Underage Drinking

UNDERAGE DRINKING Underage drinking is a wide-spread problem among adolescents ages 12 to 20. There is a great number of research that has been conducted regarding teens and their use of alcohol, and from this research a profound base of information has been gathered regarding the subject. Alcohol use by young people ages 12 to 20 is dangerous, not only because of the risks associated with mental impairment, but also because of the threat to their long-term physical and mental development and well-being. Also, frequent heavy drinking by some underage teens has been linked to increased cases of mild brain damage. Underage drinking studies have also shown that alcohol use contributes to youth-related violence, suicide, high-school drop-out rates, and other problem behaviors. All of these teen-related issues are magnified by the age of the drinker. The younger the drinker the worse the problems.These studies have noticed that there are more youth that drink, that those that use tobacco or other illegal drugs. Other data from the surveys showed that early alcohol use may contribute to the risk of developing future alcohol abuse problems. The most well known danger is, perhaps, traffic crashes, becauseof its visibility. Studies have shown that alcohol impairment has been the cause of one-third of the fatalities in youth traffic accidents. The financial impact of underage drinking related crashes has been estimated at $19 Billion, and this is just from traffic crashes alone. Another problem for the rise in underage drinking is the availability of the alcohol. Even though it is illegal to sell or give alcohol to youths under the age of 21, the teens do not have a hard time getting the alcohol; even getting it from adults. Many of the studies conducted regarding underage drinking have noticed that the youth drink alcohol because society views alcohol use as a normal, even desirable behavior; citing the images and messages that advertising provides regarding alcohol...