The Pros and Cons of Lowering the Drinking Age to Eighteen

The Pros and Cons of Lowering the Drinking Age to Eighteen

In the United States, the whole of 50 states have set the age limit to drink as 21 years, which is higher than other countries. However, people have opinion that lowering the drinking age to 18 years of age as people have the right recently. According to “Los Angeles Times”, we could know that more than 130 college chancellors and presidents have signed a petition introduced in 2008 in support of the idea. Although this was a highly welcomed suggestion by many youngsters, we still need to notice the disadvantages of lowering the drinking age to eighteen. Instead, keeping the drinking age at 21 is much helpful for youngsters’ academic, heath and lives.
First of all, teens who drink alcohol have a higher chance of academic failure, and they will have negative effect on their academic performance. For examples, China is a country which has no age limit to drink. Even if you are a baby, you still can buy and drink alcohol without checking ID. When I was in middle school, some of my classmates drunk at school, even during the class time. Of course, they could not focus on their studies. Moreover, they not only failed in the tests all the time but also affect other students negatively. Also, more and more students followed them to drink, and they always smoked and fought after drinking. When teenagers develop binge drinking as a habit, that will be very hard to get rid of the bad habit in the future, and it will follow them for a whole life.
Second, drinking at an early age would harm their heath and hamper their emotions. Research indicates that the brain continues to develop until age 21, and young brains can be damaged by alcohol irreversibly. As 18 years old youngsters are new to college, they might have an crazy mind that they are free from the control of their parents, and they get their hands on alcohol. As a result, they would start drinking immoderately. After they too much, they would feel headache first, and then they could not remember things. That means binge drinking have an impact on long-term brain function. It also might lead to increased sexual activity, binge drinking, irresponsible behavior and unable make decisions. It would damage their own health and others’. However, after 21 years old, people’s brain develop well, and they can control themselves and make decisions better.
Finally, lowering the drink age to eighteen might have a high risk of accidents. Youngsters might tend to hang out with friend indulging in the alcohol in places that are not safe such as bars or nightclubs, and they would drive to their place. Low age would lead to increased numbers in bars and pubs which are not safe. This might lead to lots of accidents. In instance, states that lowered the drinking age to 18, such as Massachussets, Michigan, and Maine, experienced an increase in alcohol-related accidents around the 18 to 20 age goup. .Raising the drinking age back to 21 years old has decreased the percentage of fatal traffic accidents for those between 18 to 20 by 13% and has saved approximately 21,887 lives from 1975-2002. Also, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported raising the drinking age to 21 saves about 800 lives every year
People are able to handle the important decisions in life like marriage, sign contracts and live independently at age 18. However, keeping the drinking age at 21 is not wrong. Compare to other counties, it is a real good way to reduce the negative effect of youngsters’academic performance, the damage of youngsters’health and the risk of accidents.