Larry Owens Ms. Thomas English IV, Period 1 20 April 2017 Teenage Alcoholism Thesis: Underage drinking has become a major problem among teens. I. Introduction A. Peer pressure is something all high school students have to deal with. B. Underage drinking has become a major problem among teens. C. If your clique is doing something, you are expected to do it as well. D. Now forced to fit in or face rejection, you just go along with them. II. Body A. Drinking under the age of 21 is illegal. 1) Underage drinking plays a significant role in risky sexual behavior, including unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity, and sex with multiple partners. A. Such behavior increases the risk for unplanned pregnancy, and for contracting STD’s. 2) More than a third of sexually active adults age 15 …show more content…
The 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey 4) Drinking while driving can lead to serious injuries such as death. B. Alcohol and teens together in the same room at the same time can lead to dangerous circumstances. 1) Alcohol can significantly impact an adolescent’s memory. A. Their brain is still developing, so the overuse of alcohol can cause cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases, cancer nerve damage, and respiratory infections, to name a few. 2) The more alcohol a teen absorbs, the more likely they are to develop life threatening viruses/diseases compared to teens that have never drank in their life. B. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. 1) Drinking too much, too fast, slows some bodily functions to a dangerous level. A. This causes the drinker to lose consciousness. 2) Drinking can delay puberty in girls. A. Abusing alcohol can cause endocrine disorders during
Simply remarking that such a decision is dangerous fails to suffice as concrete evidence of the negative effects of underage alcohol consumption, and so statistical evidence must be given. Approximately five thousand underage drinkers die each year; the most prevalent cause is, not surprisingly, motor vehicle accidents. What many do not understand is what other factors constitute the other approximately three thousand; sixteen hundred to homicides, that is, murders and other deliberate killings, as well as 300 to suicide, usually caused by an exacerbation of underlying depression or other psychological difficulties. The remaining thousand are usually caused by such grisly circumstances as falling, burning, and drowning. While this may seem a relatively small number in the vast amounts of the twelve to twenty year old age group, estimates are that within the past month one-quarter of underage persons used alcohol, while two-thirds of those were binge drinkers. Not only does underage drinking increase the chance of dying in related incidents it encourages other destructive behaviors: engage in sexual activities, carry a plethora of illegal substances, and correlations have even been found that links underage drinking to poor performance in school. Other observations have been made that negatively link underage drinking with mental
Alcohol is harmful to the development of younger people. Research has shown that an adult is less likely to binge drink (have five or more drinks in a row). According to statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, teens become intoxicated twice as fast as adults. Because the teens get drunk faster they
But they are not smart enough to see what alcohol can do to their brain and their decisions. There is a reason why we have the law set at age twenty one. A human?s brain is not done developing until the age of twenty-one. Drinking before this age can contribute to alcohol-induced brain damage which can hinder a teenager?s performance in academics (Alcohol Alert). There is also a risk that teenagers that drink are four times more likely to develop an alcohol dependency sometime in their lives. Risks in sexual assault also plague underage drinkers. Sexual assault is already more prevalent during adolescent ages. By introducing alcohol, sexual assault cases are much more likely to happen. It has also been shown that when alcohol is involved, the more likely sex will result in unwanted pregnancies and STD?s. There is also a much higher risk of suicide. In one study, thirty seven percent of females that drank heavily had reported attempting suicide compared to only eleven percent that did not report drinking (Armstrong, Elizabeth). ?Smart? college students will even tell you that alcohol affects them. According to Hank Nuwer in Wrongs of Passage, four out of every five students in the collegiate Greek system are binge drinkers. These drinkers will tell you that this has caused them to engage in risky sexual behaviors, act irresponsibly, and hurt their academic standings. From elementary schoolers to college students, alcohol has detrimental effects
The students that drink too much do not understand that drinking just a little can affect the brain with a lot of force. Once in the bloodstream, alcohol reaches the brain quickly and begins to affect nerve cells. It slows the messages that travel along nerve fibers. Only a small amount of alcohol is needed to impair the normal
Teens who drink are at higher risk for date rape, pregnancy, HIV and other STDs, assault, drowning, alcohol poisoning, alcohol dependency, DUI-related injury and death (yours and/or others)
“Eighty percent of twenty-one year olds admit to purchasing alcohol for younger friends (Bonnie 5). If twenty-one year olds give alcohol to their younger friend, what makes people think that eighteen year olds wouldn’t do it too. If the legal drinking age is lowered to eighteen, eighteen year olds in high school might have sibling that is in middle school so those middle schools will also have access to alcohol. Surveys show that the most common source for alcohol among eighteen to twenty year olds is their twenty-one to twenty-four-year-old peers (Clark). Teen drinking can cause suicides. There is more pressure on teen than adults and when alcohol is added to the mix is only increases those effect (Arguments). Alcohol an affect you being a good student and it can also increase the risk of depression, violence and suicide. “Drinking and drug use may begin very early for young Americans. A new study has shown that by the time a teen reaches late adolescents, most of them have drank alcohol and use illicit substances”(National Institute). The younger you start can increase the risk of alcoholism at a young age. This can eventually lead to death.
