Throughout history the drinking age has varied many times. Different laws have been passed and repealed. Not everyone drinks alcohol. But drinking alcohol does play a role in most of the United States’ population whether it affects a person individually or someone they know. 70.1% of Americans admit that they have consumed alcohol in the past year (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). When it comes to drinking, the minimum legal drinking age is a commonly debated topic. Some people believe it should be eighteen, some believe it should be twenty-one, and some believe it should be somewhere in between. It is an extremely controversial issue and there is a lot of research on how the drinking age affects the daily life of people. Drinking affects a person mentally and physically. It is important to discuss the drinking age because it affects America’s young adults. Approximately 60% of teenagers have had at least one alcoholic beverage by the time they reach the age of eighteen. 26.0% of those eighteen and older admitted to binge drinking at least once in 2015 (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). It is important to understand how the drinking age and drinking culture affects people before forming an opinion on it. There are pros and cons to keeping the drinking age at twenty-one but the pros outweigh the cons. The drinking age should be kept at twenty-one because it is most beneficial to not only individuals but society to create a safer drinking culture instead of the binge drinking culture that is present now.

Debate over the drinking age has been occurring for some time now. Alcohol was prohibited in the United States from 1920 to 1933. This time period was called prohibition. The government was alarmed at American’s drinking culture and wanted to control their alcohol use before it spread throughout the whole country. Alcohol consumption decreased by 70% when prohibition was first enacted (Andrews, history). This ban on alcohol was abolished on December 5, 1933. The main reason prohibition was repealed was due to the economy. The government realized how much money they were losing by not having an alcohol industry. Getting rid of prohibition helped the agriculture industry and brought in a lot of revenue from alcohol taxes. After the repeal of the prohibition on alcohol many states lowered their drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. In 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed. This document said that any state that allowed people to purchase or publicly possess alcohol when they were under twenty-one will have their federal highway funding decreased by ten percent. Later this was changed to have the highway funding decrease by eight percent instead of ten. This law did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol under twenty-one but many states prohibited it. The original purpose of raising the drinking age was to decrease drunk driving accidents. Although the drinking age is a state law and not a federal law, all fifty states currently have a drinking age of twenty-one.

Driving fatalities that involve alcohol are an extremely prevalent problem in the United States. Approximately one quarter of car crashes involving teenagers involve an underage drunk driver (MADD). A drinking age of twenty-one helps to decrease these fatalities. It is found that when the drinking age was decreased to eighteen, single-vehicle fatal crashes increased for the age group of eighteen to twenty-one-year old’s.  (Asch and Levy, 180). A big supporter of the twenty-one-minimum legal drinking age is the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (also known as MADD). This nonprofit organization was founded by a mother whose daughter was killed in an accident by a drunk driver. MADD fights for the drinking age to remain at twenty-one. They also fight for drunk driving accidents to decrease. They are passionate in young adults and their health and safety. 1,900 people are killed every year in car accidents that involve underage drinking (MADD). These are the kind of statistics that MADD works to lower. A drinking age of twenty-one helps to prevent alcohol related driving accidents because it discourages kids from drinking underage. The fear of getting in trouble for underage drinking plays a big role when kids are debating whether to drink. If they know the consequences of underage drinking they are less likely to do it and less likely to be involved in a drunk driving accident. Zero tolerance laws in all fifty states also makes it more intimidating for teenagers to drink underage. Estimates from the National Highway Transportation Administration suggest that the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one saves up to 900 lives a year (Huffington Post). In Peter Asch’s scholarly article “Young Driver Fatalities: The Roles of Drinking Age and Drinking Experience” he discusses multiple statistics that support the age-fatality rate curve. He shows statistics that support the view that drinking and driving accidents are due mostly to inexperience in both subjects. Educating youths on both drinking and driving would provide them with better experience to make better decisions. Keeping the drinking age at twenty-one keeps the roads and the lives of young adults safer than if it were eighteen.

Not only is drinking under the age of twenty-one bad for car accidents but it is also bad for the health of young adults. Human brains develop and grow until the early twenties. Heavy underage alcohol consumption is correlated with a 10% decrease in the size of the hippocampus. This means short term and long term memory processes are damaged (alcoholthinkagain). The prefrontal lobe is the area of the brain that develops the most during teenage years. It aids in “planning, judgement, decision making, impulse control, and language” (alcoholthinkagain). Teenagers who drink have smaller prefrontal lobes than those who do not. Underage drinking destroys the skills that the prefrontal lobes control, making it harder for these young adults to be rational and reasonable. Studies find that “37% of eighth grade females who drank heavily reported attempting suicide, compared with 11% who did not drink” (NIAA). The earlier a person starts to drink the higher the chance that they have alcohol-related problems later in life. These developmental problems with the brain help explain why teenagers act more impulsively than others. Someone who starts to drink before the age of fifteen is four times more likely to experience alcohol dependence at a point in their life than someone who has their first alcoholic drink at twenty or older (NIAA). This affects not only the individual but if they have children it affects the children too. Alcohol dependency and alcoholism runs in genetics. A drinking age of twenty-one helps to deter underage drinking which helps prevent these health problems. Underage drinking affects other parts of the body as well. Liver damage is common in people who drink heavily. Contracting steatosis, fatty liver disease, is fairly easy and can be acquired after even a few days of heavy drinking (NIAA). This disease makes it harder for the liver to filter out the bad things in one’s body, like alcohol. The earlier a person starts drinking the greater their chance for more extensive liver damage. Heavy drinking, whether it be long-term or short-term, raises an individual’s chances for having a stroke or a heart attack (NIAA). Drinking alcohol during the teenage years, when puberty occurs, can affect the hormonal balance that is important for the development of the body (NIAA). Drinking underage can delay puberty and negatively interfere with a woman’s reproductive system. Even short term effects of underage drinking have detrimental effects on the body. Drinking underage is associated with drug use, risky sexual behavior, tobacco use, and hangovers (Johns Hopkins).

