Benefits Of Underage Drinking

Underage drinking has been a problem for many years, yet it is still not under control. An ongoing debate in the United States is whether the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen like in many other countries or if it should stay at twenty-one. This controversy is specifically relevant to college students, as drinking at an American University has become a significant component of a student’s college experience, despite the fact that most college students cannot legally drink. Binge drinking has become a major issue among students as well as a high percentage of DUI and alcohol-related deaths, it is clear that something needs to change in this country. Lowering the drinking age to eighteen would be an effective and beneficial step in changing

Drinking is an easy way to rebel against parents and the law while still having fun. Considering that drinking is illegal for those under twenty-one, situations involving underage drinking will most likely take place in dorm rooms or basements, where the chances of getting caught are less. The goal in these conditions is to get drunk as quickly as possible, cultivating binge drinking which creates a high risk and dangerous environment. Sol Israel a twenty-year-old American studying in Canada shares how eighteen year olds and up treat drinking completely different in the two countries. Israel says, “We 're drinking as part of socializing instead of drinking just to get drunk, which is what tends to happen in the United States when kids flout authority. Being legal, the experience here is noticeably more laid-back, rather than the frantic drink-fest I remember from home.” (Israel 2004) Canadians treat drinking as a normal social activity where they can relax and enjoy their time with their friends, while in America, college students have the mentality of drinking to get drunk. In the debatabase book written by the International Debate Education Association the authors conclude that by lowering the drinking age it will instill responsibility into eighteen-year-olds also preventing the usage of fake ID’s (International Debate Education Association 2013). According to

According to James C. Fell is a senior program director at the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation in Calverton, Md. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen it just moves the spectrum down. So instead of an eighteen-year-old drinking underage that will move down to sixteen year olds drinking underage. He believes that it will make alcohol more accessible to younger teenagers, “A 16-year-old or a 14-year-old doesn 't look 21, but they may look 18.” (Ogilvie 2011) Studies concluded that, “Adolescence is a critical stage of development in which the brain undergoes neuromaturation and reorganization characterized by changes in neurotransmission, plasticity, and synaptic remodeling. The results of human and animal research suggest that alcohol exposure during adolescence adversely affects brain development and maturation, causing brain damage, structural alterations, and cognitive deficits.” (Guerri 2010) This simply means that as a young adult, consuming alcohol may lead to severe brain damage as well as stunting the growth of the brain. However, the brain of a human is not fully developed before the age of twenty-five, so any