Should The Drinking Age Be Lowered To 18

First reason the drinking age should not be lowered to eighteen is because of the obvious health issues. The brain is still developing in an adolescent which not only makes them more vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol but can also cause irreversible brain damage. Neuroscientist Susan Tapert conducted a study and compared the brain scans of adolecesents that drank and the scans that didn’t drink, the drinkers “appeared to have a number of little dings throughout their brains ' white matter, indicating poor quality, and poor quality of the brain 's white matter indicates poor, inefficient communication between brain cells.”(qtd. in Trudeau) Alcohol does the most damage to the frontal lobe which is part of the brain that is responsible for planning, forming ideas, using self control and making decisions. To damage this area before it’s fully grown leaves society with a bunch of brain damaged adults that don’t live their lives to their fullest cognitive potential. exaggerates the alcohols’ effect and lowers the individuals chance of living healthy life. Because an eighteen year old has an underdeveloped sense of self control and decision making skills they are more likely to binge drink and suffer alcohol poisoning. According to the Center of Science as many as “30, 000 college students need medical treatment each year to cope with alcohol poisoning.

Fox News reports that 157 college-age individuals (ages 18 to 23) drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005.”( Niagin) By lowering the drinking age the number of alcohol related hospital visits and deaths would be significantly