Why

This is my first post, so I decided to write about something that I'm really passionate about. That would be underage drinking. If there are any teens who participate in drinking who read this post, I want to tell you that I'm not just another adult telling you what to do; I'm a teen just like you.
I want to start out by giving you some statistics, I know that sounds boring but I believe that it is very important. It is estimated that around 12.5 million teens participate in drinking each year. In 2005 (I realize that it was three years ago, but bear with me) U.S. students in grades 9-12 took a survey about underage drinking. 74% said that they have had at least one drink of alcohol at least once in their life. 26% said that they had their first real drink of alcohol (more than a few sips) before the age of 13. 43% said that they have had at least one drink of alcohol either once or multiple times within the past 30 days. 26% said that they have participated in binge drinking (5 or more drinks in a row) within the past 30 days. 4% said that they have had one or more drinks of alcohol on their school campus on one or more occasions within the past 30 days. In the same year underage drinking made up 15% of all the alcohol sales in the United States. These sales totaled 19.8 billion dollars. People from the age of 16-24 only make up 20% of the total licensed population; however they also are the cause of 42% of all of the fatal drunk driving crashes. These percentages have gone down, however this is still a very evident problem is today’s society.
Next I’d like to address the teens who might read this. A lot of teens think that drinking is cool, glamorous, and makes them popular, and that it’s the only way to have fun. Well it’s not. Drinking is not cool; you’ll never remember what happens when you’re drunk. It’s definitely not glamorous, no matter how much you drink; you’re going to throw up. It might make you popular with people, who also get drunk, and they might become you friends; but if they were really you’re friends, they wouldn’t want you to drink. Also, you would never remember what you do with them. And let me tell you that this weekend, I went to the movies with my friends, and I remembered it, and I had a blast. Also as teens our minds are still developing. Your brain will not be fully developed until you reach your early to mid 20's. in the years before your brain is fully developed it is extremely dangerous to drink any sort of alcohol.
Drinking alcohol before your brain is fully developed can cause severe damage to both long and short term growth processes. The development of your front Frontal lobe and nerve connections and pathways from your brain to parts of your body continue into your mid 20's. The brain's damage from alcohol at this point in time is both long-term and irreversible. Even short-term and or moderate drinking has effects on your brain. For instance it impairs your learning and your memory. This occurs quicker in youth than in adults. As an adolescent, we could drink half as much as an ordinary adult and we would still have the same negative effects of alcohol. The impact of alcohol on our behavior and brain function is different than it is on adults. As teens our brains are more vulnerable to the negative effects of alcohol on learning and memory than adults. Alcohol affects the release of hormones that are necessary for growing and maturing. Because alcohol affects every part of our brain, it affects the things that our brain controls such as: coordination, control of emotions, thinking, and the ability to make decisions, hand-eye movement/coordination, our speech, and our memory. Teens that drink will perform worse in school, and will thus have a greater chance of falling behind as well as having a greater risk of having social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts, and violence, and teens that drink are at a greater risk for developing alcoholism at some point in their lives. They are also put in greater risk for developing alcoholism both quickly and at younger ages, they are also more prone to chronic alcoholism, and relapsing alcoholism. I’d like to end by saying that drinking at any age is dangerous; there are a lot of things that can happen to you; a few things that have a greater chance of occurring are: rape, pregnancy, STDs, and death (as a result a an accident, or having enough drinks that you literally drink yourself to death).

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