Adolescent Drinking
The social group or problem rather I wish to address is adolescent drinking as it affects the adolescent population. It is illegal to drink or to use drugs under the age of twenty-one however, multiple people begin experimenting way before the age. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “In 2003, the average age of first use of alcohol was about 14, compared to about 17 1/2 in 1965” (Underage Drinking). Thus, one can assume that the age of first consumption of alcohol has only gotten younger. The younger the age that one drinks alcohol, the more likely they are to develop a dependence on alcohol, involve themselves in risky situations, and be at risk of hurting themselves or others.
“Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings ” (Underage Drinking). Drinking at a young age can lead to death of adolescents themselves or others. This is also a major problem due to the effect of alcohol at a young age on the brain. The brain does not fully develop until the age of twenty-five so, when a person drinks at a young age it does a lot of damage to the development of the brain. As Sunita Bava and Susan F. Tapert article “ Adolescent Brain Development and the Risk for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems” shares is that drinking alcohol at a young age actually impairs the brain and a person’s cognition, behavior, and functioning. This article expresses that alcohol affects attention, visuospatial functioning, learning and retrieval of verbal and nonverbal information. Continuing to drink from an early age to adulthood can lead to serious brain and liver damage. Not to mention, that drinking at an early age does make one far more likely to become a victim of substance abuse disorder and mental illness. One effect of drinking alcohol is the risk of obtaining depression. Alcohol use lead to depression and affected the outcome of treatment for depressed adolescents. Depression is a very common illness among all humans but especially the adolescent population and it is a growing concern.
The latest trend in adolescent drinking is binge drinking. Binge drinking when a person consumes a lot of alcohol over a short period of time. The article Binge drinking in young adults: Data, definitions, and determinants by Kelly Courtney and John Polich is a research article that states that binge drinking has increased greatly since the last ten years. Many adolescents participate in binge drinking for social events. The effects of binge drinking are substantial. Binge drinking can lead to neurodegeneration in terms of learning and spatial memory. This research article also suggests, “frequent intake of large amounts of alcohol in any one sitting (i.e., ’binge’ drinking) may place individuals at an increased risk for suffering alcohol-related cognitive impairment” (Courtney, Polich, 2009). Drinking a lot of alcohol at once can lead to death or a “blackout”. A “blackout” occurs when a person drinks so much alcohol that when they become sober, they have no recollection of what happened when they were intoxicated. When a person is blackout, anything could have happened, and the person will have no remembrance. This is extremely dangerous because when a person is that drunk, that is usually when bad things such as sexual assault and crimes can happen.
There have been numerous studies that have been done researching the causes for adolescent drinking alcohol. The main causes that have been studied in the past are the following: peer pressure, trying to fit in, social events usually have the presence of alcohol, it is the society norm, family history, the glorification alcohol has on alcohol, and coping reasonings. Teenagers drink for a variety of reasons, there is not one single reason as to what makes a person involved with alcohol.
There is a large significance for the larger society when it comes to adolescent alcohol use. The worst possible outcome for drinking at a young age is death which not only affects that individual and their family, but the town as a whole. As stated previously, on average 5000 people under the age of 21 die per year due to the use of alcohol. Adolescent drinking also leads to larger societal problems like an increase in crime rate due to intoxication, more juvenile delinquency cases that can lead to DYS commitment, an increase in addiction rate and with the trend of binge drinking: an increase in cases of rape, sexual assault, pregnancy, and STDs. Therefore, if nothing is done to stop the growing increase of adolescent drinking, it can lead to a significant amount of larger societal implications.
Even though there are many causations for adolescents to engage in drinking, there are sub groups that are more at risk. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism expresses that these sub groups are men, white american and native americans, military personels, people with impulsive personalities, people who suffer from depression and anxiety, or people who have parents who have substance use disorder (Young Adult Drinking, n.d.) . Although a lot of people believe that going to college is a major reasoning as to why people drink, it has been proven that “college students drink less frequently than their noncollege peers” (Young Adult Drinking, n.d.). The only difference is, college students tend to engage in more binge drinking whereas non college students drink more often but in lower quantities.
The primary impact of this behavior is that it is causing damage to their brain’s in the long run and creating many psychological and physical damage for the adolescent. The secondary impact of this issue is that since so many teenagers are getting involved in this type of behavior, the addiction rate, death rate, and crime rate are going to skyrocket in the future. Based off of my research, it seems to be that adolescents drinking alcohol is so normal that adolescents are starting to get involved in not only drinking, but drug use. The alcohol does not seem to be enough for the newest population that the rate of drug use has greatly increased too. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this year’s rate of drug use is the following: “5.4 percent among 8th graders, 9.8 percent among 10th graders, and 14.3 percent among 12th graders” (Abuse, N.I., n.d.). Although this percent is pretty low, drug use is a very significant problem especially with a population so young. Alcohol and drug use among young adults is becoming an epidemic. Something must be done to stop the increase use of drugs and alcohol for people all over the world but, specifically the adolescent population.
I do not think enough has been done to stop this issue. There have been some polices made to address this problem such as raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, the process of having an ID to obtain liquor, undercover police officers to watch the public to make sure people that are 21 are not distributing any alcoholic substances to minors, and the creation of DARE. It was not until 1984 when Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise their ages for purchase and public possession to 21. Since then, according to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, “ higher minimum drinking ages were associated with lower levels of alcohol use among high school seniors and recent high school graduates… lowered involvement in alcohol-related fatal crashes among drivers under 21 appeared due to lower alcohol consumption rates–in particular, less drinking in bars or taverns.” ( Vaos, et el, 2015, p.491). Thus, moving the legal age to drink alcohol up by a few years, made the alcohol consumption by minors decrease and lead to less fatalities.