If the drinking age were to be lowered to eighteen again this would have a big effect on not only eighteen-year-olds but younger teenagers too. Giving eighteen-year-olds access to alcohol makes it much easier for younger teenagers to obtain it as well. They can have their older peers who are eighteen buy it for them and their friends. This increases the chance of these young teenagers having alcohol-related problems later in life. It sets them up for failure early on. It is extremely unsafe for young teenagers to consume alcohol especially if they are binge drinking. In 1978, before the drinking age was raised back to twenty-one in all fifty states, a study found that “10th-12th graders in states with lower drinking ages drank significantly more, were drunk more often, and were less likely to abstain from alcohol” (National Study of Adolescent Drinking Behavior). Most of the time these teenagers do not fully understand the dangers they are encountering when they start consuming alcohol this early on in their lives. It brings them more trouble than they know will come. It leaves them with major health complications and higher chances of being involved in alcohol-related car crashes. By informing these kids early on the dangers of underage drinking it will help to discourage them from drinking at a young age.

In the YouTube video “Drinking Age Debate” the president of The University of the South, John McCardell, discusses the dangerous manor that college students today are drinking alcohol in. As the president, he sees firsthand the way underage students are consuming alcohol and the dangers of it. Binge drinking is a popular way to drink in the current culture of the United States. Students use fake IDs too get into bars underage and purchase alcohol. Many students do not know the consequences of using a fake ID. Educating them is the only way to prevent these behaviors. He believes that by lowering the drinking age and giving these students access to alcohol it would make their behavior worse and even more out of control. He also points out that the drinking age of twenty-one prevents approximately 1,000 deaths a year from drinking and driving accidents. Colleges could set aside a budget for alcohol education and awareness. Keeping the drinking age at twenty-one as well as implementing education programs in college would help ease some of this craziness. 

Many people will argue that the United States should model their policy on drinking after Europe. The drinking age in many European countries is eighteen or less. The highest drinking age of the European countries is twenty. The only country with the drinking age this high is Finland. The amount of alcohol consumption in Finland has been surging over the past forty years. The belief of having this drinking age is that it teaches teenagers how to become accustomed to alcohol and drink more responsibly. It makes them focus less on getting drunk and keeps their drinking more casual. They will say that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one in the United States taunts teenagers and makes them want to drink more just because they are not allowed to. This argument is called the “forbidden fruit” argument. Brandon Griggs argues in “Should the US Lower Its Drinking Age” that the younger a person starts drinking the more responsible they will be when they are older when it comes to drinking. He believes that those who are underage drinking are not well educated on the topic and are creating bad habits for themselves. Taking this viewpoint into consideration, I believe this means we should educate America’s youth more on the effects of underage drinking. Another argument is that if a person can go to war and vote at the age of eighteen then they should be allowed to consume and purchase alcohol. This argument claims that eighteen is the age of adulthood and drinking alcohol should come with this adulthood as a rite of passage.

In response to these arguments, the evidence shows that European teenagers are drinking more often and getting drunk more often than American teenagers (MADD). Almost 50% of occasions involving alcohol involving fifteen and sixteen-year-olds in the countries of Europe ended in intoxication. This drinking leads to the detrimental health effects described in the previous paragraph. It is found that drinking each month among fifteen to sixteen-year-olds in Europe is more common than in the United States. Drinking this young is unhealthy and will only have negative affects later in the person’s life. Lowering the drinking age will not create a more responsible drinking atmosphere for young adults. Just because a person can vote and go to war at eighteen does not mean they should be allowed to drink. In fact, eighteen-year-olds can drink alcohol if they are serving overseas. Every oversea military installation has a drinking age of eighteen unless a specific treaty commands the drinking age be higher. The health effects are greater than the social effects. This means that allowing a person to drink because of social pressures does not justify the negative impact it will have on their health. The view of drinking alcohol as a rite of passage needs to be abolished. None of these counterarguments are strong enough to lower the drinking age to eighteen.

The minimum legal drinking age is a controversy that may not be resolved any time soon. People will always have their differing opinions. But when it comes to the health and safety of America’s public, the drinking age remaining at twenty-one is the best option. Implementing alcohol education programs in high schools and colleges will help to create a safer drinking culture in America. This will keep the number of drinking and driving accidents down. This saves lives and prevents injuries. It would be medically unsafe to lower the drinking age to eighteen. Drinking before twenty-one has extreme negative effects on the brain, the liver, the heart and more. It can be poor for a person’s mental health as well. Health specialists support a drinking age of twenty-one for this reason. It is in the best interest of America’s young adults to keep the drinking age at twenty-one. Lowering it would make it much easier for younger teenagers to obtain alcohol, leading to detrimental effects. This would hurt their health and increase alcohol-related car accidents. Education on not only alcohol but the consequences by the law from underage drinking and fake IDs will help to discourage this illegal behavior as well. Parents should talk to their kids and inform them of the dangers of underage binge drinking. Just talking to kids about the consequences and educating them discourages them from underage drinking. The safety of America depends on our youth and their decisions. Policy makers are the people motivated to keep the drinking age at twenty-one. People who oppose this and believe it should be lowered are the ones motivated to change this. We can help assure that it stays at twenty-one by keeping policy makers informed and educated on this issue. Would you want your young adult binge drinking? Or driving a car under the influence of alcohol? Keep that in mind next time the debate of the minimum legal drinking age is brought up in conversation.
