Underage drinking is the number ONE youth drug problem in the United States. About 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year due to underage drinking. This does not include sexual assaults, violence and injuries.

The minimum drinking age is the most studied public health law ever. As you might guess, lowering the drinking age costs lives. Some have suggested that we should experiment by lowering the drinking age and see what happens. Organizations have “experimented” with giving alcohol to teenagers 18 and 19 years old and studies find they are much more immature and irresponsible when they are drunk then the average 21 year old adult.

In 1999, New Zealand lowered its drinking age from 20 to 18. Not only did the alcohol-involved crash rate increase among 18 and 19 year olds (12% increase for males; 51% for females), but also among 15-17 year olds (14% increase for males; 24% for females).

A lower drinking age promotes unsafe binge drinking. Most European countries with lower drinking ages have not only higher drinking rates, but higher binge drinking/intoxication rates. As a result, several of these countries are considering increasing their drinking ages because the 21 minimum drinking ages is so effective. In the United States statistics prove that from 1983 (the year before the national 21 law) to 1988 (the year when all states had adopted it), binge drinking among 12th graders dropped 15 percent during the same time binge drinking rates were increasing among the same age groups in Canada.

In fact, all underage drinking is unsafe drinking. Research has shown that the brain continues to develop into the early twenties. The part that controls reasoning and cognitive ability takes the longest to mature; thus, underage drinking, especially heavy drinking, affects memory and reasoning. The part of the brain responsible for forming new memories is noticeably smaller in youth who abuse alcohol. Alcohol use in adolescence also decreases executive functioning, memory, spatial operations, and attention among adolescents. Research shows most of this damage is permanent.