Soultions to Underage Drinking

Amy Eubanks

James Benton

Writing 115

1 December 2014

Solutions to Underage Drinking

Misusing and abusing alcohol has been an ongoing problem amongst teens. Despite efforts to end this problem, nothing seems to be deterring teens from drinking alcohol. This has resulted in harmful effects for themselves and others around them. In Steven Galson’s article, “Preventing and Reducing Underage Drinking,” Galson explains the long term consequences that occur due to underage drinking. In the article “Lots of Kids Drink”, Jan Goehring acknowledges that teens are misusing and abusing alcohol. Even with the amount of programs Fennell and Goehring try to implement, there seems to be nothing that aids in the prevention of this issue. Although Goehring describes the abundance of problems that occur with underage drinking, Reginald Fennell only partially offers ideas on how to fix the problem in his article “Using the ‘KISS’ Principle to Address Alcohol Misuse/Abuse in the United States”. Goehring’s fears of teens drinking alcohol irresponsibly and Galson stating potential problems that can occur, coupled with Fennell’s idea of installing ignition lockers, all contribute to stopping the issue of underage drinking.

When comparing Goehring’s article with Fennell’s article, there are a few points that stood out. Goehring’s article explains how traffic crashes are an obvious danger for one-third of teens when alcohol is involved. Goehring stated in her article, “Teens tend to drink to excess when they do drink” (Goehring 20). This being stated, Fennell brings out an idea of installing ignition lockers into the vehicles of repeat drunk driver offenders in his article. Teens’ drinking tolerance is very low, therefore even a small amount of alcohol can impair their driving. Fennell explains that there are approximately 1.5 million arrests each year of impaired drivers and that a third of these arrests are repeat offenders. In addition. Fennell explains, “Ignition lockers placed...