Underage Drinking: Is It As Harmless As Everyone Thinks?

Laws in America seem to be guidelines for what we as citizens can and cannot do. One law that is certainly abused is the national drinking age. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 requested that every state raise their minimum drinking and purchasing of alcohol to the age of twenty-one. But it does not specifically state that anyone underage cannot drink alcohol.

Many high school and college students do consume alcohol at an astounding rate. According to an article by the Centers for Disease Control, 11% of consumed alcohol is drunk by teens between the ages of twelve and twenty. Approximately 90% of this alcohol consumed is through binge drinking. MedicineNet.com defines binge drinking as “the dangerous practice of consuming large quantities of alcoholic beverages in a single session,” with a side note saying, “Binge drinking carries a serious risk of harm, including alcohol poisoning."

Out of all the teens that drink underage, 19% reported that they were binge drinking at one time or another. There are many risks to binge drinking. Some of the serious risks are a greater risk of committing homicide or suicide, injuries, memory loss later in life, abusing other drugs, life-long effects that could change brain development, or death by alcohol poisoning. Many underage drinkers think that they are invincible, and nothing bad can happen to them. Alcohol poisoning is a serious risk to these drinkers. One article published by the Campaign Safe and Sober, states that the Remove Intoxicated Drivers’ research estimates that about 4,000 deaths each year are contributed by alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning can cause the victim to choke on their own vomit, their breathing may become irregular or even stop, their heart beat may become irregular or stop, hypothermia that can lead to cardiac arrest, or hypoglycemia that leads to seizures. Even if the victim of alcohol poisoning lives, they could suffer from irreversible brain damage.

Many people are aware of alcohol poisoning, but many don't know the warning signs. CollegeDrinking Prevention.com says that you should call 911 for help if the victim cannot be awoken, is having difficulty breathing, having seizures, vomiting, or is a pale, blue color. Alcohol prevents the nerves from functioning properly. A large amount could stop body functions completely. A person's blood alcohol content (BAC) can still rise after passing out. Alcohol that is still in the stomach will continue to move through the blood, making their BAC higher. Due to this fact, the website warns readers to be aware that a sleeping or passes out person may die.

Underage drinking may seem like something small at the time of doing it, but it can turn into something much bigger. Binge drinking leads to all sorts of harmful outcomes. Alcohol poisoning is very serious and everyone should be aware that it could happen to them. Drinking is harmful and should only be done when one is of age and is done responsibly.

Many of the comments that I have received argued that no matter what the age people are going to drink, which I agree with. They wanted to know why the drinking age is what it is. People also wanted to know if lower drinking ages in other countries was affective. According to the article Lessons From the Drinking Age Experiment, the U.S. used to consider twenty-one the age of being an adult. You even had to be twenty-one to vote. In 1971, the voting age was changed to eighteen. Along with the lowering of the voting age, twenty-five states also lowered their drinking and purchasing alcohol age to eighteen. This change resulted in more car crashes, injuries, and death related caused by drivers under the influence between the ages of sixteen and twenty. This lead to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 passed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA predicts that 1,000 lives are saved annually by this policy. The percentage of alcohol consumed by high school seniors fell, as did the percentage of binge drinking. By 1988, all states had raised their drinking age to twenty-one.

In other countries, where the drinking age is lower than the United States, there are less intoxicated drivers and fatalities according to ChooseResponsibilty.com. The NHTSA did a study with countries similar to the U.S. and found that the U.S. has more alcohol related fatalities. The same study reports that the U.S has the highest legal blood alcohol content set at .10. (at the time of the study in 2000) Other countries in the study, such as Australia and New Zealand, have random breath tests and sobriety checkpoints. Both are mandatory.

Since the U.S. is the minority of the drinking being twenty-one, drinking by eighteen to twenty year olds in not as big of a deal in other countries as it is here in the U.S.. But binge drinking is still a concern in foreign countries. Research found by the World Health Organization found that fifteen to sixteen year olds in Europeans states have fewer dangerous, intoxication occasions than in America. In the U.S. almost half of all drinking situations resulted in intoxication, but in other European countries the ratio is lower.

The conclusion is that the U.S. has tried a lower drinking age and that didn't work. The statistics show that the deaths due to alcohol were higher when the drinking age was eighteen. A lower drinking age my work for other countries, but other countries are different than the U.S. They run countries different and the people have different customs than Americans. I'm not saying that people of age do drink responsibly, but the U.S. Supreme Court seems to think so. Statics just show that more underage drinkers tend to binge drink, but my blog is getting the risk of underage and binge drinking out in the open.