underage drinking

Recently, many drinking problems have become common among underage students. There are some problems like car accidents because of driving under the influence of alcohol, fighting, skipping school, etc. On the other hand, drinking is not always bad; sometimes it can be good for everyone, including underage students. I agree with lowering the drinking age, because those problems are not for only underage students.

The law should allow underage students who have graduated high school to drink alcohol, because they can make their own life and take responsibility.

Not allowing them to drink is not reasonable, because after they graduate from high school, most students live alone because of university. Some people are provided what they need from their parents, but some others aren't. So they work for buying what they need. While they work, they meet a lot of people and they may try to have a good relationship with them. But they are underage, so they cannot drink with them; they drink illegally then. And in Korea we say “A drinking manner has to be learned from older people, who are like parents” because it is important; they need to learn about a drinking manner early from older people.

Another reason is that drinking makes us healthier than if we don’t drink; as researchers said, one drink a day is good for health, because they found that if we drink alcohol moderately, it will decrease our risk by about 30 percent. The Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism wrote that “Numerous well-designed studies have concluded that moderate drinking is associated with improved cardiovascular health” (Hanson, 2007, para. 3).

Some people have different thoughts from mine. The officer Morrison said, "We are talking about vandalism, we are talking about rape, we are talking about destruction of property, we are talking about theft. All those calls for service are alcohol related. Now, the amount of teenagers involved in this, this is about two-thirds of your calls for service on Friday and Saturday night" (Swicord, 2007, para. 12). But they are wrong, because those problems are also caused also by drink people who are adults. So the problem is not underage drinking, the problem is just when people drink too much alcohol.

In conclusion, I don’t think drinking alcohol by underage people is a serious problem. They just want to drink because it is illegal and they don’t know how to control when they drink alcohol. So if high school teaches them how to control themselves, there will be fewer underage drinking problems and they will be able to control drinking. I am sure underage problems are not just their faults; most adults ought to think about and understand first underage people's side.

Reference

Hanson, D. J. (2007) Alcohol and Health. Retrieved February 6, 2008, from http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansonjd/arcohoandhealth.html


Mulcahey S. (2002. January 30). Lowering drinking age is not solution. Western Courier, Western Illinois University. Retrieved February 6, 2008, from http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage/paper650/news/2002/01/30/opinion/lowering.drinking.age.is.not.a.solution-443723.shtml


Swicord J. (2007. August 6). Underage Drinking Serious Problem in the US. VOA NEWS. Retrieved Febraury 6, 2008, from http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-08/2007-08-06voa37.cfm?cfid=196687263&cfoken=36292678