We Must Reduce Underage Drinking and Driving in College

2481 Words5 Pages

Many temptations are faced in college culture and one of them is underage drinking and driving. Underage drinking and driving has essentially become an epidemic, rapidly developing among today’s youth. College culture has come to encourage drinking and driving through the places and people that surround the students (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, October 2002). Some people don’t see underage drinking as an issue, when in fact it is a huge issue that every teenager will face. Since underage drinking is illegal people want to rebel by drinking; additionally, alcohol is really easy to get ahold of in college. Since many students are going to drink, the first line of defense is to educate students about the effects of alcohol and what can happen if students do drink and drive. Unless we are able to put a stop to underage drinking and driving through education, and a system called smart start the problem wont get any better.

Many students don’t understand why the drinking age is above the voting age. Some people think that if you are old enough to vote for the President of the United States then you are mature enough to drink at eighteen. But, these regulations were put in place for a reason. The Uniform Drinking Act was passed in 1984. Before this, twenty-nine states set the drinking age at eighteen, the age at which you could enter the military, but this posed an issue. Once the states did this, drunk driving and alcohol related crashes shot up. That’s why the Uniform Drinking Age Act was enacted. This act took place during the Reagan administration and it stated that all fifty states had to move their drinking age back to twenty-one within a five-year period. Since that act was enacted, the death toll ...

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...people and when that is take way it is harmful to ones health. So by education and the implication of the smart start system you can not only save lives but the grief and mourning that comes along with the death of a loved one, which in return can make people heather and live longer.

Bibliography

1. https://www.smartstartinc.com

2. Center for Science in the Public Interest 2000

3. http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/history.htm

4. NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts “Young Drivers,” 2011

5. http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/young-drivers-and-alcohol

6. NHTSA/FARS, 2013

7. Alcohol-how does it affect you?

8. Report number 204-Febuary 2008

The Legal Minimum Drinking Age and Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes Allan F. Williams, Robert F. Rich, Paul L. Zador and Leon S. Robertson The Journal of Legal Studies , Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1975), pp. 219-239

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