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The law on drinking in the UK has always been very clear. “If you’re under 18, it is against the law: for someone to sell you alcohol, to buy or try to buy alcohol, for an adult to buy or try to buy alcohol for you and to drink alcohol in licensed premises.” Breaking these laws can have serious consequences such as fines and imprisonment, however like with most laws people break them, ignoring the consequences of their actions. The drinking law is a regular law which is broken. A lot of people forget that it is illegal and can have major impacts on your life. Teenage alcoholism in today’s society is an extremely serious problem that needs to be addressed more. Alcohol, as many forget, is a drug that has a powerful addiction and can cause extreme consequences that could lead to death. This therefore is a major topic of discussion in the present day and everyone has their own opinions on this regardless of the law. I have decided to write my Extended Project on underage drinking because I think that it is a really interesting topic and almost everyone can relate to it. Furthermore it is constantly in the news and people are always talking about it and therefore it is an extremely important debate. Moreover, I did part of my English Language coursework on trying to persuade teenagers to not drink. This will help me with my essay as they both like, hence why I can use some sources and ideas for both. In this essay I’m going to discuss whether underage drinking in the UK is going to happen in the future and that there is no stopping it or if it may stop in the future. For part of my project I will carry out research. I will carry out a range of research methods which will include reading books, news articles, internet pages and watchin...
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...lear to see that underage drinking is an important topic that is constantly being discussed and debated in the current day. Underage drinking has a number of major problems associated with it. First and foremost it can have major health implications ranging from alcohol poisoning which lasts for a few days to permanent liver damage and death. These are extremely dangerous and can seriously affect someone’s future temporarily or permanently. Furthermore there have been key changes from the past which have made underage drinking even more worrying.
Teenagers are constantly being educated on the seriousness of alcohol and the vast amounts of negative impacts it can have meaning every teenager understands the consequences to do with alcohol, however as we can see it hasn’t stopped underage drinking and I believe this pattern will continue into the future.
According to Center for Disease Control and Protection, about 4,700 people under age twenty one die from injuries involving underage drinking every year. Illegal alcohol consumption has been a major problem with high school students around the nation. Lowering the drinking age from twenty one would result in major consequences for America’s adolescents. By lowering the drinking age, alcohol would be more accessible to those who choose to participate in underage drinking. The desire to drink for teens and young adults between the ages of fourteen and twenty can be caused by peer pressure or an act of rebellion. One beer might not seem like a big deal at the time, but it could lead to a life of addiction and alcoholism.
“National Minimum Drinking Age Act.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 21 April 2014. Web. 24 April 2014.
For decades, certain people have been contemplating on how to go about the issue of underage drinking; people of the government, parents, and other individuals concerned in global affairs. The problem is, the issue of underage drinking and the nationwide ineffectiveness of the drinking age law of twenty-one isn't debated and discussed as much and as aggressively as it should be. And the main components of discussion ought to be the matter of binge drinking among teenagers and college students, drinking issues and statistics in foreign countries, and finally, possible solutions for this problem. The main point is that the states of our country can only attempt to enforce the law rather than try approaching the problem in any other way. So for that reason, states should be allowed to figure out and experiment on possible ways to solve this matter on their own without government interference.
Teenage drinking is something that goes on every day. No matter how many videos you show to kids about drinking they will still drink. Surveys show that the average teen seventeen and up spends $475.00 a year on liquor, mostly beer; that's more than books, soda, coffee, juice and milk combined. Most parents don't know about teenage drinking unless they catch their kids doing it. Parents usually say "oh, my my kid would never do that ", and they're the ones whose kids probably drink more that the average teen. One might ask, how do kids get alcohol? Alcohol is almost as easy to get as a carton of milk, except a teen has to get someone older like a friend, brother or even someone off of the street to purchase it. Another way underage teens get alcohol is a fake I.D. A lot of stores don't care, they just need to ask for an I.D. because they are being watched by security cameras. No matter what city your are in, one in every five stores will sell beer to a minor. If stores stop selling to minors they would lose a lot of business. Looking at the surveys I took at Lincoln on this topic it can been seen what teens think about teenage drinking. The results were shocking! The first Question I asked was "Have you ever drank alcohol?" Of the students surveyed, 16% said no and 84% said yes. The second question was, "How often do you drink?"
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not mature enough to handle it, lowering the drinking age actually teaches responsibility and safety in young adults, maintains consistency in age laws, and diminishes temptation.
