Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?

Should the drinking age be lowered? There are many who believe that it should be, but there are many who support the maintenance of the present drinking age. It is difficult to decide on which side of the issue to stand, for there are a lot of good reasons that support both. However, it is probably best to take a stand on the side of keeping the drinking age at its present level. There are several reasons and statistics which would support keeping where it is, even though lowering it could be helpful.
One reason for maintaining 21 as the legal drinking age is that the human brain is not fully developed until that age. Many of the chemicals in alcohol could therefore be quite harmful to undeveloped, adolescent brains. Plus, teenagers can be quite irresponsible, foolish, and reckless sometimes, so their judgment and obedience to rules often cannot be trusted.While it is true, that after Congress passed the law in 1984 that prohibited people under 21 from drinking, teenage deaths due to the consumption of alcohol and its dangerous consequences began to soar, that means that teenagers rebelled against that law and did not bother to abide by it. Some teenagers drink just to flout the law and disrespect it because they simply do not care. When they turn 21, however, many people become more careful and moderate drinkers all of a sudden. Another reason to keep 21 as the drinking age is that the younger people are when they start drinking, the more likely they are to get drunk more quickly than older, more mature people and to become alcoholics (which can definitely have evil effects on their bodies).
One of the reasons people cite when they are calling for the lowering of the drinking age is that if people become legal adults when they are 18, if they are able to vote, join the military, and buy lottery tickets and cigarettes, then why should they not be permitted to buy and consume alcohol? That is a very good point which they bring up, but alcohol can be deadly, even if a person has only been on one drinking bout. Joining the military is an act of patriotism, but it is coupled with the knowledge of the possibility of dying. However, 18-year-old people are intellectually mature enough to decide whether they want to actually lay their lives on the line or not. Voting at 18 is all right because teenagers are hopefully intelligent enough to know what is best for their country, what political issues could mean for them, and who the most trustworthy and helpful government representatives should be. Smoking is not a good practice, but it does not affect the mind. People are allowed to smoke at 18 mainly because one is finished growing at that age (smoking interferes with and stunts one's bodily growth). Drinking alcohol, on the other hand, is very serious, but a lot of people just do not realize it or refuse to realize it. Everyone has to drink some sort of liquid some time, so there are those who just decide that drinking a little alcohol would not hurt. They drink some and then decide that a little more could not hurt, or else they are too engaged to something else to pay attention to the fact that they just automatically consume more and more drinks. Pretty soon, they become addicted to the alcohol they are drinking and have to have more of it because that is what alcohol can do. Drink more than two or three, and you can become a lost cause, no matter how strong a head or constitution you think you have. It is a very dangerous practice even if  teenagers make good resolutions to be careful.
This is not a disparagement against teenagers and youth rights. I am only trying to consider what is best for teenagers, both for their mental and bodily health and welfare. Smoking a lot can cause death, but one has time to stop, and stopping can save a person's life. Underage drinking can prove to be fatal the very first time. For example, a person is lurching unsteadily down the street, misses his footing and falls into the road where a car is unable to stop in time to prevent a terrible calamity. As I said before, there a lot of really good and convincing arguments to sway people in favor of lowering the drinking age, but it just does not seem safe. Teenagers are often rash and want to be cool, and the fact that they drink despite knowing that doing so is illegal and unsafe for them proves it. Preventing them from drinking until they really are mature adults seems to be a secure policy. It may save a person from rashly drinking one beer and finding himself becoming addicted to it and from conducting himself unsafely and getting himself killed.