Imagine a parent waking up in the middle
of the night to their phone excessively ringing. They grab their phone while
squinting at the small, bright screen to see what is going on. It is an unknown
number, but they decide to answer it anyways. It turns out to be a collect call
for the local jail, so of course, they take it while imagining all the worst
possibilities. Their daughter was caught at a party and was arrested for
underage drinking with an intoxication level over the legal limit, and she is being
held in jail.
How often do teenagers put their selves in
these types of situations? Surprisingly, “about half of high school seniors
have been drunk at least once,” (Haelle 1).
It is a popular thing for the adolescent to dwell in. If one were to
walk through the halls of a high school for a day, they’ll eventually overhear
about a party or event that is happening that weekend. At those parties, it is
uncommon to find to no alcohol present even though it is illegal for their
ages. The legal age of drinking in the United States is twenty-one, yet so many
people under twenty-one still drink. It is a steadily growing epidemic in
today’s society.
Alcohol
has been around for ages and the exact discovery era is unknown. It was around
in the BC years and even in the biblical times. Going back to the 1800’s, a
group called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children proposed a
law that does not let children inside of dance halls and saloons (Teen
Drinking). Still, the children found ways around like selling things right
outside of the bars, delivering drinks to adults and even befriending the
bartenders (1). This is not the first time that alcohol laws have been ignored.
In 1919, there was an amendment made, the nineteenth, that prohibited any type
of manufacturing or consumption of alcohol illegal (Fessler). People rioted
while others rushed to get as much alcohol as they could since it was not being
made anymore (Fessler). The people hated it so much that they placed the
twenty-first amendment to cancel out the nineteenth amendment in 1933 (1). The
twenty-first amendment made alcohol legal again but only with a legal drinking
age (1). Some states made twenty-one the legal drinking age while others made
it only eighteen, but all fifty states made twenty-one the legal drinking age
by 1988 (Underage Drinking). These laws did not stop the underage drinking. The
under aged drinkers of the United States take up eleven to twenty-five percent
of all alcohol in the country (Teen Drinking). Teen drinking has been around
for a while. It is not anything that is fairly new, but it is getting
progressively worse.
Shelby Allen was a seventeen-year-old
honors student (Todd). Just like any other teenager, she was very curious. She
went to spend the night at her best friend’s house, but they ended up going to
a friend’s party (1). Even though the
adults in the house said no drinking, Shelby had her mind set on downing
fifteen shots of vodka (1). A bottle and an hour and a half later, she already
downed ten shots (1). When her friends noticed that she was not feeling well,
they lead her to the toilet to throw up where she eventually passed out (1).
Her friend worriedly texted a boy for advice saying things like, “She won’t
sober up at all,” “I’m freaking out have no idea wat to do,” “shelb is just
half snoring shaking,” and “I f****** need help,” (1). The next they checked on
Shelby, she was in the exact same position as when they left her (1). “Her head
hung over the edge of the toilet bowl, her lip split from having slammed
against the porcelain in a bout of violent heaving,” (1). Her face was streaked with blood, and she was
completely unresponsive (1). The EMTs pronounced her dead with a blood-alcohol
content of 0.33 which is four times the state’s legal limit for adults that can
drive (1). Shelby’s story is one of many. If only she did not illegally drink
alcohol that night, she would still be alive. Her parents would still have
their little girl, but because of her irresponsible actions, she died of
alcohol poisoning.
Scott Roberts was a sixteen-year-old
high schooler (Larson). Not only was he smart, but he was also on the JV
wrestling team (Gordon). “He was the kindest fellow you ever wanted to meet,
and not a partier or a wild kid,” (2). He was not acquainted to the drinking
scene; all he wanted to do was have fun and try something different with his
friends. It was the start of summer
2009, and school was finally out, so he wanted to go to his friend’s house (1).
