Substance abuse is a growing problem among youth today and the number one course for mental health illness amongst adult. Working in the health care, I have seen youths and adults come to the hospital for medical injures that were cause by a substance. Among the many substances are alcohol and the use of drugs, which I plan to elaborate in this paper. Alcohol and drug go hand in hand, when the consumption of alcohol is in progress; the tendency to be influence by drug is very high. As explained by (Jones and Lachman) alcohol was seen as the most consumed drug that was common among underage leading to more health problems and death total (p.138). The study went further to explain that underage drinking can be very detrimental to the youth, …show more content…
The adolescent brain is still growth and undergoing many changes that alcohol can influence their decision. There is a significant change going on in the youth’s brain that can easily be influence by the consumption of alcohol causing a big impact to their brain as it fully form (Jones and Lachman, 2011). I believe that the drinking age should be change from 21 to 25 this give the teen enough time to be involve in responsible activities by the time they are 25 years of age they can make better priority with alcohol being the less. According to Jones and Lachman (2011), States that mad an adjustment to their minimal legal drinking age (MLDA) to match the voting age from 21to 18 in1971 saw a significant increase in traffic accidents among ages 18-20years. The study went further to justify the fact a reduction to age 18 had an increase to traffic crashes while an increase to age 21 had a decrease with the rate of traffic crashes. (P. 139) conforming the fact that the older the teen the better for his or her decision. At the age of 18 years, teens have not had enough time to make better decision compare with the amount of crashes that teen cause while under the influence of