Should the legal drinking age be lowered?

Essay by azchick17High School, 11th gradeA-, May 2014

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Should the U.S. drinking age be lowered or raised from age 21?

I, as a young adult living in the United States, do not think the drinking age should be lowered or raised. The national drinking age pertains to me and other young adults because of safety concerns. Our safety can be compromised easily in a moving vehicle and our chances of becoming harmed in an automobile accident are raised when there is an under aged or even adult drunk driver on the road in a moving vehicle. I am strongly persuaded that the drinking age should remain the same after a statement I heard from Deputy Wren of the Pima County Sheriff's Department during a personal interview conducted earlier this morning. The statement was,"…..people over 21 already make bad drinking decisions, based on the amount of DUI's I have to do…a couple years back I was reading a parenting book and came across a section that said the decision-making part of a human's brain doesn't even fully develop until it reaches the age of 21."(Wren,

Deputy Jennifer. Personal interview.11/12/13) Therefore, I believe the drinking age is just right because when one reaches the age of 21 their decision-making part of their brain has been developed and they can then make whatever choice they want and should by then understand the consequences of their actions. A drunken 21 year old is not always the case in accidents involving alcohol though, teenagers often times consume many alcoholic beverages and then go home or drive while impaired causing fatalities in both domestic violence and car crash cases.

According to The Century Council's webpage,"…on average more than 3 people under the age of 21 die each day in alcohol impaired driving crashes."(www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/underage-drunk-driving-fatalities-under-21) Also, the CDC alcohol fact sheet listed a...