Things changed when he called his dad asking to spend the night (2). His dad
was skeptical because he did not know his friend very well, but he let him go
anyways (2). Little did his father know, but his friend’s parents were out of
town (2). Knowing that the parents were not there, they teens started to play
drinking games (1). The game they were playing consisted of marking lines on
your arm for every shot taken, which is intense (1). Scott was the first one to
pass out because he had never been drunk before, so his friends jokingly drew
pictures and phrases about his sister all over him (1). They left him there and
did not check on him until 4:30 AM (1). At that time, they noticed that he had
vomited and urinated on himself, which is a key sign that something is wrong,
but all they did was put him off the carpet and onto the tile to “sleep it off”
(1). The next morning at 9 AM Scott’s friends could not wake him up (2). They
tried CPR from the EMT’s commands, but it was too late (2). He had been dead
for far too long (2). Police reports say that they found empty bottles of
tequila, whiskey, and vodka; which are not light drinks (2). The liquor was
supposedly stolen from all the teens parent’s (2). They even observed that one
of the teens that were there had twenty-four lines on his arm meaning that he
had twenty-four shots (2). Scott’s father regrets not checking up on him (2).
His father tried to contact the teens, but no one answered, so he planned to
head to the school to see his son until the medics showed up to his house
bearing bad news (2). He was only sixteen when he passed away. He was too young
to be taken away so fast, but because of too much alcohol he died.
Teen
drinking is a growing problem. A solution could be to take alcohol away from
teenagers, but that is already an existing law. The legal age to drink in the
United States is twenty-one. However, teens still manage to find a way to
accumulate alcohol in their possession. Some buy their own alcohol using a fake
ID, or some even get their legal aged friends to buy it for them. Sometimes
parents get alcohol for their kids. Alcohol abuse by teens usually start at the
parents, so it can possibly end with the parents. How are the parents raising
their kids? What are their rules with alcohol? If a parent is lenient on their
kids, they are more likely to dabble into drinking alcohol. A start to fixing
that could be to develop stricter rules, but sometimes it can be the exact
opposite. Parents that are way too strict on their kids can result in sneaky
kids. Those types of kids are prone to do things behind their parents back.
There are some instances where kids turn to alcohol when they are having family
or social life issues. They use it as a distraction to forget their issues, and
to slip into oblivion for however long they are intoxicated. Those people can
be introduced to therapy, or even rehabilitation if needed. I could even help
to just have someone to talk to. Then there are those who unintentionally drink
too much for the first time. There is not much to do about first time user
except to make sure everyone is well informed of the dangers alcohol has.
Knowing the dangers of binge drinking is important. Introducing teens to
stories and studies may scare the teenagers out of drinking. Just making the
teens aware in general may make them realize the problems alcohol brings on,
but there is always help if they are willing to reach out for it.
It is absurd that
society turns a blind eye to underage drinking. It seems as if people forget
that it is an illegal thing that happens consistently. In high school, it is a
casual activity to partake in.
“Hey, did you hear
about Korey’s party this weekend?”
“Yeah man! He’s
supposed to have a keg stand there!”
“I know right!?
That’s so live!”
There are so many
instances where conversations like these were overheard. Teens do not even try
to hide it. They would say it out loud so the whole class could hear. Teachers
could over hear a student’s conversation, and they would not even react to it.
Usually, they would report any suspicious or illegal activities, but it seems
as if under aged drinking does not fit the criteria. It is crazy how lenient
people are on this topic. Reality checks need to be put in place to make people
wake up to the fact of how much trouble you could get in. From tickets to fines
to getting arrested, there are so many things that could happen to you
consequently. Even worse, you could unexpectedly die. Alcohol poisoning is
commonly mistaken as “blacked out” drunk, or just “too” drunk. People just are
not aware of what could happen; they are oblivious. Some people might just not
know the consequences, while others might just say, “Ignorance is bliss,”
because they feel the less they know, the better off they are.
Another thing that
is absurd is how lightly it is taken. It is extremely bad for your body, but
people do it anyways. Alcohol effects parts of the brain, and since teenager’s
brains are still developing, it is dangerous. Teens want to drink until they
black out, but that happens to be because of an acute hippocampus dysfunction (Zeigler).
