The Impact Of Alcohol Use On The College Students (Essay Sample)

College Students and Underage Drinking
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Introduction
In the United States, alcohol intake has been ranked very high as the foremost causes of death nationwide. It has specifically been noted as a major contributor to the mortality rates for youths and young adults, owing to the fact that they engage in drunken driving thus fatal accidents arise. Alcohol consumption has also been blamed for unintentional injuries since the drink interferes with the person’s fine judgment and often leads them into violent arguments.
Content
According to Stephen Pavis (1997), most of the underage drinkers do so as a result of peer influence/pressure since they want to remain relevant with their company and not be viewed as cowards by their peers. Mood alteration and coping with personal difficulties and/or relieving stress were also mentioned as factors contributing to underage alcohol consumption. Some students/teenagers simply engage into alcoholism to experiment how it would feel like to be drunk. Enabling environment for engagement of students into the practice; easy access by the students to the commodity; as well as low cost most alcoholic drinks are some of the major reasons for engagement of college students and other underage persons into alcohol consumption.
So as to achieve the project goal, this paper will seek to answer a number of key research questions which include: What factors can contribute to the increased rates of underage alcohol consumption in the country/nation? Which settings promote underage alcohol consumption? How does underage drinking eventually affect people’s livelihoods and the country at large? Are the policy guidelines governing alcohol drinking effective in controlling underage drinking in the country? Which strategies are put in place to control or prevent underage alcohol intake in the US?
This project, therefore, seeks to highlight and explain the main negative effects of underage drinking and also enlist prevention strategies for underage drinking that currently exist in the US. This paper will be useful in addressing the somewhat neglected pertinent issue of underage drinking in the country. Of great concern is that among other research papers, a US study by Henry Wechsler, Ph.D. and Toben F. Nelson, ScD in 2013, revealed that 22.7 percent of persons aged 12 to 20 were alcohol drinkers, 14.2 percent were binge drinkers whereas 3.7 % were heavy drinkers. This is worrisome because this age bracket falls below the legal drinking age limit in the country. It raises concerns, more-so because it confirms assertions by scientific research papers like Henry Wechsler, Ph.D. and Toben F. Nelson, ScD; which state that alcohol drinking is commonly known to begin during adolescence. Since it is illegal, underage drinkers maximize the occasional chances they get by indulging in binge drinking which worsens the situation. This is a big risk because early initiation into alcohol drinking impacts negatively on the individual during adulthood.
Teenage being a crucial age of self-discovery and identification of one’s abilities, sobriety is key for any teenager to maximally tap their potential for any meaningful self-development and for the country’s growth. If many talented young countrymen and women are left to waste their lives on alcohol as the things are currently, their much-needed contribution to the realization of the sustainable development goals would not come to fruition. This would be a big loss both to the affected families and the country at large. Due to the gravity of this matter, the country would, therefore, need to take very drastic measures to intervene in order to avert the detrimental effects of this problem in the country. The initiatives already in place need to be strengthened more robustly so that the effects do not cause any deeper harm to the population that the country so much needs to steer its development agenda. All institutions responsible for fighting underage drinking in the country need to step up their approaches and be supported wholesomely by the government in-order to effectively fight this problem.
Most of the countries adopt minimum legal drinking age to controll underage alcohol intake in their nations. These ages vary considerably across the countries, with most of them having their limit at age 18, whereas the US has theirs at 21 years, though a number of states within the US have their own age limits. This has caused numerous legal challenges when people from countries with higher minimum legal drinking age cross over to the ones whose age limits are lower. Moreover, research has shown that some underage people purchase the alcohol themselves, implying that either the policy regulating sale and use of alcohol to minors are not adhered to or the bar attendants are ignorant of the regulations around the sale and consumption of alcohol in the country. A significant number of underage people have also been reported to give money to someone else to purchase alcohol for them, especially where the sale of alcohol is regulated strictly. People within the legal drinking age have also failed to support the course by either buying alcohol for underage people or allowing them to drink in their company.
The effects of underage drinking are numerous and they include among others increased number of traffic accidents related to drunken driving; escalated assault cases thus unwarranted physical injuries as drunken teenagers engage in violent arguments; poor performance among drinking college students; damage and or loss of property since the culprits tend to engage in disruptive behavior. In some cases, students who persistently consume alcohol have either dropped out of school because of expulsion by school authorities or their complete inability to study particularly when they get addicted. Important to mention is also the fact that the drunkenness of students has a ripple effect on their parents, as it plunges them into psychological stress. The fact that the country loses more by investing in rehabilitation centers due to alcoholism cannot be underestimated too.
There are two opposing perceptions documented concerning the effectiveness of policies put in place to control underage alcohol drinking. Susan Kelly-Weeder et-al (2011) in one school of thought asserts that considerable effectiveness has been demonstrated by the country’s policy initiatives. Their paper highlights reductions to acceptable limits for blood alcohol concentration when operating a motor vehicle, decreasing alcohol availability and access for underage individuals. In addition, it mentions that the changes in the least legal drinking age are one of the most effectual policies. They further state that prevention programs that utilized educational approaches exclusively worth praised as much as they were criticized by experts. They added that a multi-component approach that utilized educational initiatives alongside environmental changes recorded increasing effectiveness in the fight against underage alcohol consumption.
On the other hand, James C. Fell (2015) punches holes in some laws pertaining to control of underage alcohol consumption, for instance, the ones relating to requirements for on- and off-premises servers/sellers of alcoholic drinks. He argues that some states allowed some servers/bar tenders below 21 year...