Why Is the Highway Safety Office Involved in Underage Drinking Projects?
The areas of the brain that encourage impulsivity and risk-taking develop early in teens, while the area that improves self-control does not develop until the very late teens or early twenties. Youth under the age of 21 lack experience in driving vehicles. They have not had time to develop safe driving skills and gain experience. These two factors added together create seriously dangerous conditions combining underage drinking and inexperienced drivers on our roads and highways. In Utah, one in ten kids experiment with alcohol in elementary school, and binge drinking is a common activity by the 10th grade. Because the pleasure/reward centers in a teen’s brain are still forming (and are highly affected by alcohol), more than 40 percent of those who start drinking before age 15 will become alcohol dependant at some point during their lives, compared to just 7 percent of those who wait until the legal age of 21. Alcohol is a gateway drug. Teens who start drinking by age 15 are 67% more li
Related Questions
- I m in state government (the highway safety department, department of public health, substance abuse office, department of education, etc). Can our agency become the state coordinator?
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