It goes without saying that in the United States underage drinking is a major cause for concern. Yet many are unaware of just how significant a problem underage drinking is. The facts reveal that alcohol has become the drug of choice for the vast majority of youth in the United States and the pervasiveness of alcohol puts every state, community, and family at risk. The question that we ask ourselves today is alcohol really harming to our youth and if so what should we do about it as parents, siblings, and friends who are affected by the abuse of this drug by young adults we know. A little fact of how alcoholic beverages have been used to celebrate mostly important events through history, from the Caesars celebrating victories to the …show more content…
For reasons of which have no excuses for them. We were all teens once and know that teens like to conform and give in to the efforts of peer pressure which often implement doing some sort of “ extra-curricular activity” such as using drugs like alcohol and marijuana. Our youth partakes in theses activities for the likes of friends and what they see. They want to be hip and cool. Be like and apart of the “IN CROWD” and what better way to be like the cool kids then to do what the popular kids do. What teens are so unaware of is that with drinking alcohol takes a lot of maturity. In any case young or old maturity is the key when consuming alcohol and our youth are not mature enough to take on such a huge responsibility. They do not understand that when they drink alcohol they put everyone’s life in danger including self-harm. The understanding isn’t there. As children and adolescents we all were hard headed at one point in time and wanted to prove that we could hang out the older crowd. That we weren’t that spoiled little brat that annoyed everyone else. “Despite minimum legal drinking age laws, actual drinking patterns in the United States suggest that almost all young people use alcohol before they are 21”( O’Connell, Richard and Bonnie, p.35). Alcohol is one of the most common drugs used among teenagers. It’s even more used than any kind of tobacco and marijuana. The problem is that they …show more content…
§ 158) was passed on July 17, 1984. It demanded and stated that every state that allowed persons below 21 years to purchase and publicly possess alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by ten percent. The law was later amended, lowering the penalty to eight percent from fiscal year 2012 and beyond. While this act did not outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages by those under 21 years of age, seven states and Washington, D.C. extended its provisions into an outright ban. These states are: Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The minimum drinking age is a state law, and most states still permit "underage" consumption of alcohol in some circumstances. In some states, no restriction on private consumption is made, while in others, consumption is only allowed in specific locations, in the presence of consenting and supervising family members as in the states of Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, Texas, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The act also does not seek to criminalize alcohol consumption during religious occasions; (e.g. communion wines,
Over the past few decades, there has been much discourse regarding the drinking habits and behavior of college students. Since the passage of the Uniform Drinking Age Act of 1984, federal regulators have determined that the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) should be 21 years old instead of 18. Since then, there have been a plethora of scientific studies to determine whether this was an effective means of combating irresponsible drinking habits. The aim of these studies was to determine the overall impact of the reduced drinking age in a ‘cause and effect’ way. However, the primary means of support for the MLDA being 21 was that drinking and driving as well as overall consumption among minors was reduced.
As I read this article, I learned that there are a lot of deaths that occur because alcohol fell in the hands of teenagers. I believe we should do everything in our power to prevent these situations purely because all of this can be prevented. I also believe, that a mix of the way California and Tucson handle underage drinking seems to be more successful tactics than others states mentioned. In this article, there was a lot of talk about deaths that occurred while under the influence. I believe this was a good way to write this article to really try to convince people that drinking is very dangerous for teenagers.
“There’s No Benefit to Lowering the Drinking Age” explains, on average about eleven teens die daily as a result of drunk driving (Voas 464). When teens throw a party, alcohol is usually involved. Then once the party is over the kids have to get home somehow and they often drive themselves. When an alcoholic drink is placed in an eighteen-year-old hand decisions are made that harm them and others
The current alcohol laws both statewide and nationwide, prove unsuccessful and a more efficient way to handle the situation is to educate teens about alcohol to influence them to make wise
The law pushed states to raise their individual drinking ages to 21 within two years and threatened to decrease highway funding provided by the Federal Highway Aid Act if they did not (Kadlec, 1986, p. 1). The common belief that there is a national drinking age is incorrect, since states still possess the ability to increase or decrease their individual drinking ages, they will just lose a portion of federal highway funding if they do so. When the law was passed, it required the Secretary of Transportation to withhold ten percent of funding, however the law was revised to hold back eight percent after 2012 (23 U.S.C § 158). This law holds state governments hostage, using money to force them into changing something that should be in their individual control.
Today in the United States about 4,358 people under the age of 21 years old die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and even drowning. More than 190,000 people under the age of 21 visited an emergency room for alcohol related reasons in 2008 alone. Alcohol related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and non-fatally injure someone every two minutes. That’s a lot of people gone because they wanted to go out and party and not think about the consequences ahead. In this essay I’m gonna give you information to why Underage Drinking is very very bad for you.