A lot of the time, teens think it is ‘cool’ to drink because everyone else does it. Almost every television show that young people watch have some underage substance abuse, leading adolescents to believe that it can’t be that bad. While society plays a big part in this huge problem, both teens and parents need to learn that there can be severe consequences from as little as one drink. Allowing them to think this kind of behavior is acceptable will haunt them for the rest of their lives, even if they are not alcohol related. Believing that such behavior is acceptable now will lead them to bad decision-making skills in the future when faced with an ethical decision. Teens need to know the major effects can come from underage drinking before going to that party or when being pressured into something they may not be willing to participate in. It is obvious that the long and short-term effects of alcohol abuse can be easily avoided by getting educated and thinking before engaging in any self-destructive
Bob Marley once said, “Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” This is the case when it comes to teens and alcohol. In America, the National Minimum Legal Drinking Age is a topic of great debate and controversy. Many people argue that the age restriction provides a safe environment for all citizens; whereas others disagree that the law creates an untrustworthy aura among teens. If the minimum legal drinking age were to be lowered, most people would be affected by it, whether it be by an increase in drunk-driving or a rise in crimes. Although teens are legally considered adults by the age of eighteen and the minimum legal drinking age prompts underage teens to exhibit risky behavior, the age restriction should not be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen because young teens would have easier access to alcohol, the minimum legal drinking age has decreased alcohol-related problems, and alcohol can cause damage to underage drinkers.
The National Minimum Age Drinking Act was signed into law on July 17, 1984. This law was carried out at the federal level and forced all states to raise the minimum drinking to 21 or face cuts in federal-aid cuts in their highway funding. I believe this law must be repelled and that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. We must decriminalize the notion of underage drinking because why must 18 through 20 year olds be treated like children but charged as adults?
Many teens face adult problems at a very young age. Underage drinking viewed in the eyes of parents and law enforcement agencies is a major problem among teen. In today society, kids are being pressured into doing things at a very young adolescent age. Problem many parents are facing in their own life are also posing as problems on their kids.
Since this country was born it has been raised on alcohol, even the prohibition couldn 't stop the Americans from doing what they love to do. But back then they were lenient on the age to consume alcohol. But in 1980’s Ronald Reagan passed the Drinking Age Act which permanently raised the drinking age to twenty-one through out the nation. Which people asked themselves is this right? When at eighteen you 're legally allowed to be on a official jury, vote for the next president and fight for your country. So lowering the drinking age to 18 would make sense.
While underage drinking is a legitimate problem, it should be mainly the responsibility of the parents to decide whether their child should drink. But if allowed, it should be in a closely supervised place. Teen drinking remains problematic with one-third of American youth consuming alcohol on a regular basis since the government outlawed the consumption of alcohol by anyone underage twenty-one on 1984. Some regulators say that making the federal minimum drinking age twenty-one has made alcohol a “forbidden fruit...
Unsupervised, underage drinking has become an epidemic throughout the world, but in the in America more than anywhere else. Even the president’s 19 year old daughter has been arrested for underage drinking. America has the highest legalized drinking age in the world. In fact, only four countries in the world have a legalized drinking age over 18. When we turn 18 in America we are supposed to be adults, but then what is the 21 age mark it is like we get an adult trial version for three years without some freedoms but with all the consequences. For example a twenty-year old, wounded soldier from Iraq can vote, get married, and be tried as an adult, but he can’t even buy a drink! Apparently, we value the condition of his social life more than life itself. Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers have experienced the same scenario. This is nothing new, there is a long history of alcohol ageism.
Young people grow up seeing their parents and other adults make toast of wine and champagne at special occasions, as well as casually enjoying a few beers at a picnic. Today alcoholic beverages are frequently as common at business lunches as they are at college frat parties. Underage drinking is a huge problem which everyone must face. Underage drinking not only has devastating effects on those who drink but also on our society. "Young people illegally consume almost 3.6 billion drinks annually which is 10 million drinks each day."
As a result of underage drinking, 5,000 adolescents under the age of 21 die annually due to intoxication (taking motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and other injuries while intoxicated into consideration) (paragraph 2). Later in life, underage drinkers are more likely to develop alcoholism, poor performance in school, and risky sexual behavior (paragraph 43). Although this research is not opposed to my argument, there is an importance to acknowledging it as proof of dangerous, underage drinking occurring significantly regardless of whether it is illegal. More importantly, this research stems from adolescents drinking without the supervision of adults and in uncontrolled quantities. Since adolescents must wait a long period of time to drink legally, I believe they fear they must take advantage of drinking opportunities by excess drinking and risk of safety due to their restriction to alcohol. Based on this mindset, I believe exposure to alcohol at a younger age in controlled environments would not only decrease underage drinking in large quantities, but injury and death related to intoxication, as
Alcohol is a very serious and dangerous drug, although it is not treated this way anymore. College students have taken drinking to a new level in which, for many, is very scary. Alcohol is much more dangerous than many would think. Kids see a night of drinking as a great way to have fun and party but do not see the consequences. Getting drunk and even blacking out can lead to many problems. When alcohol is consumed in unhealthy amounts, it can lead to not only short-term effects, but long-term ones as well.