Chuck Hughes, Salisbury, N.C.
♦ The dedicated men and women serving in our military are just a small portion of their peer population. In fact only ½ if % of the population serves in the armed forces at any one time. Remove those older than 21, mostly career orientated members, and you have far less than 0.05% of teens serving at any time who might be denied the privilege to indulge in a behavior that can be toxic during the teenage years when the brain is still under construction and is more sensitive to the toxic effects of drugs and alcohol even without abuse. Several scientific studies support this opinion:
• One study at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) compared the brain scans of teens that drink with the scans of teens that do not. The team of neuroscientists found damaged nerve tissue in the brains of the teens that drank. The conclusion is that tor teenagers, the effects of a drunken night out may linger long after the hangover wears off.
• Another study at the UCSD, found abnormal functioning in the hippocampus (a key area for memory formation) in teen binge drinkers. These teens did more poorly on learning verbal material than their non-drinking counterparts.
• A third study, based on my personal observations as a 20-year-Navy/Marine veteran, strongly suggests that you would not want to be in a bar with a bunch of drunken adolescents submarine sailors.
• In addition to the above studies that found evidence of alcohol induced neurobiological changes in adolescent brains, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) sponsored a study that found that more than 25,000 lives have been saved in the U.S. and continues to prevent injuries and death by decreasing adolescent driver crashes by an estimated 16 percent thanks to the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age law:
http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/#sthash.trh14H5O.dpuf
Something else that Attorney Todd Paris and Mr. Mark Lyery failed to consider is that, although states have the option to lower the drinking age, none to my knowledge have done so. Thus the twenty-one to consume alcohol law is not confined to Rowan County or to any county in NC.
Evidence suggests that Mr. Paris and Mr. Lyerly cannot blame the age limit for drinking or the Ebola Virus on Commissioner Sides. Sorry to put limitations on things for which the commissioner can be held responsible.