It has been proven that in other countries in which the drinking age is lower, such as European territories, teens have more drinking problems than the United States, that being because of the 18 legal drinking age (MADD). With physical development sometimes not stopping until mid 20s, the effects of alcohol on the body can be very detrimental. Since a teenage body still developing physically, many problems can occur. Infertility, pancreas pain, permanent liver problems, and mouth problems can all come about from premature drinking
It is no secret that people drink alcohol before they turn 21. Apart from being illegal, underage drinking poses a high risk to both the individual and society. Adolescents also are vulnerable to alcohol–induced brain damage, which could contribute to poor performance at school or work. In addition, youthful drinking is associated with an increased likelihood of developing alcohol abuse or dependence later in life.
Another reason to keep the drinking age at 21 is that drinking slows the reaction time and also makes it to where the drinker has less control of his or her body. For example a male who becomes drunk is more likely to rape young women. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “It is estimated that 90% of college rapes involve the use of alcohol by the assailant, the victim, or both. About 97,000 college students are victims of sexual assault or date rape related to alcohol use each year. Alcohol use is involved in 95% of all violent crime on college campuses” (“Underage Drinking Is a Serious Problem”). According to Carla T. Main, “approximately 100,000 incidents annually” are reported of “males sexually [assaulting] their
As the number of news reports increase of student deaths due to drinking alcohol, more awareness has been brought to the situation, causing more people to get involved with helping to solve the problem. There seems to be a shift in understanding of the dangerous settings that underage drinking take place in. Society is beginning to realize if the problem does not get talked about, the problem cannot improve. More credit or attention needs to be given to the teens who want to try alcohol. If given enough information they would be able to make better choices. How can they understand the social rules of drinking if we as a society won’t talk to our kids about the issues.
Alcohol can really affect the growing and developmental process for teens. It can stop the brain from developing really hurting them for the future. It can also hinder the maturation of new brain constituents. This means that the connectors between the brain and nerve cells can stop developing and old ones can be torn apart (Spear). This can lead to a change in the brains thinking making teens more inclined to try risky behaviors. Also the prefrontal cortex is altered from drinking. This makes memory and rule
First off, alcohol addiction and abuse among teenagers today is a bigger problem than ever before. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the teens are so exposed to the culture of this day and age, leading them to where they have easy access to alcohol. For example, their parents may already be alcoholics, and it's merely a few bad decisions later which could cause the child to have a few drinks and cloud their judgement. This is a big problem because their young bodies have never encountered anything like alcohol before, so in turn, the body does not know how to process it, and therefore leads to their downfall. A publication released by the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) suggests that by age 18, an astounding 60% of US teens would have had at least one drink. Moreover, according to the NIAA, youth between the ages of 12 and 20 will often binge drink as well.
“Underage drinking is a risk that attracts many developing adolescents and teens. When young people try alcohol, they often don't realize the damaging effects drinking can have on their own lives, their
This means they are at increased risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, hemorrhagic stroke, and certain forms of cancer.Adolescents who use alcohol are more likely to become sexually active at an earlier age, to have sex more often, and to engage in unprotected sex, which places them at greater risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.One study showed that students diagnosed with alcohol abuse were four times more likely to experience major depression than those without an alcohol problem.Alcohol use among adolescents has been associated with considering planning, attempting, and completing suicide. Research does not indicate whether drinking causes suicidal behavior, only that the two behaviors are correlated.Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to serious and permanent brain damage in the unborn child. This can result in mental retardation and severe emotional problems as the child grows up.
What are the health problems that are associated with underage drinking? Alcohol affects how the brain develops but hasn’t been researched long enough to determine the long-term memory and learning skill impairments that adolescent’s drinkers will suffer as they age. The liver will also be damaged due to underage drinking. On top of having internal organ damage growth will also be stunted due to drinking during