Alcohol has been around since about 2000 BC. It began as a fermented mixture of water and honey, and has since flourished into the multimillion dollar industry that it is today. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This required all of the states to increase the allowed age for purchase and possession of alcohol to 21 years of age. The consumption of alcohol has become way too normalized in recent years, causing the number of alcohol related injuries, specifically in young adults below the age of 21, to increase significantly. Young adults below the age of 21 are still managing to get their hands on alcohol from their older friends, and some are even using fake ID’s to buy it themselves. There are people who are advocating for the drinking age to be lowered to 18 because they believe that doing this will create a safer country by lowering the amount of accidents induced by alcohol. Lowering the drinking age to 18 will not only cause more fatalities and injuries, but will also lead those who begin drinking earlier to become more susceptible to other drugs in their futures, as well as allowing kids of an even younger age to begin abusing alcohol.  

Alcohol plays a large role in traffic incidents such as injuries and fatalities. They are the leading cause of death for young American people between the ages of 16 and 24. Over 50% of all highway crashes that result in death and involve two or more cars are alcohol related, as well as about 65% of all fatal single car crashes (FADD). However, these traffic fatalities and accidents are most common to be among the newly legal drinkers. Lowering the drinking age would ultimately have no effect on this statistic of alcohol related traffic fatalities. Looking to other countries around the world, there are fewer alcohol related traffic accidents in countries whose minimum drinking age is 18. This may be attributed to kids learning at a younger age how to drink more responsibly and be taught by parents or guardians. In the United States however, it would take many years before this statistic became true, if ever. With the new lower drinking age, 18 year olds would not know how to responsibly drink and handle their alcohol because they have never been taught. This would inevitably amount to a large increase in traffic fatalities among other injuries that are all alcohol related. Also since they have not been taught yet, the number of hospitalizations die to alcohol poisoning would increase for those at this newly legal age. 

If young adults learned at an earlier age how to responsibly consume alcohol, and were mentored by their authority figures, many of the alcohol related injuries that are caused in the united states could be able to be lowered. Although the number of reported underage drinking has declined, those who have admitted to drinking underage are doing it behind closed doors as well as binge drinking (FADD). High school and college underage drinkers are afraid of being in trouble for their actions, hence why they drink in secret, but this can lead to other problems and risk the safety of others. In 2004, a freshman student at the University of Boulder, passed away from alcohol poisoning. In a 60 Minutes episode, the boy’s mother and father discussed how their son died because his friends were afraid of calling an ambulance to come save him due to all of the boys being underage (60 Minutes). This is not the only instance of youth being afraid to call for help, strictly due to their own fears of what will happen if they get caught for their underage drinking. If the drinking age were to be changed to 18, incidents like these would be completely avoidable, because the people who were drinking would have been of age. 

Drinking alcohol is seen by many young adults as the “cool” thing to be doing. There is an appeal to them to be able to drink because of how the media portrays it to be. Celebrities going to clubs and other events and drinking fun looking drinks does look like an appealing activity to be doing, so they try to recreate that feeling in basements with their friends drinking cheap alcohol out of red plastic cups. This age group has never been taught how to drink responsibly, because it is not seen to adults that they need to be taught because they aren’t legal yet. But many of these kids are binge drinking for various reasons, and this has serious consequences for themselves in the future. If the drinking age was changed to a lower age, the United States could implement programs in high schools where kids are first being introduced to alcohol, so they can learn how to do so responsibly. Being taught at a younger age how to responsibly drink with and around others, would ultimately result in the lowering of alcohol related incidents, such as drunk driving accidents and kids not wanting to call for help when a friend seems to be getting sick from alcohol just because they are scared that they themselves will be getting in trouble for doing so. Lowering the legal drinking age will also make drinking alcohol less “cool” and appealing if everyone is able to do it. Young adults can enjoy a glass of wine with their families at dinner and learn to control themselves when they are under the influence in a controlled environment that is being monitored by adults. 

Alcohol consumption by minors is a very serious public health problem in the United States. Alcohol is seen as the most widely used and abused substance among America’s youth, and this leads to potential health and safety risks for them in the future. Underage drinking has an effect on everyone, not just those who are participating in it, and it is not just a concern for some families whose children participate in it, but it is a nationwide problem that needs to be addressed. 

Consumption of alcohol before the legal age is not only dangerous to those who are consuming, but also to everyone else. Advocates for those who want to lower the drinking age are not seeing how this change would affect the younger generation. The trickle-down effect would come into play if seniors in high school were now able to legally purchase alcohol. As of right now, many of the high schoolers are receiving their alcohol from their parents’ liquor cabinets, or getting it from a 21-year-old friend or sibling. If kids in high school were legally able to get their hands on alcohol, they would begin selling it to the younger kids, and introduce them to what alcohol does to the body. This will have a large effect on their development later on in the future. The brain does not finish developing until a person is in their mid-20’s. Alcohol effects the hippocampus of the brain, which is responsible for recalling memories. This can lead to people “blacking out”, or forgetting events from their previous night of drinking, when they are under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol also effects the neurotransmitters of the brain. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers which send signals to parts of the body that control behavior, emotion, and thought process. More specifically, alcohol increases the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, gamma-amino butyric acid (Watson, Stephanie). Effecting the GABA causes sluggish movements and slurred speech, which is dually noted when observing someone who is under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol also impacts ones’ prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for controlling coordination and logical thinking. When people begin to drink before their brains have been fully developed, these areas of the brain can be impacted forever, and can lead to serious problems in their futures. 

The trickle-down effect is something that many people think of in the sense of fashion. When the upper class wears things fresh off the runway, eventually it will trickle down to the lower classes of society. This also applies to where and how younger children get ideas.  If a high school boy has an older sister in college who goes out and drinks with friends and posts about it on social media, he will see that and be influenced by her actions. If he sees that she is enjoying herself and having a good time, he will think that drinking is an enjoyable activity and will want to drink as well. If the drinking age were brought down to 18, imagine the harm that would follow with the younger generations. No longer will the college student have to buy alcohol for the high schooler, but the high schooler will now be legal drink, and be influencing their younger siblings in middle school to want to try this. If kids at such a young age are beginning their relationship with alcohol, more harm will be done than good. According to a study conducted by psychiatrists, 54% of people who are currently or were at some point in their lives alcohol dependent, or alcoholics, began drinking before the age of 14 (Hinson, Heeren, Winter). Looking at those who began drinking prior to age 14 versus age 21, 47% of those who were under the age of 14 experienced lifetime dependence, compared to 9% who were of the legal drinking age when they began drinking (Hinson, Heeren, Winter). Decreasing the minimum drinking age to 18 will have a negative effect on those who are even younger because they will be introduced to alcohol sooner. 

Lowering the legal drinking age will give these 18-year-old more responsibilities, some of which they may not be ready for. Every year alcohol plays a role in the amount of unplanned pregnancies that occur. About 45% of all pregnancies are unplanned, and 14% of those can be attributed to being under the influence of alcohol (Ranocha). Almost ¾ of those pregnancies will be aborted, due to the age at which the woman became pregnant; the most common age being 16-20 (Ranocha). By decreasing the drinking age to 18, this number of alcohol related unplanned pregnancies will increase since this age group is now able to get their hands on alcohol legally. This can potentially create a population problem, or will just give rise to the number of abortions given or number of families in poverty. 
