The Effects Of Underage Drinking On The United States

The abuse of alcohol among teenagers in the United States is universal and destructive. Teenagers believe drinking to be the cool that they must do to fit in with a crowd or become the popular one, when they do not realize all it brings is harm. Underage drinking has been one of the largest unsolved problems in history. Although many ideas have been made and put into practice, like raising the drinking age, harsher punishments, and, at one point, banning it all-together, nothing people do can stop teens from getting their hands on this dangerous beverage. In 2008, a National Institutes of Health Survey counted a total of 1.3 million children from the ages of twelve to seventeen that have experienced alcohol abuse just within the last year, and a total of 2.3 million young adults from the ages of twelve to twenty who have drunk five or more times within a single occasion. â€Å"At age twelve, 11 percent of boys and 9 percent of girls have commenced drinking, and 1 percent of them are classified as binge and heavy users. By age fourteen, the numbers are 31 and 33 percent use, respectively, and 6 percent of them are binge and heavy users. At age eighteen years, 73 percent have commenced drinking, 42 percent have used alcohol in the past month, and 39 percent are heavy users,† (Sherwood, 2012, p.1). However, the most common group in which abuses the use of alcohol is the college age. 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