Tiffany Neuverth
Professor Tom Lovin
Essay 1
English 101-027
September 12, 2009
Why the Legal Drinking Age Should Not be Reduced from Twenty-One to Eighteen
Being eighteen, you would probably expect me to be into alcohol very frequently. However, I choose not to drink and am strongly in favor of keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one. I want to go beyond the standard set for the legal drinking age in Illinois. Alcohol can hurt you even through the actions of others. “The punishment of it is very severe!”[i] – (The Nemours Foundation). Honestly, it scares me often just to think about how dangerous it truly is. With that being said, I believe we should keep the drinking age at twenty-one. In no way does it benefit us to lower it to eighteen.
“On average, young people have begun drinking at about age thirteen, but some start even younger. By the time they are high school seniors, more than eighty percent of them have used alcohol and approximately sixty-four percent have been drunk.”[ii] - (U.S. Department of Health).
Studies continue to show that teens who start drinking before the age of fifteen are four times more likely to be alcoholics, seventy-five percent more likely to use an illicit drug, twenty-two times more likely to use marijuana, and fifty times more likely to use cocaine. In addition to that, it’s been said many times and I agree, that children who drink by the seventh grade often report more academic problems and delinquent behavior in their middle and high school years. Several studies indicate that all these numbers are significantly less for the teens who choose to wait and not start drinking until the age of twenty-one. Early alcohol use and dependency also has many hidden, long-lasting consequences that are health-related. “Alcoholism, heavy addiction to alcohol, is ultimately a degenerative disease that is chronic, progressive, and fatal if not treated.”[iii] – (Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse). I believe dependency on alcohol, especially among teenagers, is becoming more and more of a problem in the world every day.
Most people believe that alcohol will not affect them for more than a few hours when they are drunk. However, they are quite wrong! I believe alcohol affects your body for the rest of your life. It just may not always be visible. Did you know that when alcohol gets in your system it slowly starts seeping into the bloodstream and immediately makes your blood pressure jump? Some of the long-term damages capable from alcohol include: liver damage, pancreatitis, several different types of cancer, brain shrinkage, and finally nerve and heart muscle damage. Likewise, it has many short-term effects. It changes the person’s behavior and mood, impairs your motor skills, keeps you from thinking clearly, and distracts your concentration.
One of biggest problems with alcohol is how it attacks your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). It is a depressant. It slows everything in your body down. This depression results in anxiety and lack of activity. When we are depressed we often go for the first thing that we think will give us joy and make us happy. Possibly, it’s the frequent and excessive use of alcohol. Approximately 100,000 alcohol-related deaths of teenagers have to do with excessive consumption alone. I feel it would be a very beneficial to us if facts were better publicized. Perhaps, we could begin to see just how dangerous alcohol is to teens as well as other people.
“Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year — enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer”[iv] – (Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse). That is a lot of money! I think America and specifically public schools would benefit a lot more if we didn’t have to spend as much time and money on underage drinking and driving. Currently, over 310,000 people suffer from an alcohol-related accident every year. That’s one accident every other minute in which a person is seriously injured due to alcohol. Just crazy, isn’t it? Driving under the influence (DUI) in America is the leading cause of death.
With all this being said, can you honestly sit there and think that lowering the drinking age to eighteen from twenty-one is still a good idea? No! There are many health issues, both long and short term, and also safety issues. You saw how all these studies are showing more and more alcohol-related problems. I only just briefly mentioned a few of the many statistics and facts. Some of the studies that are available even go on to discuss why teens experiment with alcohol, the extreme dangers of alcohol poisoning, and statistics on teenage drunk driving. In addition to that, there are also some interesting facts which show just how serious the effects of alcohol are on teenager’s brains since they are not yet fully developed. Alcohol is a serious issue and we, parents, police, and specifically the government needs to do more and crack down harder and more often on underage drinkers. It should be a major focus to keep the teens of this world safer. I truly believe that lowering the drinking age to eighteen is not a good idea. Let’s stop risking our teens and start saving their lives!
[i] (Alcohol, Teens Health) The Nemours Foundation. Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: April 2009 Originally reviewed by: Eugene Shatz, MD http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/alcohol/alcohol.html# Accessed: September 14, 2009
[ii] (Youth and Underage Drinking: An Overview) “U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol & Drug Information" Internet. http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/govpubs/rpo990/ Accessed: September 12, 2009
[iii] (Alcohol, Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse). 2002–2006 GDCADA. Last updated March 6, 2006. Internet. http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/alcohol.htm Accessed: September 12, 2009
[iv] (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Alcohol, Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse). 2002–2006 GDCADA, Last Updated March 6, 2006 Internet. http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/alcohol.htm Accessed: September 13, 2009
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