Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age

In recent times the questioning of the legal drinking age has come into question. Whether or not the legal age should be lowered or raised is always in question by various age groups and different demographics. Certain points of lowering the drinking age to eighteen or nineteen years of age have been used to strengthen the argument. Arguments such as being able to fight for the army, but not being able to drink, or introducing alcohol to adolescents to prevent alcohol abuse. Arguments such as these are refutable to actual evidence that disputes the social want to lower the drinking age. Lowering the drinking age to any age in the teens risks danger for those affected in the change of a drinking age and the people around them. Lowering the drinking …show more content…
Allowing adolescents to be able to obtain alcohol in their prime youth and development would be unethical in the sense of giving them easier access to self destruction. Underage teens given the ability to obtain alcohol would only increase the negative effects of teen drinking. In fact, “Underage drinkers account for 25% of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S.,” (Underage). Underage teenagers have to obtain their alcohol in illegal ways that elude law enforcement. These are the teenagers who know how to get away with obtaining alcohol in illegal means. If a federal amendment was made to lower the drinking age from twenty-one to nineteen or eighteen not only would it fuel the underage drinkers who engage in drinking now but it would also encourage teenagers who do not drink now to begin. In adolescence, teenagers are still trying to find their social identity “the we aspect of self concept” (Myers 158) and “work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and integrating them,” (Myers 157). Teenagers go through a psychosocial development stage that defines who their identity will be and happens in everyone at that age. If the legal drinking age was changed to a lower age where it would be easy for teenagers to obtain alcohol it would disrupt a healthy identity development and replace it with an unhealthy exploration of alcohol. If “more than …show more content…
Lowering the drinking age to anything lower directly affects students safety and educational progression. Allowing teens to drink can lead to later issues such as “behavioral or addiction issues in adulthood,” (Probst). If teens begin alcohol consumption early they are more likely to become prominent to alcohol dependency and elude them from their studies. Alcohol is typically disregarded in law enforcement as a use of illegal drugs because it is obtainable for adults and is socially seen as a stepping stone in maturation for teenagers. Though this is seen culturally as a part of growing up “47 percent of kids who start drinking before the age of 14 will become "alcohol dependent" sometime during their lives, compared with only 9 percent of those who wait until at least their legal drinking age,” (Your Brain). Alcohol dependency is a close possibility for those who begin their alcohol exploration early and that can affect those trying to continue their education past high school. The drinking age should stay at twenty-one to avoid effecting those who are easily influenced and sustainable to alcohol dependency. There is a reason that “public health experts regularly warn teens and their parents that teenage drinking caused increased automobile accidents, lower school grades,” (Wallace) it is because teenagers are still growing and should not be hindered in their development and education with alcohol.

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The Pros And Cons Of Lowering The Drinking Age