Melanie Garduno

Junior English LANG AP

Final Research paper

4/1/22

Underage drinking has quickly become a problem with today’s adolescents which has raised questions about whether the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. There have been multiple defenses made by those who support this change, the main one being that lowering it would actually cause fewer teens to drink. Although it could possibly lower the number of teens drinking, nevertheless the legal drinking age should not be lowered from 21 because of the long-term effects on teens’ health and well-being of those who choose to still drink.

The first part of this issue we should look at when discussing whether we should lower the legal drinking age is why teens are drinking in the first place. Before, the most known factor that contributed to drinking was peer pressure. “A review of the research shows that peers have a greater influence on adolescent substance abuse than do parents. Peers can encourage friends to use drugs and alcohol or tease them for being afraid to try them, which can lead to the initiation of drinking and drug use” (Jacobsen). As you begin your teens years and everyone tries to find their own identities, it can be common for peer pressure to be prevalent as things become seen as “cool” or “uncool”. Most teens follow the trends as they are afraid of being ostracized, ridiculed, and /or not having friends. Even if they are not verbally peer pressured into doing certain activities, they can also follow others due to silent peer pressure where they see everyone else doing it so they also want to. Though peer pressure is a factor in this issue, the most recent upcoming factor is using alcohol as a coping mechanism. “ . . . Kids may turn to alcohol in a misguided attempt to cope with problems such as stress, boredom, the pressure of schoolwork, not fitting in, problems at home, or mental health issues such as anxiety, childhood trauma, ADHD, or depression” (Robinson, Smith). When people are intoxicated, the alcohol blocks certain messages that are trying to reach the brain, such as emotions, movement, and/or hearing because the central nervous is impaired. This can cause people to drink alcohol to feel more relaxed or calm, but this is only if taken in small amounts. Teens normalize binge drinking or drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time which can cause health issues and complications.

Drinking alcohol affects your liver, kidney, digestive system, heart, and most importantly, your brain. Your heart causes your body temperature to fluctuate as its blood vessel expand and heart rate increases, your digestive tract is harmed and slows how fast food passes through when it absorbs alcohol, “alcohol[dehydrates] the body which can affect the kidneys and the body’s ability to regulate fluid and electrolytes”, the liver is damaged and cannot properly remove toxins (including alcohol) from your body, and the brain’s pathways slow, affecting memory, sleep, and learning (Mosel). The more alcohol one drinks the more the body is damaged. This becomes a problem as teens normalize binge drinking, a study by the CDC shows that over 90% of teens binge drink (Just How Does Drinking Affect the Teenage Brain?), increasing the risks of detrimental effects of alcohol, especially on their brain. The brain does not stop developing until around the age of 25, while teenagers are growing the frontal lobe of their brain is still developing. The frontal lobe is responsible for “cognitive skills including the capacity to plan, organize, initiate, self-monitor and control one’s responses in order to achieve a goal” and is the home of one’s personality (Brain Map Frontal Lobes). Damaging this part of the brain could be detrimental to anyone, especially teenagers. They are going through years where they have to intake a lot of knowledge, learn how to make rational decisions, learn proper behavior to enter society, and, above everything else, form their own identity. Damaging their brains not only makes it difficult to make proper judgments and decisions, but it also causes an inability to focus, behavioral problems, reduced motivation, inability to multitask, and changes in social behavior and personality (Brain Map Frontal Lobe). With the combination of their still-developing brains and their tendency to binge drink, teenagers are the most vulnerable to alcohol.

Not only are teenagers vulnerable to alcohol, but they are also prone to making bad decisions because of alcohol. Youth who drink are more likely to experience abuse in many forms, a higher risk of suicide or homicide, (unwanted, unplanned, unprotected) sexual activity, drunk driving, DUI accidents, and other risks (Underage Drinking). The probability of experiencing these risks increases in teens who binge drink compared to those who don’t. These risks make the issue bigger as the problem of underage drinking begins affecting people outside of the main person(s). “Young drivers (ages 16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% [, the BAC when legally impaired,] than when they have not been drinking” (Teen Drinking and Driving). The leading cause of death for teens is car crashes, drunk driving accidents make up a quarter of this number. The legal drinking age was imposed to reduce this number and keep teens safe. Reducing it would be to give way for this statistic to increase, harming teens and families in the process.

The debate of whether to lower the legal drinking age has been ongoing for many decades with many arguments on both sides. Taking everything into consideration, the effects on teens’ health and wellbeing is the most important factor in this debate. Although lowering the legal drinking age may have some benefits, it does not make up for alcohol’s effects on teens so it should not be lowered, rather, more should be done to prevent underage drinking.