Teen Drinking
...t aware that their children drink. When teenagers have parties, alcohol is almost always present. How the teens get it is another problem. There are a numerous amount of stores that sell alcohol to minors. Most clerks ask for identification but a lot of teens have fake I.D.’s. The law requires that clerks ask for identification but sometimes they do not just to make a profit for the day. Once a teen realizes he can get it once he is most probably going to go back and get it again for him and his friends. The effect that alcohol has on teens is not only larger than it is on adults, it is also more dangerous. Alcohol kills more teenagers and young people than any other drugs taken to affect mood and behavior. The younger and smaller a person is the quicker they get drunk. A person is considered legally drunk if their blood alcohol level is .08. The majority of teenagers that drink do not have cars or their license. They often get into cars with older kids and drive around drunk. Driving drunk amongst teenagers is also an increasing problem in the world today. The more teen’s drink the more accidents occur every year. There are many organizations in schools and communities that are against drunk driving. There are two very popular organizations in Miami Dade County called MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions). MADD travels to schools around the country and encourages them not to drink and not to make stupid decisions. Parents and teachers cannot exactly prevent teens from drinking, but they can try to make them realize the consequences of getting in a car with someone who is drunk. Another issue about teen drinking is that like some adults, teenagers do not know when to stop. Alcohol can affect you more at a certain time of the day then others. Alcohol impairs your judgment and according to recent studies teen drinking may cause more neurological damage than was previously thought. It was proven that teens who binge drink may damage their memory and learning abilities. Binge drinking severely damages the development of the hippocampus in the brain. Another interesting study about teen drinking is that there is no gender gap. Just as many girls drink as much as boys. Although there is no gender gap, it takes less a...