People drink alcohol for many different reasons: partying, depression, anxiety, boredom and peer pressure. This group of “people” includes adolescents. It is incredibly easy for a teenager to find a way to acquire alcohol. Even if it is illegal, they can have it in the liquor cabinets of their home or even from older acquaintances who buy it for them. Up to 81 percent of high school students have tried alcohol at some point in their lives, compared to 70 percent who have smoked cigarettes and 47 percent who have used marijuana (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ). I remember the first high school party I attended my freshman year of high school. That night, I had never seen so much alcohol in my life. I wasn't familiar with high school parties, underage drinking, and I remember feeling nervous, like I was doing something wrong, even though I wasn't drinking. I now think that if the drinking age was eighteen, high school parties like that would be normal, and even worse college parties with alcohol would be legal. Although eighteen year olds have many rights besides drinking, the government should not lower the drinking age because doing so would allow high schoolers to drink legally, it would allow for a trickle down effect and would increase road accidents and deaths. keeping the drinking age at twenty-one believes that lowering it to eighteen will help solve many problems. When a teenager reaches the age of eighteen, he or she is considered an adult; it consists of the ability to vote, to wage war, to buy cigarettes, to marry and to go to clubs. Radley Balko, a writer for Reasononline, comments: "It doesn't make sense that America considers...... middle of paper......4. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17893 “Editorial: Legal drinking age should be kept at 21 nationwide. » Pantagraph, EBSCO. February 02, 2014. Engs, Ruth C. “Why the Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: A Research-Based Opinion.” » QC Researcher. April 21, 2010. “Keep the drinking age at 21.” » Chicago Tribune (Illinois) (August 28, 2008). EBSCO.direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W62W61887285996&login.asp&site=ehost-live>Snyder, Edgar. “General Statistics (according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism).” Edgar Snyder and associations. NP, 2009. Web. February 1, 2014. http://www.edgarsnyder.com/drunk-driving/underage-drink/underage-statistics.htmlPike, Kevin. Personal interview. February 1 2014.