Samantha Goff
Turner, Bohn
English 11
6/3/13

Under age drinking has become a very serious pandemic in the United States alone today. The 21 Minimum Drinking Age Act was presented by the president Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984 bat that time. Before this law was passed, a lot of states had different age drinking. Some states were actually called “blood borders” which means that some teens would go to different states to drink, and then drive back home under the influence of alcohol. By 1988 all 50 states were now only giving alcohol to people 21 and over. Before the legal age was set at 21, a lot of fatal car accidents were caused by people from 18-20. When the law was passed, the alcohol related car crashes decreased dramatically. In fact, in some states it decreased up to 28%. Another reason, is because the human brain does not stop until your early 20’s. With this law, it saves about 1,000 lives per year. Between 1975 and 2004 the 21 law, saved about 24,000 lives. In the really early 80’s, more than 5,000 young people were killed due to alcohol with drivers under 21. In 2005, that number was cut down to 2,000 which is still a big number but less than how it was before. Underage drinking has a huge effect on society. “Underage drinking costs Americans taxpayers approximately 61.9 billion dollars annually and in 2000, only 71 million was spent on prevention. Where as 1.8 billion dollars was spent on drug prevention, and countless billions are poured into alcohol advertising and promotion.” (“Washington accident book”)

Sometimes, being in high school you often ask yourself “why do so many teenagers drink in high school?’’ well. Kids are starting to experiment alcohol by 12. “A national survey found that slightly more than half of young adults in the U.S. between the ages of 12 and 20 have consumed alcohol at least once.” (helpfulguide.org). Teens drink for many reasons, but curiosity to feel good, reduce stress, and relax to fit in to feel older