Today’s report, the centers second on the subject, involved a survey of 2,000 students and 400 administrators as well as 6 national studies. The center found that “the situation on America’s campuses has deteriorated” since 1993 when it underwent its first study. In the year 2002, approximately sixty-nine percent of college students drank alcohol in the past month compared to sixty percent of their non-enrolled college peers. Five percent of college students drank alcohol daily compared to four percent of their non-enrolled peers. College students are much more likely to engage in binge drinking than non-college students.
Though most illicit drug use by teens declined over the past decade, teen prescription drug misuse steadily increased (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenburg, 2008). In 2003, roughly 2.3 million teens in the U.S. reported lifetime nonmedical use of a prescription drug (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2004). By 2008, that number had jumped to 4.7 million teens, or one roughly in five teens in the U.S. (Partnership Tracking Study [PATS], 2009). In contrast, from 2002 to 2008, reported lifetime marijuana use among teens aged 12 to 17 decreased from 20.6 % to 16.5 % (SAMHSA, 2009). In addition, of the estimated 1.7 million emergency room visits in the U.S. in 2006 related to drug misuse, more than 700,000
Background Approximately 15,000 people die each year by overdosing on opioids, a rate that has more than tripled since 1990 (Wermeling, 2012). The annual incidence of opioid over dose associated mortality on a nationwide scale has been difficult to assess due to incomplete reporting systems (Leavitt, S.2010) as well as more than half of over doses go unreported for fears of repercussions (kuehn,2014). In Massachusetts these over doses have killed more than car crashes each year since 2005 (Wermeling, 2012). The government had tried numerous strategies to reduce the death toll, including imposing stricter regulations on prescribing medications, prosecuting owners of “pill mills” who dispense the drugs without proper medical evaluation, and tracking data bases to monitor and discourage “doctor shopping” among addicts (Szalvitz,2013). Addiction often begins with a legitimate opioid
Lowering the drinking age Underage drinking has become an epidemic in today’s society among the young generation. Statistics shown more than half of adolescence between the ages of twelve and twenty have at least consumed or encountered alcohol at least twice. Alcohol is the drug of choice to some adolescents. As a result of the adolescent consuming alcohol binge drinking can occur. Frequent adolescents binge drinkers are more likely to engaged in dangerous behaviors such as, partaking other drugs such as, marijuana and cocaine, having multiplies sex partners and earning d’s and f’s for academic grades.
The 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among high school students, during the past 30 days 39% drank some amount of alcohol, 22% binge drank, 8% drove after drinking alcohol and 24% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. Even though it was an American survey the results are still compelling. In 2008, around one in six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over 17% drank at chronic risky/high risk levels. The impacts on underage drinkers are
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes: Men’s March Against Domestic Violence On average, there are 207,754 victims of rape and sexual assault each year in the U.S. This translates to approximately one victim every two minutes. While the instances of rape and sexual assault have generally been on the decline since the early 2000s, it still remains an issue in the U.S., especially in regards to women’s equality. Nearly one in six women are sexually assaulted in the U.S. each year, most of whom are 18 to 24 years old, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In response to the prevalence of sexual violence in the U.S., Frank Baird created what is now the national movement, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, the International Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence, in 2001.
Therefore that is why the drinking age shouldn’t be lowered to less than 21 years of age. Descriptive Argument: Alcohol is a big problem in the United States of America. In fact; more than 75,000 deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption each year and the economic costs associated with alcohol problems total more than $184 billion annually (US Department of justice2002). While about 43 percent of adult drinkers report heavy drinking on one or more occasions in the past month, 50 percent of 12- to 14-year-old drinkers, 65 percent of 15- to 17-yearold drinkers and 72 percent of 18- to 20-year-old drinkers report heavy drinking in the past month (US Department of Justice 2002).While Americans are bombarded with $4 billion of alcohol marketing each year. Alcohol advertising and product placements are very common and often occur on television and in radio shows for which the majority of the audience is underage, on Internet sites attractive to young people, and on billboards and in retail outlets where young people are frequently present.
Florida alone had 354,000 teen births between 1991 and 2004, costing taxpayers $8.1 billion. On a local level, Orange County, Florida, had 1771 teen births in 2004, costing the county around $36 million (“State of denial:,” n.d.). From a socioeconomic standpoint, teen births in the UNITED STATES are too high to confine the data to one economic group or household makeup. More encouragingly, the teen birth rate for young women between the ages of 15 and 19 decreased by 2% in 2007/2008 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Birth rates data for ethnic groups showed a decrease across the boards according to the National Center for Health Statistics (“The national campaign,” 2011).
Alcohol can put this sort of development to a stop, which puts the young adult at a much higher risk for addiction, depression, violence, and increases the chances of suicide. Having the drinking age set at 21 lowers the overall amount of alcohol consumption. There was a study back in 2002 to prove this. The results showed an 87% decrease in alcohol consumption with a higher legal drinking age. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) did some research in 2009 and found that nighttime drivers’ percentage on the weekend with a BAC of .08 had dropped from 5.4% back in 1986 when there was a lower drinking age, to 2.2 %.
Between 1993 and 2001, juvenile arrests for murder declined, with the number of arrests in 2001 (1,400) about one-third that in 1993” (). There were also declines in arrest rates for juveniles who committed crimes such as burglary which declined 66% between 1980 and 2001, and aggravated assault which declined in the youngest juveniles by 9% and the oldest juveniles at 38% (). In 2001, the arrest rate for juveniles for property related offenses reached the lowest percentage since the 1960’s (). Increase in Drug Offense and Simple Assault However, with the decrease in violent crime arrests among juveniles, the arrest rate for drug offenses and simple assaults increased. Implications for Juvenile Females and Minorities Assessment of Tracking Juvenile Arrest References