Pros And Cons Of Keeping The Drinking Age At 21

While Chafetz makes some good points about how the law keeping the legal drinking age at 21 is ineffective because the problem lies within the person, not the alcohol itself, he fails to recognize the fact that even if this is the case, the raised drinking age has proven to be very effective overall. Additionally, even if he claims that the law is not effective in reducing drinking and driving, he doesn’t mention the dangers alcohol presents to young, developing minds. The drinking age should not be lowered to 18 and should remain at 21 because not only has the 21 year old age limit for drinking reduced the amount of drinking and driving, adolescents who drink before that age are damaged mentally and are more likely to develop an alcohol dependency
For example, after the 21-year-old age limit was passed, the amount of car accidents with drivers ages 16-20 with positive BAC levels that resulted in deaths dropped from 61% in 1982 to 31% in 1995. This 30% decrease in just 13 years shows that by restricting those who could legally drink to those age 21 or older saved many lives, which is why the age limit should continue to be upheld. Additionally, any driver who is on the road that has been drinking is a danger, even if he or she has not caused an accident. The age 21 law has addressed this too, seeing as the number of people with a BAC level greater than 0.05% driving a vehicle under age 21 decreased by 74% after the law making 21 the legal drinking age was passed. These hazardous people are now on the roads less frequently since 21 was made the age restriction for drinking, and for the safety of all drivers and passengers, this age should not be
If we want to stop drinking and driving all together, we can’t have people drinking legally once they are of age and then going out and driving home. Changing the legal drinking age to 18 would only encourage alcoholism as an adult and therefore increase drinking and driving in later years. It has been proving that drinking in youth is tied to alcohol dependency later in life, as those who begin drinking before they are 15 years old are 5x more likely to become alcoholics as adults. Lowering the drinking age would only make this more possible and lead to more adults drinking and driving in future decades. While it is possible these people become alcoholics in adulthood without drinking in their childhood, it has been proven that nearly 50% of alcoholics became one before the age of 21, showing that drinking dependencies begin at a young age. If the age limit was reduced to 18, this would increase the number of people who start drinking under 21 and become alcoholics, increasing that