Alcohol is becoming increasingly easy to get for teenagers. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol. This shows just how easy it is to get alcohol at such a young age. Hopefully children and teens will read this and know just how bad alcohol is for them, and will shy away from it. Children and teens that drink alcohol can damage their bodies in short term and long term.

Alcohol is a very bad drug. Yes, alcohol is considered a drug. As stated on medicinetnet.com each year, almost 2,000 people under the age of 21 years die in car crashes in which underage drinking is involved. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of all violent deaths involving teens. This fact shows just how horrible the effects of alcohol are. Drunk driving is the largest killer of teens.

Also people think that drinking alcohol makes them cool. Well it doesn’t, not at all. The impression is that drinking is cool, but the nervous system changes that come from drinking alcohol can make people do stupid or embarrassing things, says kidshealth.org, such as throwing up or peeing on themselves. Drinking also gives people bad breath, and no one enjoys a hangover. So yes, if peeing yourself and throwing up all over yourself is cool then drink alcohol. This shows how bad alcohol is for teens.

In the long term effect alcohol can cause brain damage in a person. Also it can cause a heart attack or a stroke. All of this is because of heavy drinking of course. According to medicinenet.com, the younger a person is when they begin drinking, the more likely they are to develop a problem with alcohol. This shows if someone begins drinking at a young age they can become an alcoholic later in life, and have some long term effects like above. Still want to drink alcohol at such a young age?

In the short term effect alcohol can actually end someone’s life. Say someone is driving home from party where they had a few drinks; their reflexes are a lot more impaired than if they were sober. Instead of breaking at a stop sign they blow right through it and hit a vehicle and kill themselves. If they don’t kill themselves they could kill the other driver. That person would go to jail for a long time, and have the guilt of killing someone. Still want to drink?

Really the only thing that someone can do to stop this is have self-control. Don’t drink because it is the “cool” thing to do. It is stupid. If they just wait later in life they will be reaping the benefits of having an alcohol free life. They will be successful while their so called “friends” will be dealing with the long term effects of their choice back in high school.