Dear next President,

The drinking age should remain 21. Lowering the drinking age would be irresponsible on the government's part. It would be considered irresponsible because it would put more people in danger. The government can’t control the people who are allowed to drink now. We have thousands of deaths a year from underage drinking, drunk driving, and binge drinking. So opening the drinking age up to more people would be irresponsible.

Opening up the drinking age to 18 would also be medically irresponsible because a person's brain is not fully developed until a person is 25 years of age. Exposing the human brain to alcohol earlier in life affects the brain negatively. It tampers with things such as speech, movement, judgement and memory. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would be irresponsible because the government doesn't do a good job enforcing the laws we already have on drinking. The rate of drunk driving is highest among ages 26-29 and 50% - 70% of convicted drivers continue to drive with a suspended licenses.

Thank you,

A Kid Of The Next Generation

U.S Department of Health And Human Services

"Alcohol Alert"

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AA67/AA67.htm

Insurance Information Institute 

"Drunk Driving"

http://www.iii.org/issue-update/drunk-driving

Robert Gavin

"Two students dead as Drue agrees to 5-to-15 years"

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Drue-admits-all-58-counts-in-crash-deaths-of-2-4849075.php

The Learning Network

"Why is beige drinking so common in the united states"

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/why-is-binge-drinking-so-common-among-young-people-in-the-united-states/comment-page-2/?_r=0

Matthew Chambers, Mindy Liu, and Chip Moore

"Drunk Driving by the Numbers"

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/by_the_numbers/drunk_driving/index.html