Individual-Level Intervention

A study on teen drinking by the Joseph Raintree Foundation described underage drinking as, “a social activity usually undertaken by small groups of close friends, well away from the oversight of parents or other significant adults.” This kind of unsupervised drinking takes place because Americans place such a heavy emphasis on young people not drinking, catalyzed by zero-tolerance policies schools place on alcohol and a high MLDA. American youth are frequently told that with age, comes more freedom of choice and more responsibility, yet having a MLDA of 21 betrays that notion, almost encouraging young adults to reach for the so-called

By 1999, MADD had greatly expanded its work on preventing underage drinking and emerging research underscored our efforts to prevent youth alcohol use. MADD’s efforts in this area were also encouraged and

I am Brian Reed, an undergraduate student at the University of West Georgia. I’m writing to you regarding my concerns on underage drinking in the United States and ways that I believe would help prevent such a jeopardizing act. There is a bill that provides assistance to my concerns and reasoning called the “H.R. 1717: Sober truth on preventing underage drinking reauthorization act.” According to Congress, this bill was created to provide for programs and activities with respect to the prevention of underage drinking. I strongly agree with the idea of this bill because the programs will influence citizens under the age of 21 to realize how dangerous drinking alcohol can be, which can possibly bring this illegal act an end.

The debate of lowering the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) has been going on for decades in the United States. Those opposed, argue that the current MLDA is not efficient and counterproductive (Engs 1). One study indicated that thousands of lives under the age of twenty-one are lost each year to alcohol (McCardell 1). Underage drinking is an issue that persists, despite evidence suggesting that the minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one has lowered alcohol usage among individual who are underage (Toomey 1961-1962). Teens tend to over drink, which can lead to severe consequences. They do not know better because they are inexperienced and not aware of the effects. Better drinking habits could be enforced by lowering the minimum legal drinking age. This could give eighteen year olds, when first considered as adults by most states, the right to decide about their alcohol usage ("Should" 1), and the ability to make safer choices which keep themselves and others safe.

Teens can be taught responsible drinking, by the Law coming up with permits and issuing them to teens till there about 21 to help them teach to be more responsible with drinking. Teens would be able to use these permits, in supervised areas, such as sport games, restaurants or bars, or even in their own home with their parents supervising them. They can take and complete alcohol related courses and have no alcohol related charges on their record before they are issued this permit that is like a drivers learning permit. (Ogilvie)

Research has proven that those under the age of twenty one are more likely to be heavy or binge drinkers and more specifically, twenty two percent of all students under the age of twenty one are binge drinkers. There are many beliefs on what is to blame for the irresponsible drinking habits of these teenagers. One popular belief is that because they’re not drinking with other adults or experienced drinkers they are not being guided into the proper direction to being responsible drinkers. However, the main reason is the lack of education on the topic. D.A.R.E. ® is a program executed through local Police Stations that does a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for a large array of age groups. The program teaches the students about the decisions they have to make in the future and the harms of drugs and alcohol and they teach students in the elementary, middle, and high schools all across the nation. The problem with this program is that they only present their education program once through the course of every student’s public school experience.

When it comes to alcohol consumption, binge/irresponsible drinking has led to a troubled public health. The irresponsible drinking can lead to fatal incidents and harmful consequences. Studies show that if the drinking age was lowered, then “responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected” (Engs). By drinking underage, youths are compromising themselves by debating on whether or not they should obey the law; thus, making choices that

Approximately 2 out of every 3 high school students have drank to the point of getting intoxicated (binge drink), in more than one occasion (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention [CDC], n.d.). Binge drinking has become increasingly common for youth under the minimum legal drinking age, making it increasingly dangerous because of the lack of supervision that young adults have that can consequently, lead to death because of fear of the law (Bonnie & O’Connell, 2004) The drinking age should be lowered to 18 because it is a reasonable societal age limit that can be supervised and used by most of the world and is seen as the age of majority in the United States (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], 2001).

A serious epidemic is overtaking this country. Underage drinking is spreading like a virus. It is not just teenagers in college that are drinking; there are numerous kids in high school, middle school, and even elementary school! How have we let it get this far? There is no excuse to be oblivious anymore. Underage drinking is right in front of our faces. It is killing our children. The good news is that this is a problem that can be fixed. There is no way of completely eliminating underage drinking, but it can be greatly reduced. With efforts from the government, parents, and the media, we can diminish underage drinking a great deal. We need to start educating our children that alcohol is a dangerous drug. We need to start setting better

Underage alcohol drinking can have devastating effects on teenagers. It can affect teens' grades, health and many other things as well. The reasons why teenagers consume alcohol are pretty clear. What aren’t clear are the solutions to eliminating, or at least reducing the number of underage drinkers. It is vital that we do something to at least suppress this problem. By taking action, we can greatly reduce the number of underage drinkers and it could also save not only their lives, but also someone else's life as well. Underage drinking can cause many health problems as well as educational problems in a teen’s life; therefore our country needs to decrease the number of underage drinkers by increasing both the price of alcohol as well as the legal drinking age.

Being a very big problem to the society and government at large, underage drinking may not be totally eradicated but can be reduced to manageable levels. To do this, a collective approach has to be used in implementing the various recommended prevention measures. The best approach towards reducing adolescent drinking is through numerous strategies which include school-based strategies, family, and community as well as extracurricular strategies (Komro and Toomey 3).

     Some alternatives to this high and strict minimum drinking age could be to give all students a state funded alcohol awareness program while in high school. If students are taught about the risks and dangers of excessive drinking, they will be more likely to refrain from doing it. Nowadays, the courses concerning alcohol awareness are more

Underage drinking is very common in the United States. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug in the United States, even more so than illicit drugs (Marijuana, Cocaine, etc…) and tobacco. “In 2012 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 24% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 15% reported binge drinking. In 2013, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 28% of 8th graders and 68%

Youth should be well educated about consumption of alcohol well before middle school. By the time students reach middle school they are already exposed to alcohol. D.A.R.E, the program that teaches children about alcohol and its effects, should be taught in

Statistics show that prevention programs decrease binge drinking in students 6th through 12 grades, as indicated by the successful intervention programs of Project Northland and Life Skills Training. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of both programs, The Atlanta Public School System decided to use strategies from both program which addressed the closest positive results that matched the Atlanta Public School System’s objectives of decreasing substance use (alcohol), improvements in positive attitudes/behavior and reductions in negative attitudes/behavior, and reduce the possibility of automobile accidents and health problems related to alcohol abuse.