People who tend to binge drink, that is drink more than the person can handle in one occasion, are those who are under 21 years old. There is an easy access to alcohol, regardless of age. The underage drinking laws are not very effective as shown in a study by Columbia University's National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse, which states, 12 to 20 year olds are responsible for 11% of the nation's annual alcohol consumption. The study also found "underagers tend to drink irresponsibly, possibly because drinking laws discourage adult supervision"(Conant 2). Because it is illegal for those under 21 years old to buy and consume alcohol, it is more likely for them to hide what they are doing and to be irresponsible about it. For many high school and college students, drinking alcohol is a new experience and most will not understand what their limits are. Therefore, the possibility that these students will make mature decisions about the proper and responsible ways to deal with alcohol consumption is highly unlikely. .
Mother's Against Drunk Driving, MADD, is responsible for much of the hype about underage drinking and it's dangers. MADD helped to pass federal statute 158, which increased the national drinking age to 21 years of age. MADD believes that because of this increase in the drinking age, the drunk-driving deaths have dropped significantly and binge drinking by high school seniors has declined (Hacker 4), unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be way to make an exact correlation between the two facts. There could be some other possible explanations for these numbers, such as changing social norms and safer cars. Alex Palicz, from the National Youth Rights Association, believes MADD to be an "emotionally charged special interest group" and that many studies provided by the MADD are "sponsored by a lot of anti-alcohol groups, so the results of that are rather questionable" (Frazier 3).
