Alcohol and Teens: The Effects of Teenage Drinking

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When at a party, a student sees another teenager drinking a beer. Thinking nothing of it, the teenager picks up a large bottle labeled Vodka and beings to chug the contents of the bottle. The alcohol rushes through her body and she suddenly has a sense of feeling free and letting loose. The next thing the teenage girl remembers is waking up in a hospital bed to her mother crying by her bed side. The only thing her mom could say was “Honey, please wake up. Please be okay, I want you to be okay. Please do not ever make this mistake again. Please, Please.” The night before, her child drank an entire 750mL bottle of 80-proof Vodka then decided to drive home from the party. On her trip home, she had driven off the shoulder of the road, into a tree where she was lunged from her vehicle. She almost died that night, but she did not. Alcohol abuse leads to consequences that affect the body of teenagers, pose legal troubles, and can kill.

According to How Stuff Works, “alcohol can be made through three different processes: fermentation and distillation, chemical modifications of fossil fuels, and the chemical combination of hydrogen with carbon monoxide” (How Stuff Works). The alcohol most commonly drank by individuals is made through the processes of fermentation, or the process of metabolizing of a sugar into an alcohol or acid, and distillation, or the process of purifying “mash” into the essential alcohol. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies a standard drink as “any drink containing 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol” (CDC). The amounts of a standard a standard drink can measure to twelve ounces of beer or wine coolers, eight ounces of malt liquors, five ounces of wine, or one and a half ou...

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"Frequently Asked Questions and Facts." NCADD. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

"Frequently Asked Questions." Too Smart To Start. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

"HowStuffWorks "How Alcohol Works"." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.

"Louisiana Law - Alcohol." Centenary College of Louisiana. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.

"Minimum Age Limits Worldwide." International Center for Alcohol Policies. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.

Myers, Peter L, and Richard Isralowitz. Alcohol. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2011. Print.

"Underage drinking: Talking to your teen about alcohol." CNN. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

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