Why is there a drinking age?
It might seem like a double standard – parents telling their kids not to drink, but the teens know their parents enjoy a few drinks over dinner, at the game, or at parties. It is very easy for teenagers to feel like their parents are just treating them like “children” when they council them not to drink. Others say the drinking age was established because young adults are not responsible enough and that they lack the maturity to monitor their alcohol consumption.
However, a recent article in the U.S. News and World report suggests there is much more to it than all of that. New research shows that people, who have their first drink as a young adult – prior to age 18, increase their risk of becoming alcoholics.
"The key finding of this study was that people who started drinking before age 15, and to a lesser extent those who started drinking at ages 15 to 17, were more likely to become alcohol-dependent as adults than people who waited until 18 or older to start drinking," corresponding study author Deborah A. Dawson, a staff scientist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said in a news release from the institute.
Underage drinking isn’t something to take lightly. It can be the first step to a lifetime of alcohol abuse.
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