Plus teenangers would most likey want to drink a lot and get drunk because it is cool to them. And plus if your younger your parents would know where to find acahool because their older and more smarter than you and one day you could find it one day laying in your house and you would take a hold of it and even drink it and get really sick. And sometimes when your younger it could have more effects to your body such as might commit suicide, Be involved in violent behavior, and be develop in older acahool problems. And sometimes when you drink when your younger it can cause liver
But while it has succeeded in that, it is also believed that tougher rules, such as DUI rules and seatbelt safety rules have also played a part in this decrease. However, this higher drinking age hasn’t reduced drinking, its only “driven it underground,” Gabrielle Glaser states in her NY Times article. It has been driven underground to the riskiest settings, high school parties and frat parties that are unsupervised. This age raise segregates the drinking away from adults that can model moderation in drinking. If an 18-year-old high school senior is shown by his/her parent(s) how to drink responsibly and in moderation, I believe that it would greatly help in reducing the chance of making bad decisions by overdoing it, such as driving while drinking.
In some countries, like in Europe the drinking age is set at 18. Even though people in the US think this is insane, this set age has more positive effects than people think it would. It is known that binge drinking is a problem in the US since it has the highest rate in the world for binge drinking. In Europe, teenagers get their license at age 18, and some drinking ages are lower than that, they figure out how to control their drinking before the drive. Unlike in the US, kids drink and then drive because they either have to be home by curfew or they are too scared to call their parents for a ride, and admit they had been under the
Drugs such as alcohol have an effect on all users, regardless of their age; however, alcohol has an especially harmful effect on teens since their bodies are still developing. Studies have shown that alcohol has numerous negative effects on a teen’s body and mental health; for example, a study conducted by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention stated that “alcohol consumption affects the brain’s frontal lobes, which is essential for functions such as emotional regulations, planning, and organization” (“Age”). Teens already have high emotions and difficulties planning and organizing; alcohol will only enhance teens’ struggle. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention also found that alcohol consumption at a young age can potentially cause chronic problems such as memory loss, depression, suicidal thoughts, and poor decision making (“Age”). Teens have a difficult enough time making decisions and organizing their lives, but adding alcohol to the mix will only make matters worse; their bodies are still developing, and they are still learning to be adults.
A poll taken on July 2014 asked the public opinion of US adults for lowering the US legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Approximately 74% of the people opposed the idea, whereas roughly 25% of the people supported the idea ("Public Opinion" 1). The statistics indicate satisfaction among the majority of the people; however, with the current laws many issues arise that must be addressed concerning alcohol use. For starters, studies show an increase of dangerous drinking habits among young adults (Hall 2). In addition, the enforcement of the drinking laws and education on alcohol is insubstantial (Moyse, Fonder 3).
It apears that children who exprienced drinking at young age will also continously and habitually drink in the future once they grow up. They do not simple do this occasionally but it has become a frequent and habitual addiction (Christiansen et al. 7). In totality, drinking alcoholic beverages of teenagers is not is unhealthy, unsafe, and unacceptable. More and likely teens that drink are trailing behind in their education because of how alcohol affects them so bad. Some parents allow their children drink alcoholic beverages under certain circumstances with their
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledges that there are 10 million teens in the United States drinking regularly and over 20 percent binge drink. ( Teen Alcoholism). This information illustrates the dependence that teens have developed for alcohol and many of them don 't even know the issue that they are building for themselves. The signs that demonstrate that a teen is becoming or is addicted to alcohol are that he/ she is a heavy drinker, they drink regularly for no reason and becoming upset over the removal of accessibility of alcohol.
Underage drinking is a noteworthy issue at American schools, however little is thought about the degree of liquor use in various arrangements. Across countries, Teenage drinking has been a common problem of this modern world. Underage drinking can offer a diverse effects for us Teenagers, especially accidents which include car accidents, homicides, suicides, falls and burns. Research shows that legal drinkers can handle their self well compared to an immature Teenage drinker due to a lot of reasons both mentally and physiologically. Underage drinkers suffer a wide variety of consequences due to their uncontrolled drinking habit.
Now a days alcohol is one of number one drugs picked by teenagers. Even though most teens drink alcohol to feel socially ease, calm nerves or stress, or simply just to drink; their putting their life at risk. In others words, teens should not be permitted to binge drink in any kind of situation. Underage drinking causes your body to have a long term negative effects. According to the article “Teen Drinking Ups Risk for Liver Disease Later,” there are 493,000 deaths worldwide yearly due to alcohol-related liver cirrhosis.