Underage Drinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Underage Drinking - Essay Example Lacks of legal framework coupled by moral decay in the society are the two main barriers to mitigating the problem of underage drinking. The number of young people engaging in underage drinking has been increasing with time. Everyday there are more than 5,000 kids in the US who are aged 16 and below who have the first full alcoholic drink. Statistics have shown that alcohol is the most abused substance compared to other like tobacco, marijuana, or other hard drugs by the young people. The average age of drinking has been set ad 12 to 17 years although the average age at which kids are introduced to alcoholic drinks is at 13 years. The episode of binge dirking has also been increasing with time. It is shown that the level of binge drinking by young people has increased by more that a half compared to the level in 1990s. Between 1993 and 2001 studies have found out that more than 56% of the kids aged between 13 and 20 had at least one binge drinking occasion in the past 30 days. A recent study has show that more than 10.8 million persons between the age of 12 and 20 reported to have been drinking alcohol in the past on e month. Almost 7.2 million of them were binge drinkers. (The Center for Alcohol Marketing, 2008) There are many reasons that have given by the young drinkers as to why they find it easy to abuse alcohol compared to other substances. They have given a variety of reasons but the availability of alcohol and lack of restrictive laws on the use of alcohol has been given as the most prevalent factor why they abuse alcohol than other drugs It has been shown that alcohol is readily available and can be purchased without restrictions unlike other substances. But a good number of them also showed that there is little apparently control. Even when they go to their home drunk, they are not reprimanded by their parents. This is perhaps the greatest factor that has contributed to increased number of underage drinking as compared to other reasons that can be given. It shows an intricate moral decay and lack of parental control on underage drinking. On the issue of availably of the drinks, the convenient suitor have been criticized for promoting under age drinking they have been providing drinks to the kids even without need of identification. While there are strict government laws regulation the sale of alcohol in other areas, these rules have not been well enforced in convenience stores. The fact that there are not official to look at what kids are drinking makes it more complicated to control underage drinking. However it may be difficult for the convenience stores to put in place control measures that will ensure that underage drinkers don't purchase drinks since it has been shown that some of them come in company of their parents and purchase the drinks. The issue of underage drinking has been tackled using a variety of tactics. The state security machinery including the police force has been directed to deal firmly with the problem. But the underage