There have been other laws put into place to decrease the use of adolescent drinking. One law established in the United States labeled section 34b is the law establishing that in order to obtain alcohol one must have a valid identification card. An ID can be obtained from the RMV whether it is a valid driver's license or a liquor purchase identification card. Other sources of ID’s that can be used to obtain liquor is a valid passport or a military ID. Without any source of valid identification of being over the age of 21, liquor cannot be sold to customers. However, with the new means of technology, kids have access to the creation of fake ID’s /and were smart enough to come up with the idea of using someone else’s valid ID. New laws were created to help punish those who do so. Section 45, stated from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a the law that states, “Any person who knowingly makes any false or misleading statement, representation or submission or knowingly assists, abets, solicits or conspires in the making of any false or misleading statement, representation or submission in order to maintain, obtain, or increase benefits under this chapter for himself or any other individual, or who knowingly conceals or fails to disclose a material fact in order to maintain, obtain or increase benefits under this chapter for himself or for any other individual shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five years or by imprisonment in jail for not less than six months nor more than two and one-half years or by a fine of not less than one thousand nor more than ten thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.” (Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Therefore, the consequences of these criminal actions by minors can result in jail time and could be permanently placed on a person’s record.
Besides the laws that influence a person's decision to drink at a young age illegally, there are other informal influences that persuade adolescents to not drink at a young age. These informal influences are the threat of undercover police officers and the creation of a program called DARE. Police officers carefully stake out near liquor stores to force the law. If an adolescent tries to go to a liquor store to purchase alcohol, if they see a police officer they are most likely not going to try to use a false identification card. Also, the use of undercover police officers causes a threat that at any time a person who is under the age of twenty-one who tries to obtain liquor, could be caught. The fear of getting caught is one of the strategies used to try to keep teenagers from participating in these dangerous behaviors. Another informal effort to reduce the amount of adolescent consumption of alcohol was the creation of the DARE program. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education and was first created in 1983 by police officials. This program is offered in kindergarten through twelfth grade to schools all over the United States and other countries. According to the DARE official website, this program “promotes healthy and safe behavior by improving students’ abilities to analyze and critically evaluate the promotion of substance use in media such as social media, TV, print, and other forms” (www.dare.org, 2017). This program offers a lot of educational background of drugs and alcohol and teaches children and adolescents about what drugs/alcohol are and why they should stay away from them. This program goes far enough that a real life police officer visits schools, brings in real life drugs/alcohol to show young kids what drugs/alcohol look like and the harsh affects of what they can do to a person. I think this is a very unique approach because not only do people get to see what drugs/alcohol look like, they get a reality check of how these substances can ruin lives. DARE strives to keep people from using substances and to give an educational lecture to persuade young kids to not get involved.
My own personal recommendations to help improve the laws and policies around adolescent drinking would have to be a person has to show two identification cards before buying liquor, hiring bodyguards for every liquor store, and implement more programs of education in the middle schools and high schools. By having a person show two identification cards to buy liquor, this would decrease the amount of minors that come in and try to buy liquor with a fake ID. Hiring a bodyguard for every liquor store would also lower the chance of a teenager trying to buy liquor as a minor and the body guards could also watch the parking lot to make sure no people over the age of 21 are buying liquor for a minor. Lastly, I strongly think that implementing more educational programs into schools would lower the risks of adolescents drinking. If there were AA speakers coming to the school monthly, there is a chance that some students are going to empathize these speaker’s stories and stay away from drinking.
Works Cited
Abuse, N. I. (n.d.). Monitoring the Future Survey: High School and Youth Trends. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/monitoring-future-survey-high-school-youth-trends
Bava, S., & Tapert, S. F. (2010, October 19). Adolescent Brain Development and the Risk for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11065-010-9146-6
Berman, S. J. (n.d.). Diversion Programs.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/diversion-programs.html
Courtney, K. E., & Polich, J. (2009). Binge drinking in young adults: Data, definitions, and determinants. Psychological Bulletin, 135(1), 142-156. doi:10.1037/a0014414
D.A.R.E. High School Curricula. (n.d.).
Friese, B., & Grube, J. (n.d.). Youth Drinking Rates and Problems: A Comparison of European Countries and the United States [Scholarly project]. In Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.
http://resources.prev.org/documents/ESPAD.pdf
Meririnne, E., Kiviruusu, O., Karlsson, L., Pelkonen, M., Ruuttu, T., Tuisku, V., & Marttunen, M. (2010). Excessive alcohol use negatively affects the course of adolescent depression: One year naturalistic follow-up study. [Abstract]. Journal on Adolescence, 33, 221-226. doi:Social Work Abstract
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter151A/Section47
Scribner, R., & Cohen, D. (2002). The effect of enforcement on merchant compliance with the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law [Abstract]. The Journal of Drug Issues, 38(665), 857-866. http://corvette.salemstate.edu:2088/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=0e127d6b-091f-47fa-94b6-00e8b6e58588%40pdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxjcGlkJmN1c3RpZD1zc2Mmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=44245&db=swh