Teen Alcohol Consumption

1 October 2010

            Drinking for people of all ages, especially young people, can cause problems that last a lifetime.  Alcohol is probably the oldest drug known.  People drink alcohol in three main beverages: beer, wine, and distilled beverages (whiskey, gin, and vodka).  Generally, men drink more than women, and people drink less the older they get.  The effects of alcohol depend on the amount consumed.  Some kinds of food are able to soak up some of the alcohol, therefore people do not become as drunk.  Another factor in the effects of the drink is the weight of the person drinking.  The heavier the person, the longer it takes for your body to absorb the alcohol.  The parts of the body that are most effected are the digestive and nervous systems, and permanent damage to the brain and central nervous system may also be caused. Pregnant women who drink can give their children fetal alcohol syndrome.  Due to these harmful effects, there is a drinking age minimum of twenty-one.

            The drinking age should be kept at twenty-one, because the younger kids are introduced to drinking, there is a greater effect on them in the long run.  Another problem with lowering the drinking age is that surveys--and experience--suggest that making alcohol abundant and available to 18-year-olds also opens the spigot wider for 17- and 16-year-olds and even younger teens (Unknown).  Normally, legalizing something causes people to have more, not less.  If we lower the drinking age to eighteen, more and more young kids will want to drink too, and the eighteen year olds will feel free to drink way more than they do now, because it’s legal.   As legal drinking ages have gone up, the number of young people ages 16 to 20 killed in alcohol-related crashes has plummeted by nearly 60 percent, from 5,224 in 1982 to 2,121 in 2006 (Unknown).  Putting alcohol into law for 18 year old kids would only increase the number of kids drinking, and the amount they drink.

            Peer pressure is a large factor in teen drinking because alcohol is used to seem “cool” or “fun” when really underage drinking is not cool or fun at all.  The culture of the drinker influences the amount they drink.  The result of this social variability is that one groups under-drinking may be another groups overdrinking (Paton-Simpson, Grant).  The nature of the setting is an important factor, too (Paton-Simpson, Grant).  What about if children are attending?  Lighter drinking can occur if children are present.  Depending on the group of people, there may be different expectations.  Some people are curious about why you are not drinking, and some people generally approve of your decision.  Some people don’t react at all, but unfortunately threats are sometimes used to get the person to drink.  The most common and perhaps most telling reactions to "under consumption" are the small and often subtle gestures of surprise or disapproval that people communicate, whether verbally or through facial expressions (Paton-Simpson, Grant).  Jokes and teasing often occur, although usually it is good natured. For some groups of people, drinking is used to “become a man.”  Men are often told, "Come on, why aren't you keeping up?" or "What's wrong with you, where's your dress?"  If there were less pressure from peers, maybe teens wouldn’t become heavy drinkers.

            One of the most common arguments for having the legal drinking age at age eighteen is if an eighteen-year-old is old enough to fight in a war, he or she should also enjoy the right to drink.    Society confers different rights and responsibilities at different ages--in many places (Unknown).  The right to join the military and fight at eighteen doesn't automatically qualify you for every other right and privilege of adulthood, particularly if experience and statistics show that it's a bad idea (Unknown).  Being in the army might be dangerous, but keeping the drinking age at twenty-one is decreasing the number of teenagers getting into alcohol related accidents.

            The other argument for this issue is that increasing alcohol availability by lowering the drinking age will decrease drinking related problems among youth.  In 2008, a group of university and college presidents expressed their discontent with the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one years by signing on to the Amethyst Initiative, a much publicized advocacy effort to encourage public debate about lowering the drinking age (Wechsler, Henry).  The lower minimum legal drinking age was followed by increases in the sale and consumption of alcohol and in alcohol-involved traffic fatalities, particularly among young adults aged 18-20 years (Wechsler, Henry). Alcohol consumption is the third leading actual cause of death in the United States, a major contributing factor to unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death for youths and young adults, and accounts for an estimated 75,000 or more total deaths in the United States annually (Wechsler, Henry). 

            Teens still need time to be taught the dangers of drinking.  If teens were informed of the dangers of drinking in a class, maybe they would better understand why they shouldn’t drink at such young ages.  At one major university, student visits to the emergency room for alcohol-related treatment have increased by 84 percent in the past three years (McCardell, John).  This is a frightening amount of incidents.  “Between 1993 and 2001, 18-to-20-year-olds showed a 56 percent jump in the rate of heavy-drinking episodes. Underage drinkers now consume more than 90 percent of their alcohol during binges. These alarming rates have life-threatening consequences: each year, underage drinking kills some 5,000 young people and contributes to roughly 600,000 injuries and 100,000 cases of sexual assault among college students." (Atlantic Monthly).  People are getting hurt because of drinking underage, and this generation of kids needs to learn what they can do to stay safe.  Merely adjusting the legal age up or down doesn't work-- we've tried that already and failed (McCardell, John).  If the effects of alcohol were taught as a course in school, kids might learn not to drink.  They might even mandate alcohol education at a young age. And they might also adopt zero-tolerance laws for drunk drivers of all ages, and require ignition interlocks on their cars. Such initiatives, modeled on driver's education, might finally reverse the trend of consumption by young people at ever earlier ages (McCardell, John). Teaching about drinking will hopefully cause this generation of kids to abstain from drinking until they are at least the legal age.  Alcohol can have negative effects on people, especially young adults and teens.  If the negative effects of alcohol are taught to young teens, people would have less alcohol related problems in the United States.

Works Cited

Hanson, David J., and William DeJong. "Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18?." American Teacher. Nov 2008: 3. SIRS Researcher. Web. 05 Oct 2010.

McCardell, John. "Teach Drinking." Atlantic Monthly Vol. 304, No. 1. Jul/Aug 2009: 64. SIRS Researcher. Web. 05 Oct 2010.

Paton- Simpson, Grant. “Socially obligatory drinking: a sociological analysis of norms governing minimum drinking levels.” Contemporary Drug Problems 28.1 (2001): 133. General OneFile. Web. 11 Sept. 2010.

Unknown. "Keep the Drinking Age at 21." Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL). Aug. 28 2008: n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 05 Oct 2010.

Wechsler, Henry, and Toben F. Nelson. "Will Increasing Alcohol Availability by Lowering the Minimum Legal..." American Journal of Public Health Vol. 100, No. 6. Jun 2010: 986-992. SIRS Researcher. Web. 05 Oct 2010.