In the United States, when a resident turns eighteen, they are considered an adult. They are now able to vote, register for the selective service, get married, and decide on many other things without parental consent. However, the right to purchase or drink alcoholic beverages remains far off. If young adults have the right to such life-changing decisions, why is it that they cannot choose to consume alcohol? Some countries with lower legal drinking ages also have lower alcohol-related deaths than the United States, so how come the United States is not following suit? These questions bring up solid points, however, with a legal drinking age of 21 decreasing traffic accidents, underage drinking, and reducing the detrimental effects alcohol has on the brain, there’s reason to keep the age the same. To make sure that young adults are protected, the legal drinking age must not be lowered.
Youthhood to early adulthood is a critical time for the development of the brain. The consumption of alcohol during this period of growth increases the risks of divergence from normal brain development (Park et al.). The irregular brain maturation causes ‘acceleration of gray matter volume shrinkage, attenuation of white matter growth, and decreased fiber integrity’ (Park et al.). The shrinkage of gray matter and the slowing of white matter growth can lead to cognitive dysfunction. For young adults in high school or college, this could negatively affect memory, which could lead to lower grades. Not lowering the legal age limit would allow the brain to mature longer, thus reducing the damage alcohol could potentially cause in its development.
Having a legal minimum drinking age of 21 years old has decreased traffic accidents. In 1988, when all states in the U.S. changed the minimum legal drinking age to 21, ‘alcohol-related traffic fatalities for youth ages 15–20’ (Fell et al.) fell by 47%. Before the change, many states had a minimum age of 18, which allowed youth greater access to alcohol. Furthermore, a study done by Scott E. Hadland found that alcohol-related traffic accidents decreased when alcohol policies are more limiting. All this information hints at the fact that the minimum drinking age in the U.S. is reducing traffic accidents but might not be enough.
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Lowering the drinking age would allow even younger youth to drink underage. When the minimum age lowered In New Zealand, underage youth had more access to alcohol because of their ‘now of-age acquaintances’ (Gruenewald et al.). Allowing even younger adolescence to drink underage would be medically irresponsible because of the harm it would do to their development. When people drink underage, even though it is less frequent, they drink a lot more, and with a lack of maturity younger adolescents are at even higher risk for abuse and addiction.
The biggest argument for lowering the legal drinking age is that 18 is the age of adulthood and adults should have the right to decide if they want to consume alcohol. It has been shown that decreasing the legal drinking age has increased traffic accidents, disease, and death. In 2018 47.8% of liver disease deaths were related to alcohol and in 2014 31% of driving, fatalities were related to alcohol (NIAAA). These statistics were only with a legal drinking age of 21, imagine the increase if the minimum age was lowered. Lowering the legal drinking age so that newly turned adults can drink alcohol three years earlier is not worth the thousands the lives that it would cost.
The United States does not have a lower legal purchase age like other countries because the minimum age used to be 18. When the U.S.’s minimum legal purchase age was 18 there was a spike in traffic accidents because 18-20-year-olds were more likely to be involved in alcohol-related traffic accidents (Field and Syrett, 238). The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 changed the legal purchase age to 21, which, made clear earlier, reduced traffic accidents by a huge percentage. Through trial and error, the U.S. has found that lowering the minimum age to match other countries does not work out well.
To protect young adults from accidents, disease, and potentially death, the legal minimum drinking age limit should not be lowered. Lowering the age would be harmful to the development of young adult’s brains, increase the amount of alcohol-related problems, and allow even younger youth to consume alcohol. Though becoming an adult entails certain rights, lowering the minimum drinking age in the United States is not worth the consequences.
