Teenagers And Alcohol

2 Pages 521 Words

“Teenagers and Alcohol”
In high school almost everyone went to parties with alcohol. Where you one of the “cool kids” that did the beer bong? The legal drinking age in the United Stats is twenty-one, but the majority of young people begin using alcohol during their teenage years. The average age when youth first try alcohol is eleven years for boys and thirteen years for girls. In high school almost every weekend there was a keg party to be found, by the end of the night the keg was empty and everyone was stumbling along. Alcohol abuse by teenagers and the causes of teenage drinking vary, but they all lead to potential damage to the brain. Alcohol has become a social tradition that is killing American youths.
Underage drinkers now account for twenty-five percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States and are the largest population of beer drinkers in the country. Approximately twenty percent of twelve to twenty-one are considered binge drinkers, which consumer four or more drinks in a row (Robyn). Most high school students are binge drinkers because they only drink at parties, if you don’t drink up it might all be gone. According to research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, adolescents who begin drinking before age fifteen are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age twenty one. As of now the best estimates indicate that there may be more the four million Americans alcoholics under the age of eighteen.


The American Medical Association warns that millions of underage drinkers are risking more damage to their brains that what was previously believed. Drinking play with the anatomy of the brain: a region involved in the memory and learning is significantly smaller in children who drink compared with those who don’t (Robyn). Researchers found that children who drink are causing serious changes to their brains, just like adults who s...