Increase Legal Drinking Age

What’s an average end-of-the-week night out in Sydney like? A typical Friday night for a teen in Sydney might be described as a bustling wave of movement and excitement as people crowd to the many clubs and bars. Given that the legal drinking age is 18, it won’t come as a shock to hear that many young adults who gather at the bars across town are typically want to get drunk and to have a great time at the height of their youth, but not everyone finds this agreeable. More than 90% of the alcohol drunk by those under the age of 21 is consumed by binge drinkers. People drinking under the age of 21 can also be strongly linked with death from alcohol poisoning., Unintentional injuries, such as car crashes, suicide and violence, changes in brain development, and so much more.

In the argument above, I pertain to the issue of the current legal drinking age. After thorough research on the topic, I have come to the conclusion that the current legal drinking age must be raised to 21. Firstly, the damage of a frequent drinker under the age of 21 will be significantly higher than the damage the person would suffer just 3 years later. Secondly, the effects of alcohol would scar the brain for life, as it turns out if a person starts drinking at a young age, they have a 50% chance more likely hood of being alcohol dependent as they become older. Thirdly, another problem is when you have the drinking age of 18, often, people start drinking at the age of 16 or 17, and if you raise the age cap to 21, the age of the people that drink early will also increase.

Drinking is more harmful to teens than adults because of the fact that they are still journeying through adolescence and into young adulthood. At the age of 18, the brain has yet to stop growing, and drinking during this critical growth period can lead to lifelong damage in brain function, particularly as it relates to memory, motor skills, and coordination. Drinking at this age is not only harmful to the brain, it also leads to damages later on like alcohol abuse and addiction.

This brings me to my next point, from the data of a survey of 43,000 adults brings concerns that if a teen is exposed to early alcohol use, independent of other risk factors, it may contribute to the risk of developing future alcohol problems. The findings showed that among all drinkers, early drinking was not only connected with a higher risk of developing alcoholism later on, but also in less than 10 years of first starting to drink and before the age of 25. Those who began drinking in their early teens were not only at greater risk of developing reliance on alcohol in the later years, they were also at greater risk of developing dependence more quickly and at younger ages, Among all respondents who developed alcoholism at some point, almost half met the criteria for alcohol dependence by age 21. Not only this, alcohol reliance will have a very high chance of leading to alcohol abuse, which ties very closely to domestic abuse.

One of the more frequent arguments amidst the people who challenge the legal drinking age is that minors will always find a way to drink, and making it illegal for those under the age of 21 to drink at bars and pubs means they will simply drink elsewhere, and may contact more shadier sources to get their hands on some alcohol. But the actuality is that, consider some of the statistics around the traffic accidents that came from New Zealand after the legal drinking age was lowered from 20 to 18 in 1999. According to a long term study done out by Massey University, the drinking age decreasing is inherently linked to a higher risk of alcohol-affected drivers being involved in serious crashes.

To sum up, there is no reason for the legal drinking age to not be raised, the benefits massively outweigh the negative side. Whether its growth of the brain, or the permanent damages it could cause later on, it is much better for everyone if the legal drinking age was increased.