinking age people who are 21 or older. Those who are apart of drinking at a younger age than 21 most likely have memory problems, depression, more violence, and suicide. Another example states, “significantly increased alcohol consumption- particularly among boys and those from underprivileged backgrounds- when drinking becomes legal. Raising the minimum legal drinking age in Europe could reduce alcohol poisoning and the early socioeconomic gradient in teenage binge drinking”. Some may say that this information is false about the underprivileged boys drinking at such a young age because they say the boys are having other problems, not problems with their family’s or friends. I totally agree with this, however when a boy is being brought up in a household that does nothing but abuse him and force him into a broken household his whole life