Underage Drinking
It is five o 'clock on a Friday night and classes are over for the weekend. The options for this evening are the kegger down the street, drinking at the bonfire, or sneaking into a bar with a fake ID. This can be a normal weekend for an underage drinker. Underage alcohol consumption can be very common in the weekly routine for many students. There are many different types of drinkers and reasons for their drinking habits. Some people may drink for social reasons and others may have an alcohol problem. Underage alcohol consumption is serious among students in high school and college; it can cause health issues, and legal problems. Alcohol can be very addictive and excessive consumption could be detrimental to a
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Alcohol causes motor loss and memory impairment. There can be many physical symptoms from excessive alcohol consumption, such as alcohol poisoning. Long term alcohol consumption can result in a physical or mental dependency. Long term usage of alcohol will also affect your brain cells and slowly have them die, which decreases your brain function. The excessive consumption of alcohol can even result in death. Underage drinking can have a negative impact on life if it is not controlled responsibly. Underage drinking is illegal in the United States. Marshall Poe author of “The Drinking Game” states “Rowdy drinking is not the problem. It is an essential, ineradicable, and largely positive element of American college culture. The problem is students who cannot or will not engage in rowdy drinking safely, for they often harm themselves and others” (1). If caught under the influence of alcohol or having possession of alcohol below the age of twenty one there will be consequences there is a zero tolerance policy which prohibits driving under the influence of alcohol for minors. The BAC (blood alcohol content) should be no higher than .02, while driving under the age of 21. It is also illegal to purchase alcohol with a false identification card. There are many policies trying to prevent distribution of alcohol to minors such as, minimum ages for alcohol sellers and for servers and bartenders, keg registration requirements, and criminal
As many teenagers enter college, they begin to experiment with many things. Although not all students participate in underage drinking, it is evident that a vast majority do. Drinking is not the problem. The main problem occurs when students resort to binge drinking. In the
Binge drinking and consumption of alcohol by minors has long been a problem on college campuses. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 59.4% of college students between the ages of 18-22 consumed alcohol within the past month (Prevalence. The same survey found that 39% of students in the same age group reported binge drinking (five or more drinks in a short period of time) within the past month. Given these numbers, institutions have created many programs to both deter drinking and encourage safer drinking. This literature review will analyse and discuss current literature regarding prevention programs, professional standards, and statistics about college age drinkers.
Alcohol is causing the brains of these children to be poisoned, as it is a neurotoxin. The excessive consumption of alcohol can interfere with the absorption of vitamin B, which helps prevent the brain from being able to function correctly. Drinking above the recommended levels can cause brain disorders later on in life. Some symptoms of these disorders include: difficulties learning and problems memorizing things, and difficulties with balance.
Underage drinking is a problem within the US and has been for some time. No matter how hard many businesses try it still goes on because of the kid’s lucrative ways to obtain it. Many kids use fake IDs or have a person of age purchase it for them. This problem of alcohol abuse is most prominently seen it college. One college it often occurs at is Indiana University in Bloomington. The early habit of drinking alcohol can have many bad effects on one’s body at a young age and causes habits, decrease in grades, and other negative outcomes.
“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.
