Should the alcohol drinking age be increased or decreased?

I can relate to those friday nights when I drank bottles of listerine and niquil too.

 

Actually, no. I know about 50/50 on each

 

Denmark's legal purchase age is 16, there is no restriction on how old you must be to consume.

 

Your own experiences are irrelevant. According to data poor people commit more crime.

 

Don't post when you clearly aren't capable of having discussions about this.

At no point did I make any normative claim about what should or shouldn't be done to poor people. Additionally what I said seems to be born out in the data: Are poor less likely to use drugs?

That moment when your get 10 good boy points for interpreting data.

 

Last time I checked you can't tell people where to post..

 

About 51% of the people I know think I can tell people where to post and since a sampling of people you personally know is the standard for determining truth I think I am in fact allowed to advise lollisweet on her posting activity.

 

It is commonly known that alcohol can affect your liver function, but there is a lot more damage done to your body besides the liver when you drink alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Here is a list of the possible effects of alcohol on the body according to the website:
-Brain communication pathways and overall structure alteration, resulting in loss of coordination and mood changes
-Cardiomyopathy (stretching of heart muscle)
-Heart arrhythmias (irregular heart beat)
-Stroke
-High blood pressure
-Fatty liver
-Alcoholic hepatitis
-Fibrosis
-Cirrhosis
-Pancreatitis
-Cancer of the mouth, esophagus, breast, throat, and liver
-Weakened immune system

According to another NIAAA article, "7.7 million young people [in the United States] ages 12–20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month", in 2015. Youth around that age may think that drinking alcohol is mature or cool because they are breaking the rules. Some choose to drink because of peer pressure or because they feel like they need something to help them cope with stress. What they probably don't think about are the health effects of alcohol that I listed above.

According to a health encyclopedia entry by the University of Rochester Medical Center, teens brains, specifically the prefrontal cortex (the rational part of the brain), aren't fully developed until the age of 25. Instead, teens think with their amygdala (the emotional part of the brain). As a result, teens tend to think with their emotional impulses and feelings rather than rational thinking. This most likely plays a part in teen alcohol use: teens make the decision to drink due to their feelings, which can be influenced by anger towards their parents, peer pressure, and stress from schoolwork and life.

Therefore, I believe that the drinking age should be set at 25, because adults with fully developed prefrontal cortexes are able to make more rational decisions weighing the benefits and harmful effects of drinking alcohol in comparison to younger people.

Edit: Added some words

 

Getting drunk will kill your gains

 

I'm somewhat curious to who selected "decreased" to the poll.

 

Nobody over 21

 

edgy 12-year olds.

why are "yes" and "no" options to an "either/or" question. Would make more sense as "Increased/Decreased/Keep it the same" I think

 

I was advising you on where to post, not commanding you to stop.

 

i got confused at first because i didnt add increased/decreased. at first i added only yes/no. you cant delete poll questions so i had to add the other 2