Juvenile Drinking

Essay by mp3911Junior High, 8th gradeA+, March 2009

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Watch as a 17-year-old strolls into a supermarket and heads for the alcohol section. Surveying the different choices available, he finally makes up his decision about the liquor for the party they are holding on Friday night. He picks out a bottle of vodka and goes to the cashier. Even thought the cashier suspects that the young man that is purchasing the alcohol is under the legal drinking age of 21, he lets the juvenile walk away, paper bag in hand. Just as he exits, the security guard calls over to the teen and tells him to show identification. Heart pounding, the young man pulls out his fake driver's license and hands it to the government employee. For a brief moment, the teen is frightened, but when the officer gives him back his identification and sends him on his way. Many teens encounter these types of situations, and even though not all outcomes come out this favorably, many do.

An argument against the enforcement of drug prevention could be that the government had blown the issue out of proportion. However, "When compared to teenagers in Southern Europe, which has very liberal views regarding alcohol, American teens were more likely to have been drunk in the last 30 days (21 percent vs. 13 percent)." This shows that American teens were more susceptible to being drunk in the last month, displaying that that more laws are needed to deter juveniles from ingesting alcohol. Ronald Reagan, an incumbent president, said, "Raising the drinking age is not a fad or an experiment. It's a proven success. Nearly every state that has raised the drinking age to 21 has produced a significant drop in the teenage driving fatalities." The "21" law has been a great success, and the reason of this is that the...