Argumentative Essay: The Legal Drinking Age

The legal drinking age is currently set at twenty-one. In history alcohol has been very present, yet even then they warned of the dangers. When the legal drinking age was set at twenty-one in 1984 it dropped many teen accidents. Mentally teens brains are not fully developed until age twenty-five, and alcohol can pause the brains growth. When teens drink as well they have a tendency to binge drink which then leads to alcohol dependency later on in life. Although, many will fight these points saying that we live in a country based on freedom, and teens should take responsibility for their own mistakes. They also point out that when eighteen one is considered an adult so they should be allowed to make an adult decision. However, through the Bible …show more content…
For example, research shows that alcohol-related damage to the brain may be greater in the developing brains of teens, and some of the areas majorly affected are the learning and memory area (Degutis, 2008). However, many teens are still in high school at the age of eighteen and are supposed to be learning constantly. With the effects and damage alcohol can inflict on the body, it is more logical to have the drinking age higher than eighteen because teens still have much to learn in common sense at that time as well. It is proven that the human brain does not stop developing until age twenty-five (“Raising the drinking”, 2015). Drinking slows, stops, and hinders cognitive development of the teen’s brain they may later in life lack what others have due to alcohol. The brain experiences rapid change in teen years of the prefrontal cortex creating lapses in judgment (Tietjen, 2014). This fact alone can create major problems in that mixed with alcohol a teen may think it is logical to drive under the influence. Teens are still learning and are more vulnerable to many things however, adding alcohol into the mixture makes the mistakes more often and