Underage Drinking: The Battle Within The War On Drugs

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate November 2001

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Underage Drinking: The Hidden Battle Within the War on Drugs All of America is aware that we are in an everyday fight against illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, and tobacco. Billboards are filled with campaigns for a "Drug-free America" and the airwaves are filled with as many anti-smoking ads as there are commercials on television telling us to "˜think when we drink." Only recently, however, have we seen signs of campaigns against underage drinking. Take for example, Coors Light and their "Twenty-One Means Twenty-One" slogan, and how that has only begun in the past year. The voice against underage drinking is relatively quiet and easily hushed, but America seems to be waking up and realizing that the youth of the nation are not as innocent as we once believed. Many authors and scholars have voiced their opinions in essays, articles and journals concerning this war we have waged. Yes, teenage drinking has come into the limelight relatively recently, but underage consumption of alcohol has been around since drinking ages were enacted, and seeing how drinking ages look like a long-term item, teens will be engaging in this activity for years to come, unless something is done about it.

I have used six such essays to help elaborate my argument concerning this battle over teenage drinking and how to go about fighting it.

Parents are concerned with what their kids are doing on their free time, and do not want them engaging in activities that will disrupt their future, or harm their health. Cry after cry goes out against marijuana, cocaine, and the effects they can have on our youth. The long-term effects of cigarette smoking have been preached about over and over again, hoping to discourage adolescents from lighting up their first cigarette. "Last Call For Alcohol?" which was...