Alcohol easily passes the blood-brain barrier (1). The blood brain barrier is a
membrane that is extremely picky on what it lets through, so it is highly
selective. Its purpose is to protect the brain from foreign, unwanted things
from entering. Imagine allow a foreign substance to intrude on your body’s
control system. It can cause neurological damage in the parts of the brain that
are responsible for learning and memories, and it could possibly bring on
problems when they grow to be an adult (1). In a study with twenty-four control
subjects, the alcohol-dependent adolescents resulted in the worst performance
for verbal and nonverbal retention to learn and recognize (1). They even did
worse for vocabulary, general information, spatial relationships, memory, and
identifying (1). People are ignorant to how bad drinking is for you, but they
are willing to ignore it to look “cool,” or to just forget everything for a
moment. It can permanently damage the brain, but people ignore the facts. That
is why they made a legal drinking age, so brains can at least finish developing
before alcohol can taint it.
Not only does it
affect the body, it can affect the abuser’s future offspring. Excessive
drinking during a pregnancy can disrupt the fetus’ development. Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome occurs when there is alcohol abuse during a pregnancy. It can affect
the babies looks and actions. Physical features of baby can be a small head,
low ears, wide set eyes, small lips, and a smooth elongated philtrum. They
could also have learning and behavioral disabilities. Many other issues occur
like social issues, anxiety, depression, anger issues, and lack of empathy. Their
lack of empathy gives them sociopathic ways. They cannot relate or feel bad for
people. It is as if they do not have feelings. Most Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
victims end up in jails because of their lack of empathy. Most popular cases
consist of them committing gruesome murders just because they wanted to see
what would happen. The cannot relate, or comprehend to what others are feeling,
so their actions are not bad to them. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is not as renown
as it should be, but it should be common sense. If alcohol can affect an adult
that much, how much do people think it would affect an unborn baby? These
extreme disabilities, and problems simply come from too much alcohol, so why
would someone still do it? Why would they willingly put their own child in
jeopardy of having serious lifelong problems?
When it comes to
directly affecting other people’s lives, drinking and driving is a huge factor.
It’s crazy that people can deliberately put their selves behind the wheel, and
drive even though they are under the influence. It is a lack of respect for
other people’s lives. Teens would try to drive home because they have a curfew
even though they know they have wrongfully been drinking. If they hit someone
and kill them, they are going to jail for intoxicated manslaughter, and
underage drinking. Knowing that you have
a high possibility of getting in an accident, and hurting someone else is
already crazy, but still doing it anyways is ridiculous. The absurdity of it
all just startles me.
Teen Drinking is
too common to be something so risky and dangerous. You could think someone is
passed out sleep, but they could actually be dying. If an adolescent is having
alcohol problems, there are multiple solutions. There’s family, friends and
even medical aid; there’s always help if you reach for it. Shelby and Scott
were victims to alcohol poisoning and help was too late, but their families
have set out to bring awareness to the dangers of it. That’s the absurdity of
it all; alcohol is dangerous to minors and it is illegal, but it is broadly
ignored. People
tend to forget what alcohol actually does to people.
Works Cited
Fessler,
Elizabeth Lee. "The History of Underage Drinking." The History
of Underage Drinking - LA101H. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar.
Gordon, Sarah. "CARLSBAD: Boy who died
after drinking was San Marcos student." The San Diego Union-Tribune. N.p.,
26 June 2009. Web. 4 May 2017.
Haelle, Tara. "Alcohol can rewire the
teenage brain." Science News for Students. N.p., 03 July 2016. Web. 14 Mar.
2017.
Larson, Elizabeth Foy. "Alcohol Poisoning:
The Death You Don't See Coming." Choices. N.p., 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 04 May
2017.
"Teen Drinking." Teen Drinking -
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society. N.p., n.d. Web.
14 Mar. 2017.
Todd, Andrea. "15 Shots Killed Our
Daughter." Good Housekeeping. N.p., 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
Zeigler, Donald W., Claire C. Wang, Richard A.
Yoast, and Barry B. Dickinson. "The neurocognitive effects of alcohol on
adolescents and college students$." Sciencedirect.com. N.p., 11 June 2004.
Web.
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