Malewicz, 1

Jordan Malewicz

Ms. Acosta

Period 1

English 12

December 4, 2020

The Drinking Age and Why it Should Stay at 21

How much of an issue is underage illegal drinking? For decades now, the legal age to

drink alcohol has been set at 21 years old. This is to ensure that the dangerous activity of

drinking can be managed well, now that they are old enough. In other countries the legal

drinking age is at 18, the same age as when someone is considered an adult. It may be seen that

the drinking age should be lowered to when you become an adult and can make your own

choices, but would this cause more issues? Although some may say that lowering the age limit of

drinking would reduce misuse of alcohol, the drinking age should not be lowered because

alcohol will become more accessible to teenagers which will increase the amount of people that

will abuse it.

The minimum legal drinking age has been set to the age of 21 for decades now. This was

because of the high rate of crashes due to drunk driving. “States that increased the legal drinking

age to 21 saw a 16% median decline in motor vehicle crashes,” (“Minimum Legal”). We have

seen a decrease in the misuse of alcohol in terms of drunk driving since the law change. The 21

law is responsible for fewer traffic accidents. With the drinking age at higher, we decrease the

amount of people that are willing to start drinking, and thus decrease the amount of drunk

drivers. Drunk driving accidents are varied throughout many different ages, but are mainly mid

to late 20’s (“Impaired Driving”). This is because they are able to early at 21, and then will soon
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misuse drinking later. If the drinking age is lowered, it will lower the average age of drunk

driving incidents and will increase the amount of fatal accidents.

Some people may believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 would decrease alcohol

misuse. Dwight B. Heath, a well known writer for books and many scholarly articles, states "In

general, the younger people start to drink the safer they are," (Griggs). In other words, with the

current drinking age, many teens sneak off to drink irresponsibly and illegally, and with a

younger age limit, fewer people will find the need to drink secretly and dangerously. For this

reason, it is believed by many to decrease the legal drinking age is to reduce the amount of

teenagers illegally drinking. Though it is a good point, the legal drinking age should stay at 21.

Teenagers are reckless and wouldn’t handle it responsibly as making it the legal age would not

change the fact that teenagers will still drink irresponsibly.

The reason why the legal drinking age has been set to 21 is to ensure safety. Ever since

the law, drunk driving related accidents have been reduced. Drinking alcohol can be extremely

dangerous and increasing the possibility of overuse is scary. With the safety net of the drinking

age, many teenagers choose to not drink due to it being illegal. If they legally can drink then they

would since the risk of getting caught is nonexistent. 21 years old is the set minimum age to

legally drink alcohol, why would we change that?

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Works Cited

Griggs, Brandon. “Should the U.S. Lower Its Drinking Age?” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Jan.

2015, www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/us/legal-drinking-age/index.html.

“Impaired Driving: Get the Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 24 Aug. 2020,

www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html#:~:text=

Among drivers with BAC levels,35 to 44 (22%).

“Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21 Saves Lives.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3 Sept. 2020,

www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/minimum-legal-drinking-age.htm.