On June 15,2013, in Burleson Texas, Ethan Couch lost control, colliding with a group of people assisting another driver with his car in the ditch. Ethan Couch was intoxicated, driving on a restricted license, and was speeding in a residential area. Ethan was only 16 when this crash happened and it was because he was intoxicated. This story demonstrated that drinking under the legal age can take many innocent people’s lives away. In the United States you must be 21 to have a alcoholic drink, but each state is different if you are cought under age drinking.
From high school celebrations to college parties, alcohol has become the main focal point. Moreover, the presence of alcohol has come to dominate these so-called ‘gatherings’, and surprisingly, it has its advantages. Now, in most countries, the alcohol drinking age is within the range eighteen to twenty-one. However, these supposed laws are not impeding young adults from drinking, whether it is legal or illegal. The governments in most countries are failing to develop not only concrete, but effective methods and measures that will enforce their laws.
In fact, the law may increase the amount of eighteen to twenty year olds who do drink. It has been shown that, especially in college-age students, there is a tendency to not do what they are told, on the contrary, they will do the exact opposite. The problem with the drinking age being twenty-one is that some students drink purely out of defiance). The number of fatalities is down in all age groups, not just teenagers, and cars driven now are much safer than the cars that were being driven in the early 1980’s, and teenagers are much safer drivers, which can be attributed to the decreased amount of fatalities. Also, in other countries that have lower drinking ages, the number of fatalities has
The “roaring 20’s” parties usually included some type of alcohol involved even though it was during the time period of prohibition. The difference between the alcohol legalization and marijuana legalization is that more people found ways to use the substance and rebutted against the government more during the prohibition of alcohol. In “The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” it states that the prohibition of alcohol was the first time the government limited personal freedom, “The amendment was the first ever to limit citizens’ personal liberties.” The public also found more common ways to get alcohol including bootleggers, people making moonshine, parties that had the substance, and speakeasies. Marijuana was most commonly founded on the black
People have debated about this before saying that teenagers are not mature enough to handle the alcohol consumption that most teenagers are drinking as of right now. Another reason for lowering the drinking age is because if the government were to lower the drinking age they would also have to lower the alcohol content in every drink that is related or contains alcohol. The drinking age should be lowered is because statistics show that since Louisiana has lowered its drinking age it has had about 3,379 and in Kentucky there is about 4,529 so statistics say that there has been 1,150 more alcohol related crashes than in Kentucky. So since Louisiana has lowered its drinking age to 18 there have been fewer accidents than Kentucky where they haven’t lowered the drinking age and there has been more alcohol related accidents. Since more people have had accidents when the drinking age is still at the same age then that means that there would be fewer accidents if Kentucky were to lower their drinking age.
Everything you do in a car other than driving, such as talking to a passenger, singing a song, or checking your phone are all distractions which can take your mind off driving and cause an accident (Leonard). Having restrictions on new drivers has shown to decrease the amount of crashes caused by teenagers. “The researchers found that States with the most restrictive graduates licensing programs - such as those that required supervised driving teams as well as having night-driving restrictions and passenger limitations - saw a 26% reduction in the rate of fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers compared with states without any restriction” (Roan). Graduated licensing programs were linked to 1,348 fewer fatal crashes involving 16-year-olds. These restrictions prevent the teenagers from driving without an adult 21 or older, and with more than one passenger other than family in the car.
Though the number of adolescents using heroin has dropped in the past year by .10%, the percent of adolescents using crack cocaine has gone up .30% since 2015 (Monitoring the Future Vol. 1). Also, studies show that more teens die from prescription drug overdose than heroin and cocaine combined (Just Think Twice). This is due to the amount of prescription drugs parents keep in their house. When the family is finished taking medication and there are still pills left, these drugs are often left in the house.
Alcohol and Teens: The Effects of Teenage Drinking A 14-year-old girl named Takeimi Rao had a sleepover with 3 of her friends on a Saturday night. The mother of Takeimi took the girls out to eat a burger for dinner. At 2 am the mom woke up to find the 3 girls throwing, she cleaned them up and put them back to bed, she has thought it was the cause of the bad food. The following morning Takeimi was found passed out in her room, when the paramedics came she was found dead. The police believe it was due to alcohol posing, the house they lived in was rented and the owners had vodka in the kitchen and Takeimi parents didn 't want to throw it away so they just left it.
So the boy came and call his girlfriend and they argued then he hit his girlfriend and she died. Another two young men at Tongatapu, 15 year old and 17 year old that was dunk killed two Chinese couple just to get more alcohol to drink. Underage drinking alcohol also cause the problem of suicide. Last year, a teenager was drunk and he shot himself and died. Another problem is health problem which many people died because the liver and kidney was affected because of too much drinking alcohol.
The U.S. has a problem that needs to be fixed, the problem they are currently facing is underage drinking. This problem has been going on for a few years now, but there just hasn’t been an effective solution to stop it. A way to stop this problem is by making some sort of law or rule that will prevent teens from drinking and causing more problems. This is a problem because it is a safety issue and when teens are drunk, they tend to make stupid decisions. In the article The Problem of Underage Drinking and What Parents Can Do Heidi Stevens says that most of the deaths are because of consumption of alcohol “excessive drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths among underage youth each year” (Stevens 4).