What’s At Stake
What’s At Stake
Most High School Students Don’t Drink
Why 21?
There’s a good reason that the drinking age is 21 – your brain is still undergoing important development and alcohol interferes with this development, potentially causing permanent changes in your ability to learn and remember.
Alcohol affects you twice as fast as it does for adults and you have a harder time knowing when to stop – and may drink large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time1.
What Could It Hurt?
Since your brain is still developing the internal cutoff switch that would make you fall asleep or pass out from drinking large quantities, you can easily consume too much. Alcohol poisoning – which can be fatal – is a real risk for you since a lethal dose of alcohol is just a tiny bit more than what would make you pass out.
Drinking even small amounts of alcohol can impair your judgement and the ability to make good decisions – such as getting in a car with an impaired driver.
Drinking alcohol has some pretty serious health consequences. Alcohol dehydrates your body, causing you to lose nutrients you need. It also interferes with building muscle – and disrupts your sleep cycles – reducing athletic performance potential by as much as 20-30% in high school athletes.