By: Courtney Crotts

The Minimum
Legal Drinking
Age
 Purpose

• The drinking age in

the United States
should stay the same
because the age 21
saves lives, people
are more mature at
the age of 21, and it
reduces the chance
of alcoholism and
other risk behaviors.
 States that increased the legal drinking age to 21 saw a
16% median decline in motor vehicle crashes.

Excessive drinking contributes to more than 4,300 deaths

among people below the age of 21 in the U.S each year.

Drinking by those below the age of 21 is also strongly

linked with:

Death from alcohol poisoning

Statistics
Suicide and violence

Changes in brain development

Other risk behaviors

Points to
Consider
LEGAL DRINKING CHANGES TO THE
AGES WORLDWIDE MLDA IN THE PAST
 • Brain Development
• Risky Behaviors
• Drunk Driving

"Alcohol consumption is the

third leading actual cause of
death in the United States, a
major contributing factor to
unintentional injuries, the
leading cause of death for
youths and young adults, and
accounts for an estimated 75
000 or more total deaths in the
21 Saves Lives United States annually."
(Nelson)
 Maturity

• "Another compelling reason for

maintaining a minimum legal drinking
age of 21 is research that shows that
alcohol-related damage to the brain
may be greater in the still-developing
brains of young adults. This is
especially true of the regions of the
brain that affect learning and
memory." (Degutis)
 Alcoholism
• Greater chance of becoming an
alcoholic
• Medical problems
• Crime rates
• Adolescent brain
• Developing dependence

"Other research has shown that the

younger the age at which someone
starts to drink the more likely she or
he is to develop alcohol problems,
including alcohol dependence later
in life." (Degutis)
 • The Facts
• Correlation with
Age
• Life

Traffic Crashes
Binge Drinking
• "There is no such thing as responsible
drinking by an underage kid". (Kapsidelis)
 Brain Development

• "Using imaging with

computerized
tomography, two studies
compared brain
shrinkage, a common
indicator of brain
damage, in alcoholic men
and women and reported
that male and female
alcoholics both showed
significantly greater brain
shrinkage than control
subjects." (NIH)
History

• 1984
 • "Alcohol use is
associated with a wide
range of adverse health
and social consequences,
including physical and
sexual assault,
unintended pregnancy,
sexually transmitted
infection, violence,
vandalism, crime,
overdose, other
substance use." (Nelson)
Health Related
Consequences
College Students 18-20
years old
• Binge Drinking
• Parties
• Drug Use
• Drunk Driving
National Minimum Drinking Age Act 1984
 • China
• Germany and Spain
• France, Italy, and
Mexico
• Japan
• United States
• Afghanistan and
Iran

"Alcohol is banned in 16
MLDA in other Countries countries"
Addiction
Sexual Assault
 Long-Term
Health Effects
Prevention
 • “CDC - Fact Sheets-Minimum Legal Drinking Age - Alcohol.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3 Aug. 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-
sheets/minimum-legal-drinking-age.htm.

• Degutis, Linda, DrPH. "Choose Accountability: Keep the Legal U.S. Drinking Age at 21." The Nation's
Health, vol. 38, no. 8, 2008, pp. 3. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/198455640?accountid=1
0163.

• Kapsidelis, Karin. "Changing the Drinking Age?: Some People Say Lowering the Legal Drinking Age would
Reduce Binge Drinking. Others Say that Idea is Ludicrous." McClatchy - Tribune Business News, Nov 26, 2007.
ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/463535912?accountid=1
0163.

Works Cited • “ALCOHOL'S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN.” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm

• Toomey, Traci L., Toben F. Nelson, and Kathleen M. Lenk. "The Age-21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age: A
Case Study Linking Past and Current Debates: (Alcoholism and Drug Addiction)." Addiction, vol. 104, no. 12,
2009, pp. 1958-1965. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/199578923?accountid=1
0163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02742.x.

• Wechsler, Henry, PhD., and Toben F. Nelson ScD. "Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by Lowering the
Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences among Youths?" American
Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 6, 2010, pp. 986-92. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/347533689?accountid=1
0163.

• “Minimum Legal Drinking Age in Other Countries - Drinking Age - ProCon.org.” Drinking Age,
https://drinkingage.procon.org/minimum-legal-drinking-age-in-other-countries/.