More homework help please :)

[catnapper]

My daughter's illness has officially become mono (we were in the ER Monday night til the wee hours of the morning.... fun fun fun)

She has a new paper to write, and being that she's as sick as she is, she has little to no ability to come up with her arguments for this new topic: Why the drinking age should not be lowered to 18.

I myself am brain dead too because I have the migraine from heck thanks to lack of sleep all week and stress. All I can come up with is that the colleges would get a reprieve being all their students are now of legal drinking age and the problem would be much bigger in high schools because seniors wouldn't think twice about sharing their legal beers with underclassmen.

Can anybody add arguments for keeping the legal age at 21? She needs 5 solid arguments. I'm not even sure if mine is all that great of a point.


PS: Thanks for all the help on the last one. We don't know what she got on it yet, but the ideas were fabulous!

[Hellow]

The fact that having the drinking age at 18 would increase the drinking and driving on the road
Drinking at a younger age causes more damage than drinking at a older age
There are more 18 year olds than any else, so there would be a mass influx of drinkers younger than 20
18 year olds are still growing and getting into the habit of drinking at that age can cause mass damage
There would be kids coming to school drunk all the time, lowering the amount of information the kids can absorb

[Pembroke_Corgi]

The human brain is still developing at age 18 (and keeps doing so until around age 20-22 or so) so using a mind-altering substance is definitely not a good idea! Also, addictive behaviors tend to develop the younger people use substances. My husband is an addictions counselor and told me that brain chemistry actually changes (permanently) when teens become addicted to substances. So they are far more likely to keep drinking and develop problems as a result of starting early.

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter! I hope she feels better soon.

[boomersooner]

Maybe that most kids are 18 or turn 18 while they are still in high school......

[sasvermont]

www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810616.PDF

[Husky_mom]

I can´t be of much help... legal age here is 18... and many many kids start at 14-15.. obviously sneaking around...

when I was that age I saw many kids came drunk at school or hang over...

so I guess keeping the legal age there at 21 will make the 18 yr olds drink and not the 14´s... but maybe it just when they feel like it... I don´t know as I don´t drink and have never had not even the desire to taste it.. so every head is a world and some despite their age will try it never minding legal age...

but 21 is supposedly to be a more responsible stage and supposedly kids won´t be drinking as if it was their last...

one example... a 14-16 yr old drinks let´s say 30 beers.. and hes like if nothing happened.. a 21-23 may drink the same and start getting woozy faster... maybe because metabolism is faster in younger people... not sure... and again no body/mind is alike...

[Karen]

Having the drinking age be 18 would likely increase the incidence of drunk driving. Teenagers more than even slightly older adults feel invincible and that they aren't "drunk" when they get behind the wheel, or think they can handle it, when in fact their judgement is impaired. Teens already have more accidents than other age groups ... you want to add to that?


Okay, now for what I really believe - which contradicts what I wrote above:

If it is okay for you to join the military and risk your life and limb, quite literally, for the good of the country, at age 18, why should you not be able to have a beer afterward?

If it is okay for you to vote, and effect the outcome of the world in that way, why should there be a different age for you to legally drink?

Not that I want drunkards voting, but if you think 18 is old enough to sacrifice your life, or to be responsible enough to cast a vote, why is drinking denied?