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The Honorable Tom Wolf Office of the Governor 508 Main Capitol Building Harrisburg, PA 17120 Governor Wolf, My name is Selena Gonzalez-Parks who is a native resident of North Carolina but is a current (temporary) resident of Pennsylvania currently enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student for Kinesiology in the School of Public Health at Temple University. As a concerned resident of Pennsylvania, I am writing you at this time to bring awareness of the drastically increasing epidemic of underage alcoholism; primarily in Pennsylvanian teenagers in grades eight to twelve. As you may be aware in the recent years, there are Pennsylvania Alcohol Treatment Centers. Yet, these center are not enough to stop underage teens from drinking with friends at house parties, being pressured to drink to impress friends, or being introduced to it by relatives, siblings, and/or guardians; Not to mention that “The percentage of self-reported alcohol users more than doubled for eighth-graders to 35.1 percent. Alcohol use increased …show more content…
Drinking at an early age can damage ones’ brain, especially since the brain continues to develop until you hit your mid 20’s. There needs to be action put into lowering this rate and delaying drinking in youth until a later, more legal age. Providing organizations such as Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) or even an on campus program that is mandatory for a year or semester in school would help raise the awareness of alcoholism as well as drug use (Marshall). These should be a long-term process for the students to fully understand why they should limit or put off drinking. We do not want to see these numbers increasing any more than they already are; I strongly recommend you take this into mind and put an action into the school systems to have mandatory programs for the prevention of
Lowering the legal drinking age would create problems such as infringing on the mental and physical development of the young drinker. As a respected author, Matt Nagin puts it, “The late teens and early twenties are formative years where character building, leadership in the community, and scholastic excellence should be emphasized. Alcohol detracts from all of these.” In other words, Nagin believes that the teen years are an imperative time of growth in a person’s life. Scientists have proven that the brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty five. If Nagin’s argument is correct, and I believe it is, then people should understand that scientists have proven the negative affects that alcohol has on the development of the brain. Alcohol has the power to kill brain cells and damage growth hormones. By making alcohol legally accessible to an eighteen year old, we are literally poisoning his or her brain.
Alcohol is a is a beverage that is known as a drug and it depresses the CNS. Lowering the drinking age will cause this effect to take over young adults, and this is a huge factor why the drinking age is now 21. After a couple a drinks many people will start to slur their speech, their motor ability slows down, and alcohol also causes blurry vision. We can sum up the reasons why the drinking age was raised to 21 because many people don’t really think when they are drunk on alcohol. Young adults find it fun to have sexual intercourse when they drunk which leads to pregnancy because they don’t think about condoms when they are drunk because they don’t think before they act. Alcohol also impairs vision which of many young adults end up in fatal car accident because of heavily drinking, and
First, the age limit to drink should stay the same has to do with the way the human body develops both mentally and physically. There is scientific evidence that the brain does not fully mature until the age of 21, on average. Before the age of 21, excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to permanent brain damage. Teens who have experienced alcohol withdrawal tend to have difficulties with memory. Since the teenage brain have been exposed to alcohol it will be at risk for being smaller in certain parts. Teenage alcohol can also negatively affecting a person’s memory, motor skills and test-taking ability for the rest of people lives. Research shows that because most of teenagers’ bodies are not ful...
As one of the major social problem, underage drinking can cause negative affect on both teenagers themselves and the whole society. Based on the research, approximately 190,000 youth under 21 visited emergency room for alcohol related hurts, even I accompanied one of my friends to ICU for alcohol poisoning nearly month ago. Annually about 5000 individuals under 21 die from it, not including other mature people directly or indirectly killed by them. Meanwhile, child’s brain and emotional developments are still in process until 20s so that taking alcohol will produce great damage on their body health. For example, alcohol can interfere with children’s capacity to build new, short, and lasting memories of information because it shrinks hippocampus about 10
Engs,Professor at Indiana University has been studying the topic of lowering the legal drinking age for the past twenty years. He has found that “a majority of the college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing “forbidden fruit” (Why the drinking age should be lowered,1). This is not the first time that this policy has been discussed. During the National Prohibition in the 1920s these laws made every state change their MLDA to 21 years old. But these laws were repealed because they were unenforceable and caused other social problems. Facts show that young adult underage are more likely to be “binge” drinkers. 32% of heavy drinkers were underage while only 24% were of legal age (Why the drinking age should be lowered, 1). Research from the 1980s reveal that there has been a decrease in drinking and drinking among students before the law that made every states MLDA 21 years old. But many other factors may have decreased this rate. “There has been an increase in other problems related to heavy and irresponsible drinking among college age youth. Most of these reported behaviors showed little change until after the 21 year old law in 1987. For example from 1982 until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50% after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after drinking" jumped from 9%
Drinking under the age of 21 should not be allowed because of the medical reasons behind it. “Brains can be severely damaged by alcohol, especially if the brain is not fully developed” (BigJohny). When you drink under the age of 21, you will get these long-term consequences from doing so. The long-term consequences that could come from drinking under the age of 21 are having brain malfunctions and becoming brain dead. Every time you drink you cause yourself to lose brain cells, without the brain being fully developed you will stop the growth of your brain cells while killing others. The brain is actually never fully developed until the age of 21. “Research indicated that the brain continues to develop until age 21, and young brains can be irreversibly damaged by alcohol” (BigJohny). When you are under the age of 21 and you decide to drink, the growing process of your brain could...
