Teens and Alcohol Addiction

This biggest cause for this increase in alcohol consumption in minors is most likely attributed to the release of RTD (ready to drink) beverages, such as Mike’s hard lemonade and many, many others. These RTD beverages are made with high content alcohols, like bourbon, whiskey and vodka, making these drinks far more dangerous than the beer previous generations were getting into as teens. 

Furthermore, these RTD drinks are marketed to and for kids. They sometimes look like a soda bottle, have fun, vibrant labeling, and taste like lemonade or juice! This last factor, these RTD drinks tasting like lemonade or juice, is the most troublesome part about these drinks; kids don’t realize just how much alcohol they are drinking because it tastes so good to them. 

It has been reported that teenagers, on an average night out with their friends, will drink about eight of these standard drinks. Considering that each of these RTD drinks generally contains more than one drinks worth of alcohol, and these teenagers don’t have the body weight, tolerance or responsibility to handle this amount of alcohol, society is faced with a dilemma. 

Too many children and teens are falling victims to alcohol, as well as other drugs. However, because of alcohol’s accessibility and cheap cost, it is becoming the drug of choice for children as early as age eight. Children that start drinking at this young of an age usually end up with addiction issues by the time their eleven or twelve (as stated above) and also are causing great amounts of brain damage. 

A child’s brain is not fully developed until about the age of twenty – twenty-two. If a child is drinking heavy amounts of hard alcohol during this crucial time of brain development, there can be devastating effects in the long term. 

Sources: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10847876