Keep Drinking Age at 21

DRINKING AGE DEBATE

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 years old, when one is considered an

adult, and assumes adult privileges and penalties, or should the drinking age remain at

21 years old, since people are more mature and therefore, can be safe and responsible

with alcohol?

I believe that the drinking age should remain at 21 years old because lowering

the legal drinking age would not be in the best interest of the public's safety, as well as

today's youth.

The most fundamental argument in favor of keeping the drinking age at 21 is the

prime reason it was put at that age in the first place: the body and brain of an

adolescent cannot fully form and perform to its potential if its development is

interrupted by the infiltration of alcohol. Teen brains are sponge-like and are designed

for maximum learning capacity. Alcohol interferes with learning and memory. In a

Duke University study, students who binge drank every weekend of their freshman

year scored 10 percent lower on IQ tests than the prior year. Studies have shown that

the brain becomes the primary recipient of alcohol abuse by youngsters. The 21 year

old restriction was placed because one's brain should be fully formed by age 20 or 21.

Alcohol use before the full formation of the brain also causes a decreased ability in

"planning and execution function, memory, spatial operations and attention" all of

which affect academic performance and future brain function.

Alcohol use and abuse prior to this age not only expose drinkers to negative

consequences because of alcohol-influenced actions, but also can permanently affect

their brain functions, bone density, and reproductive systems. An MRI test showed

that the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for forming new memories, was

noticeably smaller in youth who have used alcohol than in those who have not.

In addition, the abuse of alcohol during adolescent years also inhibits the change of

the "myelination and synaptic refinement" in the brain, which would normally

occur at this time. This refinement helps the brain functions of considering

consequences of actions, dealing with stress and managing of drives, as well as

the speed of transmitting information from one part of the brain to another.

Early alcohol use has also been associated with low testosterone and other

reproductive hormones. Girls who drank alcohol during the teen years cause a

"deleterious" effect on bone density development, which would, in turn, raise their

chances for osteoporosis in later years.

Emotionally, teenagers are not ready to consume alcohol because they are

unable to minimize the harmful effects alcohol can cause. Teenagers who drink

are more likely to abuse alcohol later in life. In a study, of those who began drinking

at age 18, 16.6% subsequently are classified with alcohol dependent and 7.8% with

alcohol abuse. If a person waits until age 21 before taking their first drink, those risks

decrease by over 60%.

Another reason to keep the drinking age at 21 is because since the passage of

the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, alcohol related fatalities among young

people have dropped, saving more than 1000 teen lives each year. While auto accidents

is consistently the leading cause of death for teenagers,