Should Eighteen be the Minimum Drinking Age?
             The drinking age in the United States should stay twenty-one. In the past sixteen years in which the legal age to purchase, drink, and sell alcohol has been twenty-one, an estimated fifteen-thousand kids lives have been spared that would otherwise have been killed in alcohol related accidents on the highways (Madd, "Stats", 1). The fact of the matter is the law in effect now saves countless lives not only directly, but also indirectly. In a study taken by the United States government it was determined teenagers who drink are fifty times more likely to use cocaine, twenty-two times more likely to use marijuana and seven point five times more likely to use illicit drugs. (Madd, "Underfacts", 1). So really drinking at a younger age significantly increases the likely hood that teenagers will be killed in an alcohol related incidents and will increase the probability of fatality by overdose of other illegal substances.
             The law now in effect not only keeps many teenagers alive, but also to keep students on the right track. For instance, in studies taken by the organization M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), statistics have shown that more than forty percent of all academic problems in college are contributed to alcohol abuse. A staggering twenty-eight percent of all dropouts admitted to drinking more then ten drinks a week (Madd, "Stats", 1).Not only does alcohol account for the end of many young lives literally, but also contributes to the failure of students in the classroom. In a survey recently taken by various college administrators and security chiefs, a determination was made that underage drinking was also related to seventy-four percent of all sexual assaults and sixty-eight percent of all physical assaults reported on college campuses ("Higher", 1).
             In addition to increasing cases of sexual assault and battery lowering the legal dri...