Underage Drinking on College Campuses Everyday there are young adults drinking underage around the United states on and off college campuses. Even with a national drinking age and laws that govern that drinking age, young adults are still drinking. Many universities across the nation have tried to eliminate underage drinking, by creating a zero alcohol on campus policy. This policy pertains to all students whether of drinking age or not. The universities that create such policies are known to college students as a dry campus. The concept of a dry campus is to eliminate the access to alcohol to those students that are under age, drinking and driving, and binge drinking on campus. Campuses that are dry have the most restrictive alcohol
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%
Episode 4 "Underage Drinking; A National Concern" of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia addresses underage drinking through politically incorrect satire while still focusing on the seriousness of the subject matter. It is widely known and accepted that alcohol abuse by teenagers is not only a crime; it is also a sorrowful situation when it involves ruining lives and it can even result in death. The cast of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia presents a new and obviously demented view point to the subject. The friends portrayed in the show understand teenage drinking is unacceptable and in the opening scenes of this particular episode the cast shares some personal youthful experiences while sitting together in the
“With such compelling information, the question is why haven 't we been able to do more to prevent the crisis of underage drinking? The answer is: rising the age to 25” is what Lucille Roybal-Allard once said, a U.S. Representative for serving in Congress since 1993. This statement has brought many to speculate of issues and debates. This expression opened the eyes of American people that often struggled to make this truth into a reality. It might be easy to believe that age laws lowered the deaths of the underage but there are still signs of its dreadful company in many pieces of American life. Families who choose to educate their children about underage drinking and driving, seem to have a higher chance of getting through with the child. These underage teens can face jail or death when they give drinking a chance and even attempt to drive, having a sexual intercourse or just plain out doing something out of the teen’s element.
College DrinkingHarmful and underage college drinking are signifcant public health problems, and they exact an enormous toll on the intellectual and social lives of students on campuses across the United States. Drinking at college has become a ritual that students often see as an integral part of their higher education experience. Many students come to college with established drinking habits, and the college environment can exacerbate the problem. According to a national survey, almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month,1 and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe.2Consequences of Harmful and Underage College DrinkingDrinking affects college students, their families, and college communities at large. Researchers estimate that each year:DeathAbout 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes.3Assault About 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.4Sexual AssaultAbout 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.4What is “binge drinking?” Many college alcohol problems are related to binge drinking. Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL. This typically occurs after 4 drinks for women and 5 drinks for men—in about 2
Alcohol affects the brain for a short-term– but repeated drinking may have an impact down the road, especially as a person’s brains grow and develop (NIDA, 2016). When a person is under the influence, he or she may feel their bodies having less aware of their surroundings. A person also may feel very relaxed and perform risky behavior, without even realizing. Long- term effects of alcoholism can cause a person to have trouble processing, learning, or a dependence on
Research has supported the observation that young people in America consume alcohol regularly; this prevalence of use increases rapidly during adolescence, as well as a few years afterward (Wagenaar and Wolfson 37). This has come to be a problem among college students. It has been shown through extensive quantitative and qualitative research that those under twenty-one years of age are able to obtain alcohol, which allows them to binge drink. Binge drinking holds many problems for college students: alcohol poisoning, DUIs, traffic accidents, and even fatalities.
Alcohol use among college students has always been a popular subject among teachers, parents, researchers, and even students. The actual act of drinking alcohol is not necessarily the problem, whether legal or not. The main problem is the act of binge drinking of college students, of age or not. Drinking modest amounts of alcohol may have some consequences, but binge drinking has more negative consequences than normal modest drinking. There are many examples as to the consequences that binge drinking can cause to college student’s lives, but one of the main consequences that students face as a result of frequent drinking is poor academic final grades.
Underage drinking is becoming more of a noticeable problem in society, not only with high school students, but also with younger generations. Drinking is all over the television, the radio, and talked about in schools, public places, etc. Alcohol advertisements are more and more appealing to younger generations. If our youth is educated at a younger age, if school policies were stricter, and if clubs and bars cracked down on underage drinking the problem would not be as serious.
While drinking might make you feel good now, if you abuse that alcohol it may lead to serious complications later. Heavy drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks in a day for women and five or more drinks in a day for men (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Alcohol is considered a depressant, so it is only seen fit that one of the chief effects of alcohol on the brain is to depress central nervous system functioning. In turn it may be why major depressive disorders occur in those who abuse alcohol. If the alcohol abuse continues over a period it intensifies into an alcohol dependency. Alcohol has effects on the body both mentally and physically. After a certain limit alcohol will slur your speech, increase your reaction time, and make you lose co-ordination. Alcohol consumption, particularly long-term alcohol dependence has many physiological ricks to consider, such as permanent damage to the brain, alcoholic liver disease, pancreatitis, alcohol poisoning