The Drinking Age Should Be Raised To 21

I firmly support the idea for the drinking age to be raised to 21. The reasons why I think this is because of drink driving, binge drinking and vulnerability to other drugs and other behavioural pattern.

'If you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot'. Does this sound familiar to you? This popular advertisement as seen on TV is to make teenagers aware of the dangers associated with drink driving. According to the New Zealand Land Transport Agency, drink driving killed 135 people on New Zealand roads in 2004. That is an outrageous amount of people who had to lose their lives to irresponsible teens who refuses to stay sober. The scientific fact behind this is once alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream, it is taken up by cells in your brain and other vital organs slowing your reactions. It over shadows your judgement, dulling your vision and impairing your ability to drive.

Binge drinking is when you have 6 or more drinks on one occasion. The worst that some people expect from a night of binge drinking is a blackout and a really bad hangover but what they do not know is that they can die from alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning is associated with binge drinking and that is when parts of your brain shuts down, because there is too much alcohol in the blood. It can make the person very ill and sometimes fatal. The really absurd thing is fact that many teens do not think about the negative side of binge drinking, although they might have the idea of getting drunk and having less consideration of getting a hung-over. In fact there have been situations where people have choked on their own vomit, because as a result of binge drinking, their gag reflex are not working properly.

Research shows that teens under the age of 21 are more vulnerable in involving themselves in unsafe sexual behaviour, committing suicide, having a low self esteem and are also more tempted into taking drugs like marijuana and been drug addicted. All these have a long term effect of liver disease, increased risk of some cancers, heart disorder, hypertension, pancreatitis and cirrhosis. Fact is the younger the person is under the influence of alcohol, the greater the risk of these long term effects.

To conclude, I stand my ground on supporting the idea of raising the drinking age to 21. It is very absurd for any teenager to risk taking alcohol at the age when the brain is still developing and incurring short and long term effects that is totally avoidable.