Underage Drinking

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The biggest issue on college campuses in the United States is undoubtedly underage drinking. Underage drinking is a violation of college and state policies; although the statues are disregarded. Drinking laws are in place because underage drinking is detrimental to the community and the user. However, the current laws are not deterring underage drinking; and the problems associated with underage drinking are persistent. The blatant disobedience by teens has caused deliberation about changing the current laws. One debated solution to stop underage drinking is to lower the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. Lowering the dinking age would obviously lower the number of incidents of underage drinking on college campuses, because most students …show more content…
According to the Nation Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), by age fifteen, fifty percent of teens have had one drink. The percentage increases to seventy percent by age eighteen. The bigger problems involved with underage drinking arise as teens enter the college scene. One problem with underage drinking is bingeing on alcohol. NIAAA states that underage drinkers will have five drinks at a single event. Binge drinking occurs because minors cannot buy their own alcohol, which results in bingeing when alcohol is available to them. The effects of binge drinking starts first with getting drunk. In a drunken state: serious injuries, impaired judgment, vulnerability, and death occurs. One of the most occurring and very serious results of drinking in the college scene is sexual assault. A professor in the Department of Community Medicine at Wayne State University, Dr. Antonia Abbey wrote “Alcohol-Related Sexual Assault: A Common Problem among College Students.” Abbey states that more than half of sexual assault cases in college involve alcohol. Many of Abbey’s reasons for sexual assault in college involves situations that occur at the college party scene, “These pathways include beliefs about alcohol, deficits in higher order cogitative processing and motor impairments induced by alcohol and peer group norms that encourage heavy drinking and forced sex” (125). Abbey argues: “Prevention programs should begin in …show more content…
The article, “Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths?”, notes the increase in serious injuries when New Zeeland decreased its minimum age from twenty to eighteen. In addition, alcohol related automobile accidents increased. At first, lowering the drinking age would increase alcohol related problems involving high school students. However, college issues would decrease. As stated in the Harvard study, underage students believe the chances of being caught with alcohol are lower at a fraternity house compared to a club or party. In a recent MSNBC article, “In combating campus sexual assault, a new focus on fraternities”, it states: “men in fraternities are three times as likely to commit rape as other students.” Because most freshman will be legal if the drinking age is lowered to eighteen, college students can enjoy bars and clubs legally instead of getting their alcohol from disreputable fraternity

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