October 26, 2016

Mr./Mrs. President

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President:

Congratulations on winning the long battle of presidency, I hope you enjoy it while it lasts and take care of our beloved country. I am an 8th grade girl who wants to make a change. Being head of our country and one of the three main branches of government, you have a lot of say for new laws. There’s a controversy to lower the drinking age to a younger age. I want to lower the drinking age to 18 years old, not only is it better for the law but also better for manufacturers.

This decision does have health risks to drinking early but not all are bad some can improve our health. If a young adult drinks under the age of 21 it’s deemed medically irresponsible, says ProCon. org on the first con side. Your choice is the deal breaker to the idea, an adult can decide to drink early with all the health risks or not to drink at all. In the next paragraph you can find that drinking 1-2 times a day can decrease your risk of coronary heart disease, that is a plus side to drinking. When most people think of drinking health risks they think of liver problems, that does happen but when you drink to much or have a liver that isn’t that strong against alcohol.

To begin with is the health risks to drinking early, one leading argument is how medically safe it is. This depends on how much the adult consumes, too much is bad and could be fatal, too little could do no harm. Drinking early and 1-2 times a day can reduce your risk of coronary heart disease, according to Drinking and You in the second topic. The amount should be smaller than reasonable and too much could become a bad habit. Drinking early can also reduce blood clots in your brain or connections to the brain. After speaking about the good there is still bad in this controversy, as I said earlier drinking earlier than 21 is medically irresponsible. Drinking early and having no control on how much you consume can have liver problems in your future from an article written by Lover Your Liver in the first topic. Not only can you get disease, but also cancer is a big result of over drinking.

Next, not all young adults want to drink this early or at all, but this a big step in the moral decision to drink early. If you lower the drinking age this can take away the thrill for 18 year olds, college kids, or young adults in general to break the law and do underage drinking. This can have an impact on how minors see the law and be less likely to break it. You know that age when you step into adulthood and welcomed with new responsibilities and new regulations. It is a fun time but is it truly welcoming to not be able to drink, let´s say we lower the drinking age and can show your juvenile proper ways to drink and how much they should consume. They would be more informed, less likely to die in an accident, and would be more cautioned. Every two minutes a person dies in a drunk driving accident, says the Drunk Driving MADD Statistics. Also the adolescents could learn from experience what to do inside alcohol situations and make the smarter choice.

Also, on my list is the environment the young adult is in when drinking. If we lower the drinking age public bars or nightclubs would be a safer place for drinkers under 21. A website for injuries in nightclubs/bars is called Claims 4 You. If we lower the drinking age it would decrease unsafe drinking activity because younger drinkers would be more supervised because of health reasons. If people drink at home it would be safer because there is no driving or walking involved. You could be safe at night from kidnappings, rape, and murders. If a younger drinker has a driver that is close or is family is a better driver than anyone else. A young adult in a bar or nightclub is a very unsafe area to drink, you are far from home, and with strangers. If a person is alcohol impaired and away from home they can be inside bad accidents that could kill them. The leading cause of death with 88,000 people dying in the United States because of alcohol, by making better environments would go down a lot. This statistic was made by a facts and statistics website with the National Institute of Alcohol and Abuse. The last statement is how walking home isn’t that safe either. 25% of American women get sexually assaulted and half of them are when they are drunk, by staying home to drink it is so much safer. This was also by the National Institute of Alcohol and Abuse.

Now you can see I want to lower the drinking age to have a manufacturer be more aware of younger drinkers and make smaller sizes of alcohol. Make life better for younger adults to drink with less accidents. The three main reasons I bring this controversy up is from health risks, safe environments to drink in, and the moral decision to drink. If we lower the drinking age now it would not only benefit the law, but a new way to welcome adults and make smaller bottles to drink from. Do you want to have your young adult to be killed by an alcohol related incident? ¼ of all teen deaths are with alcohol related causes, this is from a Teen Car Accident Statistic website. Manufacturers would be more aware and make smaller bottles for younger drinkers.

I hope you consider my idea Mr./Mrs. President and do something about it. Thank you for reading my letter.

Sincerely,

Elise L