The Drinking Age Should Not be Lowered

Why repeal or weaken a law that saves lives? The concern of lowering the legal drinking age has been swarming college campuses, presidential debates, and National Safety Groups all over the country. Many believe that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one is the best thing to do for our society, while others believe that lowering it is fair considering all that can be done at the age of eighteen. However, research has shown that lowering the legal drinking age would result in an increase of teenage drunk driving and the influencing of teens at a younger age to drink which could ultimately damage their development.
In our country, drunk driving accidents have exponentially decreased due to the legal drinking age of twenty-one. In a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, from 1975 to 2003, the raising of the drinking age saved 22, 798 lives on our roadways. It is also true that when driving while under the influence, teens are less likely to wear a seat belt resulting in higher risks of death in the case of an accident. Yes, drunk driving may also occur with adults over twenty-one, however, it is the leading death among teens, killing thousands yearly. Teens are less responsible and are more likely to abuse alcohol privileges. Many suggest more education on safety with alcohol; however, teens in driving school are being informed of the dangers and consequences of driving under the influence but no change has occurred. Being required to abstain from drinking alcohol until twenty-one also makes alcohol less accessible to younger teens.
When considering lowering the drinking age to eighteen, one must presuppose that eighteen year olds are influential on youth ages fourteen to seventeen. Younger teens tend to emulate their friends, in particular, those who are slightly older. Therefore, if the drinking age is lowered, older friends are able to legally drink, and younger teens will be exposed to alcohol more often. This will also make alcohol more readily available. As a result, younger teens will begin to develop bad habits such as binge drinking, excessive consumption of alcohol. As a result of that, alcohol abuse problems may arise at an earlier age severely damaging the liver and brain development of young teens. On the other hand, several find pleasure in it.
It has been said that drinking alcohol can be a means of bringing joy but can also impair ones judgment and cause dehydration and nausea. This does not exactly sound like joy to me. There may be an increased desire to drink for people when turning twenty-one; however at that age, people are more responsible and conscientious of their actions in comparison to a teenager. One must concede that, at the age of eighteen, a person can in fact get married, vote, fight for their country in a war, serve on a jury, and more. However, one must be twenty-five to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, thirty to be a member of the Senate, and thirty-five to run as President. The times at which a person can do certain things vary at different ages and the drinking age happens to fall at the responsible age of twenty-one.
Many would like to have the legal drinking age lowered; however, doing so will simply result in more deaths and the increase of irresponsible and foolish behavior of teens. There is no need for the drinking age to be lowered because it would merely increase the accessibility of alcohol to the youth. It may also encourage the drinking of those that may not have even thought of alcohol until it became available to them. The government should set up better ways to educate their citizens on consequences and dangers of alcohol and through that, enforce the importance of refraining from alcohol until the age of twenty-one. Underage drinking is certainly a problem, lowering it is not the solution.