Lowering the Drinking Age - Wenger 1 Victoria Wenger...

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Victoria Wenger
Professor Nelson
English 101
8 April 2019
Why We Shouldn’t Lower the Drinking Age
As we sit at red lights, waiting for the incandescent bulb inside the stop light to glow a
bright green, we often forget the power our brain has when we’re driving. This “power” prevents
accidents, influences better decisions, and therefore allows us to think clearly. This ability to
think in an effective manner is compromised when individuals choose to drink. If this poses such
a threat to safety, why are we willing to lower the drinking age restriction imposed on younger
adults? The drinking age should be kept at 21 because it protects the youth, enforces students and
young adults to make smarter decisions, lowers the number of drinking related crashes, and
essentially saves lives.
It is crucial to keep the drinking age at 21 in order to prevent irresponsible actions by
those that are too immature to handle alcohol. If we lower it to 18, this will give even younger
teens the incentive to drink, therefore putting more and more lives at risk. According to William
Dejong, “Age-21 law is the most defensible public-health policy we have when it comes to
dealing with youth alcohol problems" (Wasley). This makes sense because teenagers are often
presented with numerous situations that often stress them out. Considering the amount of
hormones in a person's system during puberty, teens may lash out and make poor decisions,
including those that revolve around alcohol. Why lower the drinking age then, if they are already
faced with many stressful decisions to make already? Some may explain that an 18 year old is
an adult, and while that may be true, that doesn’t change the fact that younger teens may feel
inclined to drink if the drinking age is closer to their own age. Sadly, if teens choose to act on

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this incentive to drink, they could damage their brain and potentially acquire poor habits and
extreme outcomes in the future. The centers for disease control and prevention states that
drinking below the age of 21 is “linked with death from alcohol poisoning, suicide, changes in
brain development,”as well as “poor or failing grades”(CDC). The youth need to be protected at
all costs because they are the forefront of our future. If we give them a substance that could