Almost everyone can agree that alcohol should not be given or allowed to children or young adults under a certain age. Alcohol is a substance that is very dangerous and if you used immaturely the consequences can devastating to the users or the ones around them. The topic of lowering the drinking age has been in discussion for many decades. Although the age has been lowered and raised again, this topic has not been resolved throughout these decades. Underage drinking, specifically under the age of 21, should not be allowed in the United States because of the hazards underage drinking possess. One group that advertises and researches this is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC for short.
The CDC state “drinking by those under the age of twenty-one is a public health problem”. As it does not only affect those drinking underage; But all who see, respond, or have to fix all the issues that arise from underage drinking. These incidents add up to “about one hundred and eighty-nine thousand emergency room visits”, contribute to more than “five thousand teen deaths”, and costs over “twenty-four billion dollars” for underage drinking damages all on an annual basis (CDC). However, that only shows the cost that is currently attributed to underage drinking. Another hazard that lowering the drinking age possesses is what ProCon call a “trickle-down effect”. Since “newly-legal drinkers often purchase alcohol for their underage peers. Surveys show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year-olds is their 21 to 24-year-old peers” (ProCon). This would then give high schoolers and even middle schoolers easier access to alcohol. Bringing a whole new set of problems and building on to the already complex and most developmental years of life. As teens are also trying to figure out who they are as their own being while juggling school work, sports, and possibly thinking to the future of who they want t...