What Are The Arguments Against Lowering The Drinking Age

Despite years of research, alcohol abuse continues to be a threat to society. Alcohol abuse is a big problem in the United States, especially for young adults who are of ages around the minimum legal drinking age. As of right now, the current minimum legal drinking age is 21 years of age in the United States. There is a lot of debate on whether the drinking age should be lowered, raised, or stay the same due to the problems alcohol abuse is causing, particularly at colleges. According to Beth McMurthie of The Chronicle of Higher Education, “More than 1800 students die every year of alcohol-related causes. An additional 600,000 are injured while drunk, and nearly 100,000 become victims of alcohol-influenced sexual assaults” (McMurthie). Clearly
This is true, the brain is still developing at 18, however, according to Lin Edwards, Neuroscience Major, “New research from the UK shows the brain continues to develop after childhood and puberty, and is not fully developed until people are well into their 30’s and 40’s” (Edwards). Also those that are against lowering the drinking age claim that by lowering the drinking age there will be more alcohol getting into high schools. While it’s possible that alcohol could wind up more frequently in high schools, kids wouldn’t be as tempted to drink alcohol because it wouldn’t be such a taboo in our society if the legal age was lowered to 18. This has to do with the forbidden fruit desire I talked briefly
By lowering the drinking age to 18 years old it will decrease binge drinking in unregulated environments, give young adults the opportunity to learn responsible drinking habits from experienced drinkers in a public setting, and decrease the temptation of young adults to drink alcohol by eliminating the taboo of drinking alcohol in the United States. Clearly the current minimum legal drinking age is ineffective and is causing more harm than good in our society and action needs to be