The legal drinking age should stay at 21 years old. Alcohol is one type of drugs chosen by many American adolescence of all ages. From studies, it's shown that one of the reason many adolescence drink are because of emotional and physical changes. If the adolescence had a bad childhood, for example if they lived with parents who were alcoholics, then they are most likely to start drinking at an early age. Also as adolescence advance from one grade to the next, they face more stress from school. As said before, alcohol is the drug chosen by many adolescence, statistics show that from 8th grade to 12th grade, the adolescence picked alcohol over cigarettes and marijuana. Within 8th grade about 26% chose alcohol, 32% of 10th graders and about 43% of 12th grade chose alcohol over cigarette and marijuana. When it comes to choosing which alcohol to consume, in Georgia, adolescence chose hard liquor over other alcohol beverages such as wine, beer and other types of alcohol beverages. Many adolescence take part in binge drinking. More males (54%) take part in binge drinking than females (31.9%) using hard liquor. The percentage changes for the other type of alcohol beverages. Even though there are less teenage drinkers than adult drinkers, the teenage drinkers consume more alcohol than adults per month.
There are many causes to which why adolescence drink alcohol. One type of factor that is most likely to cause underage drinking is the environment. In school, much adolescence, growing up, face some kind of peer pressure. Mostly in high school, where many parties occur involving binge drinking, adolescence are being affected by these types of parties. The adolescences that attends the parties, sees everyone drinking, which makes them even more curious to actually try it. Parents who are alcoholics may also be the cause to why adolescence might start to drink. If the adolescence grew up with alcoholic parents, he/ she are most likely to begin drinking at an early age, hence growing up with alcohol surrounding you. Since we are talking about alcoholic parents, genetics is also another cause to underage drinking. The U.S Department of Health & Human Resources proved that children of alcoholics (COA’s) are likely to drink at a young age, range from 11-14.
One thing adolescence are known to do is taking risks and expecting things. The brain of adolescence is still in the process of developing. According to the U.S Department of Health & Human Resources, they believe that developmental period of the adolescence brain is the reason to why adolescence want to take risks. These developmental period cause teenagers to feel the need to seek for thrilling experiences. One of these “thrilling experiences” could be experimenting with alcohol itself. Since adolescences are in their “developmental period” they expect things to be as they wish they are. When it comes to alcohol, without thinking about the consequences of drinking alcohol, they expect drinking alcohol to be “pleasurable”.
Adolescence will always be curious about many things. In order to help stop this issue to advance, there are preventions and treatments out there. For example, for treatments there are rehab centers for short-term and long-term rehabilitation. When it comes to preventions, there are programs everywhere to teach the younger generation about what’s bad and what’s good. In school, there are health classes which teach kids about drug uses and alcohol uses. Other ways to prevent actually depends on the parents of child. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), states “parents need to have a good relationship between them and their child, they need discipline methods, they need communications and monitoring of their child”.
The New York legal age for drinking is 21. If any adolescence at age of under 21 years old is caught, by police, drinking they have to face consequences. They could be fined and even told to take the alcohol and drug seminar. They can also be required to complete some community service hours. New York is strict against drivers under the age of 21, under the influence of alcohol. New York follows the “Zero Tolerance Law”. The Zero Tolerance Law states that no one under the age of 21 should be drinking and driving. If adolescences are caught drinking and driving they are told to take the breathalyzer test. If the test shows that adolescence has the Blood alcohol Content (BAC) of .02% or more, but not more than .07%, they are violating the zero tolerance law and are told to attend an Administrative Hearing. If the BAC is more than .05% and less than .08% they are sent to criminal court and will be charged “driving while ability is impaired by alcohol” (DWAI). Same goes for anyone with the BAC .08% and more, except they will be arrested.
Today, there are many interventions trying to prevent underage drinking. Some of the interventions are raising the alcohol prices, increasing the minimum age for drinking, enacting the zero tolerance law, school-based prevention programs and family-based prevention programs. If the prices of the alcohol are increased, it is thought as that people would buy less and consume less. Increasing the minimum age might actually help save lives of people because when the age was risen to 21, estimated, from 700 to 1,000 lives were saved. So if the minimum age was increased it might help us save more lives. If school-based prevention programs and family-based prevention programs are formed it will help educate more people about how dangerous underage drinking can be. Even if we had all of the interventions done, we can’t force the adolescence to think the way we think. It’s up to them to make their own right decisions.
