Drinking alcohol before the age of 21 can have negative health, behavioral, and social consequences. It can damage brain cells and memory, leading to problems with understanding and cognition. It increases the risk of car accidents, as teens who drink are twice as likely to be in crashes. Drinking is also linked to risky sexual behaviors and assault. While some argue the drinking age should be lowered to match smoking and voting ages, high-risk behaviors associated with alcohol like driving and sexual assault are not issues with those activities. Therefore, maintaining the legal drinking age at 21 helps reduce various health, safety, and social problems.

1. By Tamara Yousif

2. Introduction Facts about the drinking age Drinking before 21 years old can be risky Drinking age and the government Between 1970 and 1975, the government decided to lower the drinking age.

3. Effects Health problems. Increased driving offenses. In some cases, sexual abuse.

4. Health Problems damages brain cells Destroy the memory.

5. Damages Brain Cells scientists found there are important developments occurring in the brain at age of twenty-one, and there are many brain cells still under construction. Drinking damages these cells easily and quickly, because they are sensitive to toxic substances that enter the body; especially, alcohol or drugs. (”Teen drinking more dangerous than previously thought ”).

6. Destroy the Memory Abusing alcohol for long periods of time reduces the size of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for the commands and memory in the brain. As a result, people cannot understand well, and it makes it hard for them to solve simple math problems According to Harvard school studies, 44% of students in universities drink alcohol, and 74% of them said they started drinking when they were in high school (“Alcoholism Can Cause Brain Damage”).

7. Increased driving offenses Number of accidents. Mind conscience.

8. Number of Accidents leads to more accidents. Studies have found that accidents involving teens are twice as common as at any other age. Five- thousand people under the age of twenty-one die every year by car accidents because there were drunk (“National Institutes of Health”).

9. Mind Conscience Drinking and driving have many side effects, such as teenagers losing their lives or living with disabilities. Maybe they will hurt another person involved in the accident, and they could feel guilty for the rest of their lives especially, if other people died. (“National Institutes of Health”).

10. Sexual Abuse Illegal sexual relationship. Risk of physical and sexual assault.

11. Illegal Sexual Relationship All research proves that men and women feel more sexually aroused when they drink. When teenagers drink alcohol, illegal sexual relationship will increase; affecting the society, and also it will increase abortions (“National Institutes of Health”).

12. Risk of Physical and Sexual Assault. According to the National Institutes of Health, “Alcohol also plays a significant role in risky sexual behavior and increases the risk of physical and sexual assault. Among college students fewer than twenty one, 50,000 of the experience alcohol-related date rape, and 43,000 are injured by another student who has been drinking.” Thus, keeping the drinking age at twenty-one help prevent many kinds of sexually related problems.

13. Other View Points Many people have other points of view about lowering the drinking age, such as those teenagers can smoke at the age of eighteen but are not allowed to drink alcohol. However, smoking and voting do not increase the number of accidents involving teens on our roads; they do not increase the risk of brain damage and sexual problems. That is why it is good to keep the age of drinking at twenty-one.

14. Conclusion This topic will stay controversial because there are always two sides that are against and for it. The government should not lower the drinking age because this decision will have many consequences that affect society by increasing the number of car accidents, affecting the health of teenagers by hurting the brain cells and damaging it when they drink. Furthermore, drinking will also lead to an increase the sexual assault and abortions in society. Keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one is a great idea.

15. Works Cited &quot;Alcohol Can Cause Brain Damage.&quot; You Can Stop Drinking Now . Web. 11 May 2011. <http://howistoppeddrinking.org/alcoholism-and-brain-damage>. &quot;Minimum Legal Drinking Age.&quot; American Medical Association - Physicians, Medical Students & Patients (AMA) . Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/public-health/promoting-healthy-lifestyles/alcohol-other-drug-abuse/facts-about-youth-alcohol/minimum-legal-drinking-age.page>. &quot;Support of 21 Minimum Drinking Age Law.&quot; IIHS-HLDI: Crash Testing & Highway Safety . Web. 23 May 2011 &quot;Teen Drinking More Dangerous than Previously Thought.&quot; American Psychological ssociation (APA) . Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun01/teendrink.aspx>.