Underage drinking should be illegal.

might be a disagreement to this as most of you might think that making it illegal to drink until 21 just increases the desire for drinking. Then, when students turn 21, they’ll drink even more. I disagree because early legal access to alcohol is more concerned with higher rates of drinking as an adult. Studies indicate that youth who start drinking before they are 21 are more likely to drink heavily later in life. Those who do not drink until age 21 tend to drink less as adults. Teens that drink are also more likely to try other illegal drugs and become victims of crime. It is said that 18 year-olds have all the responsibilities of adulthood such as voting, doing military duty, marrying and signing legally binding contracts and therefore should be given the privileges of adulthood, like drinking alcoholic beverages and relaxing in nightclubs. However, it is proven in researches that traffic accidents decreased when the minimum drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 in the US. Some studies have shown that when the minimum drinking age was lowered to 18, there was an increase in traffic accidents involving teenagers younger than 18. Alcohol-related car accidents are the leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year-olds. Here is a quote from one of the articles I read on drunk driving. “Drunk driving accounts for more teenage deaths than any other cause (5,000 teenage deaths a year from alcohol-related accidents) in the United States. Nationwide, 60 percent of teenage deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related. Teenagers are involved in twice as many fatal car accidents involving alcohol as their population would suggest.”It is assumed that these youngsters had greater access to alcohol through their eighteen-year-old friends. Drinking is a privilege; it is not a right. The minimum drinking age of 21 or above does not separate unfairly against young adults, even though a person is legally an adult at age eighteen. Different minimum ages are appropriate for different reasons. (Driving license 16, voting and military 18, president 35) Even though people may enter the military, vote, or get married at age eighteen, they are still not mature enough at that age to consume alcohol. Alcohol is an acceptable but dangerous drug that must be consumed responsibly and must have an awareness of how much you are drinking.   Placing the drinking age above eighteen will also help keep alcohol out of the high schools because it is said that only 50 percent of high school seniors turn eighteen while still in school. Alcohol use has a serious negative impact on student attendance and academic performance. Also the behavior of 18 year olds is mainly influential on youth ages 15-17, as young people naturally imitate the performances of those who are slightly older rather than those who are significantly older. Therefore if 18 year olds would be legally drinking then their younger peers will drink as well. However raising the minimum drinking age will decrease the amount of alcohol related accidents by young people, it will have a better impact on student attendance and academic performance and it will lower the risks of alcohol related health problems with the young people.