Raising the Drinking age

In the U.S. the legal age to drink is 21 and some people think it is not fair. They want to drink alcohol when they are 18. Many researchers have found that there are large numbers of underage people who are drinking too much. According to Ruth C. Engs (1998, para, 10); "22% of all students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers. Among drinkers only, 32% of under age compared to 24% of legal age are heavy drinkers". In my opinion, the legal age has to rise to 23 or it has to be illegal. Moreover, the teenagers should not be able to drink. Why? First, alcohol may destroy your health. Secondly, the teenagers do not have a lot of responsibility.

Alcohol may destroy your health. Drinking too much alcohol may affect your health negatively. There is a positive relations between drinking alcohol and having health problems. There is lot of disease you may get if you drink too much. First, you can be addicted to alcohol or get poisoning or both, and you may die. Second, you may get stomach ulcers. Moreover, it is really bad for your body. Additionally, the problem is people do not care and still drink alcohol.

The teenagers are not responsible. When drinking alcohol is legal for teenagers, a lot of people might get injured or might die because of irresponsible teenagers. When they start to drink, they drink more than normal, because they do not care about their health or their environment; they just want to drink and do what adults do. Also, teenagers could be the reason for dangerous accidents. For example, they might drive when they are drunk, and it can put them in big trouble. Moreover, it affects their minds and their behaviors and under the effect of alcohol they may fight with someone and get hurt.

On the other hand, opponents say that the drinking age has to be less than 21. They think that 18 is the best age to start drinking alcohol. And they support their idea by saying, that 18-year-olds can get married legally. Also, 18-years-olds people can be soldier and go to the war. They think that this is unsatisfactory that 18-year-olds can be soldiers and they can get married but they can't drink alcohol. I think this idea is wrong. I mean, not all teenagers go to the war or not all of them are getting married, when they are 18 years old. Very few teenagers get married, or go to the war, but we cannot over generalize like this. On the other hand, drinking alcohol is much more fun than going to the war or getting married very early. I think drinking alcohol during the teen ages is dangerous for them, because they drink too much and they don’t care about the consequence of drinking too much.

In conclusion, In the U.S. you can drink if you are 21 or up. But not everybody is happy with that; they want to decrease the age for drinking to 18-year-olds. Many researchers have found that there are large numbers of underage people who are heavy drinkers. I think it is a good idea to raise the drinking age to 23 or more or make it illegal. And the reason the drinking age should be raised is drinking alcohol may damage your health and the teenagers are not old enough.

Reference

Engs, R. (1998, March 20). Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research. Applied Health Sciences, Indiana University. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html