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Do you remember your first taste of alcohol? How old were you? Twenty-one? All 50 states currently demand that their citizens reach age 21 before they can legally drink. But there's a growing movement that says mandatory minimum laws may do more harm than good. When determining the right date when a young person can take one of their final steps towards personal responsibility and freedom, what's the right answer?
The above neuroscientist's view is a study on how alcohol affects an adolescent's brain vs. how it affects an adult's brain.
The incomplete development of the frontal lobe in an adolescent's brain mainly has to do with judgment and analysis, so the argument isn't: "gee I wonder if an adolescent is affected as much as an adult if they have the same amount of alcohol in their system?"
The argument is that teens are not capable of making rational decisions about alcohol consumption BEFORE they get any in their system. I don't think anyone honestly thinks that because teens have minutely smaller brains than adults that alcohol intake is going to affect them more. What many people do think is that teenagers tend to take unnecessary risks (like downing a fifth of Bacardi in one sitting) because they think "nothing bad will ever happen to me."
Ask any developmental psychologist and they will likely tell you that most teenagers believe in "the personal fable" - a belief which consists of the idea that they are somehow unique; that they are going to change the world; that everyone is watching them; (and most dangerous of all) that bad things just don't happen to them. This is directly due to the fact that their frontal lobe (judgment and analytical thinking) is not fully developed.
Yes, there are some kids out there who are capable of making rational decisions at a younger than average age. They COULD be allowed to drink if it were not for the other 98% or teenagers who fall into the "average" category. So they'll have to wait an extra three whole years to drink. The horror.
- Livvy February 25, 2009 9:47PM
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The Teen Brain is Not Fully Developed
- From GHSA
By Governors Highway Safety Association - The States' Voice on Highway Safety
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Guns vs. Beer
So if a Teen's brain is not fully developed, why are they allowed to fight in wars for this country? A gun is much more dangerous than a beer is.
- uofascott August 22, 2008 10:56AM
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Right on!
True enough! What about voting? If their brains are immature until their 20s, why do permit them to vote? By definition, the immature mind is incapable of making the important types of decisions that go into the determination of whom to vote for.
Personally, I think the driving age should be 21 and the drinking age 16 -- people should learn to hold their liquor before they get behind the wheel of a potentially dangerous instrumentality.
- JKFriedman
September 4, 2008 11:12AM
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Side: Yes
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So then..
So then forbid the consumption of any alcohol until people reach their mid-twenties. This would include wine as part of religious ceremony, etc.
- Sophophilic September 6, 2008 3:07PM
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Sounds like Nazis
The Nazis also offered "scientific" arguments as an excuse for violating people's rights. Some Holocaust victims remember the signs on the bier halls, "Juden Verboten" No scientific studies can establish that the United States of America ought not to be a free country, with liberty and justice for all. Scientific studies aside, the politicians I voted against have no right to tell me what I can and cannot drink.
- TomAlciere
February 16, 2009 5:48PM
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Military
If a person's brain does not stop developing until his or her early to mid-20s. And drinking alcohol can seriously damage long- and short- term growth processes. And if damage from alcohol during this time can be long-term and irreversible, then what about people who are 18 being able to join the military?
If I can choose to join the military where I could be:
- injured physically (lose a leg, arm, etc.)
- mentally (post traumatic stress disorder, etc.)
- tortured by the enemy
- missing in combat, potentially never seeing family and friends again
- killed in combat, definitely never seeing family and friends again
Then I don't see why I can't choose to drink responsibly once I turn 18. In my eyes, I would think being tortured, physically losing body parts, or dying in combat is a lot worse then drinking responsibly.
If the government decides that we can responsibly choose to join the military or not at the age of 18, then I would say that the government should also let us responsibly choose whether or not to drink alcohol.
- incognitouser
February 22, 2009 6:05PM
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Nor is anyone else's...
1. A brain never stops developing. Alcohol is bad for ALL brains.
2. The law does not stop teens from drinking because no one in their right mind takes it seriously.
- Zmoney187
April 10, 2009 12:08AM
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if thats the case
if thats the case then why dont we just increase the drinking age to 26 or 30 just to be on the safe side, this argument is absurd.
- camdaddy09
July 15, 2009 6:36PM
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