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It is estimated that underage drinking costs the US $ 58 billion each year in accidents, crime and hospitalizations. An estimated one-third of Americans abstain from drinking alcohol or liquor. The number of college binge drinkers in the 1999 Harvard study (44 percent) was the same as in the 1993 study. In the Harvard study, 0. 6 percent of respondents required medical attention for alcohol overdoses. This could equal 30, 000 such instances a year when applying the number to the nation's entire collegiate population. On September 13, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reached a $ 4. 75 million legal settlement with the parents of a student who died from an alcohol overdose in 1997.
Scott Krueger, an 18 -year-old freshman, fell into an alcohol-induced coma after drinking an excessive amount of alcohol at a university fraternity pledge function, and died three days later. The settlement comes at a time when underage drinking on college campuses appears to be spiraling out of control, with an increasing number of drinking-related incidents and fatalities. For instance a recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health College on the drinking habits and trends of college students found that 44 percent of students in 1999 were binge drinkers. The study defined a binge drinker as a male who consumes five drinks or a female who consumes four drinks in a row at least once in a two-week period. The study involved over 14, 000 students from 119 universities. It also found that 19 percent of college students refrained from drinking alcohol last year -- an increase from 13 percent in 1993 -- but that nearly 24 percent of college students consumed enough alcohol to be classified as frequent binge drinkers.
As staggering as these numbers are, new findings indicate that the use and abuse of alcohol starts years before youths enter college. According to the American Medical Association, over 10 million individuals under the legal drinking age of 21 regularly consume alcohol, and that the average male tries alcohol at age 11. Demanding that parents, as legal guardians, must stop their underage children from drinking alcoholic beverages, numerous states have passed "social host" and "adult responsibility" laws, which hold parents and adults responsible for the actions of supervised minors. Still other states and jurisdictions have gone farther. If convicted under Minnesota's Zero Adult Providers law, adults and parents can be fined, jailed and sued for damages. The city of Albuquerque, N.
M. is tougher still, allowing the authorities to seize the homes of underage drinkers from their parents if the property is used for the illegal consumption of alcohol. Considering much alcohol abuse and binge drinking by college students starts in their teenage years, communities are right to focus prevention efforts on the home. Underage drinking has become a serious epidemic in this country, and one that is exacerbated by parents who allow their children and children's friends to imbibe with their knowledge, oftentimes in their homes. Drinking alcohol is harmful to child development, and can adversely affect social and personal habits that last a lifetime. Enacting laws that hold parents legally responsible for their children's drinking, with severe penalties, is essential to combating underage drinking.
With these laws, previously negligent parents are forced to take an active and responsible role in their children's lives. Stricter laws make it more difficult for teenagers to break them that easily. Parents play and important and key role in shaping their childs future. All things considered I personally am against underage drinking and definitely against the proposition that the legal drinking age should be lowered. By enforcing rules against underage drinking in all over the United States we can avoid cases of alcohol overdose cases, save a lot of money and use it for more resourceful purposes. A student instead of buying new books for school or supplies for college he goes ahead and busts all his money on drinking with his friends thus ending his career and end up as a big loser in life.
There are more important things in life to be taken care of rather than just waste your precious time, money and energy for some unproductive and worthless, not to forget it effects on you health. For those who are already addicted to alcohol If there is a will there is a way Doesnt matter if your parents drink or your family members all drink but if you are determined in life you surely can resist it and say no to drinking and also even make your friends quit their long time drinking habits.
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Research essay sample on Argument Against Lowering The Legal Drinking Age