Despite the problems that would arise, many people are beginning to feel that the drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. Studies have been made; however, no hard evidence suggesting lowering the minimum drinking age would help have surfaced. Although there are countless studies of how alcohol has many harmful effects on teenagers, there is a great deal of negative criticism about what if the drinking age is lowered. Some would say the morally right decision is to not allow teens the chance to hurt themselves. Everyone is entitled to having his or her own opinions and beliefs. However, the overall health of the youth of our country seems a little more important than some personal belief. The drinking age should not be lowered due to the fact drunk driving, juvenile delinquency, and alcohol-related medical issues related to teens will increase.
Growing popularity of alcohol is one of the many problems in the community, especially among those who are younger than twenty-one years old. Underage Drinking is a complex problem that has emerged to the society. Legislative laws limit the consumption of alcohol to youths under age of twenty-one. Though many teenagers start drinking during their high school years and continue throughout college. Also, the proportion of the underage drinkers in the United Sates is increasing at a huge rate. It may seem normal to many people. Yet, drinking at a younger age can cause a tremendous effect not only to the consumers, but also to the community. Thus, underage alcohol abuse should be reduced by more effective strategies in order to prevent the negative effects.
Education is an extremely important part of the treatment of teen age alcoholism. Teens rarely understand the dangers of drinking alcohol. They need to be educated about the health risks they face when they drink. Because teens tend to feel they are invincible, they sometimes do not feel these risks apply to them. Sometimes speaking with another teen that has experienced serious health problems related to drinking can help. (learn about alcohol, 2010, p.1)
Alcoholism is a deadly addiction that affects the main organs of the human body and upturns chances of developing cancer. Vital organs such as the heart and brain are affected and also the liver and pancreas. The immune system becomes weaker as the risk of cancer increases. My grandmother on my dad’s side was an alcoholic, as is my mother’s sister. Alcoholism runs in families making my risk of becoming an alcoholic high. Being an alcoholic also affects those around you.
The Federal surveys in America depict that there is a decline in the overall alcohol consumption amongst the members of a certain age group, whereas at the same time, the concentration of high numbers of alcohol abusers are associated with a certain age group. The total number of individuals aged below 65 who abuse alcoholic beverages in America has seen a drastic reduction in the last few years. However, the number of people between the age of 16 and 30 has been rising and has induced a significant short term and long-term effects especially on the health and productivity of the victims. The federal surveys indicate that there is an increased number of people who have been affected by the long-term effects associated with alcohol abuse the since 2009 (Yoshida, 2006).
Drugs and Alcohol have taken over the lives of many people and ruined many families, this problem has been plaguing people for many years and it just seems to get worse over time. This continuous cycle of drug and abuse seems to carry on from generation to generation and this is where we need to get off our chairs and face the problem head on and do something about it. In this paper I will be going over the problems that we are having in today’s society and what I think we need to do to fix it.
As the current legal drinking age remains to be 21, adolescents today are increasingly drinking large amounts of alcohol behind the backs of others. Along with this being illegal, alcohol-related dangers within our youth like dependency, disease, and irresponsible behaviors are problems that many are finding ways to prevent by increasing awareness; some people have even suggested that raising the drinking age would be the ultimate solution. However, is the constant routine of warning adolescents and preventing them from drinking really working? Based on the vast number of anti-alcohol programs in schools and existing laws forbidding the use of underaged drinking, today, there are still increasing reports. Instead of repeatedly preventing our
... Alcoholism is a serious problem in today's society. It is extremely important that the public, including the large groups of users and abusers of alcohol, gain as much knowledge as possible about the symptoms and effects of alcoholism if we ever want to see the reduction of statics involving fatalities, injuries, diseases caused from the use and abuse of alcohol. Education and realization of the effects alcoholism can have on the different aspects of a person's life are the best ways that we can help control the number of alcoholics in the United States.
The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.