Causal Argument

            Alcohol causes people to drink. The mere existence of it is what encourages people to consume it and sometimes over consume it. There is absolutely no argument that if alcohol did not existence, people wouldn’t drink it and would not be impacted by it. Alcohol exists, people drink it. There is a cause and an effect. Alcohol existing is the cause, people dying is the effect. That seems very brutal to say. One simple thing can cause someone to die. That seems like a harsh reality and almost does not seem true, but it is. If alcohol did not exist in our world, millions of people would not be dead as a result of it. Alcohol causes people to drink it, drinking it causes people to get drunk, getting drunk causes people to act irresponsibly, people acting irresponsibly causes drunk driving, drunk driving causes accidents, and accidents cause death. 

            Alcohol causes people to drink, but what causes people to drink alcohol? The answer is many things. Peer pressure, past trauma, stress, anything you could think of could cause a person to drink alcohol. Many people waste time trying to find deep answers to this question but fail to see that the answer is unanswerable. People drink to drink. They don’t drink to answer the question of why their parents got a divorce or why their spouse left them. They drink because they can. Sure, some people can say that they drink to forget things or to distract themselves from their world falling around them. No one in their right mind would say that they drink to get themselves in an accident and kill someone, but this is usually the case. When people abuse alcohol, something is bound to go wrong, there is almost no way that everyone involved can make it out of a situation such as that unscathed, which can answer why so many teens find themselves in motor vehicle accidents or fatalities caused by drinking and driving. 

            Adolescent years are a hard time for many. They can cause depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, and a number of different things, but for now the one that should be focused on is substance abuse. As a result of immense stress people look for ways to relieve that stress and for many college aged students this comes in the form of drinking. Since it can be a lot harder to achieve this while under the age of 21 (but certainly not impossible) many college students abuse alcohol. It is a simple statement because it is a simple fact. Many college students consume more alcohol than they should as a result of stress or different anxieties. When faced with so much trouble that these students are turned to drink, they cannot be expected to make good decisions, especially when under the influence of alcohol. This is the cause of so many young adults making the terrible decisions to drink and drive. When all of these factors are mixed together it produces a recipe for immediate disaster and destruction. As people age and mature they are able to make better decisions when it comes to drinking alcohol and in turn driving under the influence, rather making the decision to not drive even remotely under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 

            The stress that students face causes them to be targeted. Anyone in charge of selling or manufacturing alcohol and related products uses the fact that college aged students are more susceptible to alcoholism and substance abuse against them. If the demographic for their restaurant or their company is new 21-year-olds in need of a way to relieve themselves of the stress of their hectic weeks, they are going to be sure to reach that demographic in any way they are able to. If this means exploiting them and putting them in danger of over consumption, that does not matter. The fact that these students are overworked and overwhelmed causes companies to target their demographic. This in turn causes young adults to allow themselves to be targeted by buying into their scheme to sell their product. This causes them to drink, sometimes more than they should, which as said before starts the snowball effect of them consuming too much alcohol and ending up in an accident directly causes by their decision to drink and drive. This just continues to show us that the age of 21 is a terrible age to have adults start drinking. It is, as said before, a recipe for disaster that cannot be avoided. While it can be argued that everyone has stress not just college students, that is easily refuted. At such a young age many do not know how to handle this stress. As people age, they are faced with more turmoil and tragedy that they are taught how to deal with and overcome. At the age of 21 this stress cannot be avoided easily. Raising this age would cause problems without a doubt as it would simply prolong these fatalities but doing more to eradicate the root of the problem which is America’s mental health crisis, more specifically regarding teenagers and young adults can be an immediate solution. 

            Alcohol causes people to drink, and people drinking causes drunk driving fatalities. This is an inarguable fact. There is not one intelligent person who can confidently say that alcohol does not cause drunk driving. There are many other things that need to be taken into consideration, though. What causes people to drink, what causes people to drink too much, and what causes people to be so irresponsible when it comes to drinking and driving. These questions can be answered by the restrictions put into place by a corrupt system. In this country young adults are prohibited from drinking alcohol until they reach the age that “their brains are fully developed”. Their brains that carry the burdens of constant stress at a time where mental illness is as common as a cold. Is that really the best time to release kids into the world of drinking?