Let My Teenager Drink

T.R. Reid is the author of the essay "Let My Teenager Drink." The

author were a former Tokyo journalist and London Bureau chief for the Washington Post,

now is the Post's Rocky Mountain journalist. The author claimed that teenagers

should be allow to drink, but need to drink safely, legally and under close adult

supervision.

T.R. Reid claimed that prohibition for drink alcohols would only make things

worse, and teenagers are going to drink whether its break the law. According to the

author, teen drinking tends to be a critical issue in United State. In Britain, a 16 years

old can drink beer if the drink is accompanies a meal; however, in the United States

drinking is illegal before the age of 21. According to the author, "American tend to do

their drinking secretly, in the worst possible places, in a dark corner of the park, at the

one house in the neighborhood where adults have left for the weekend, or most

commonly, in the car" (92). The law doesn't prevent teen from drinking, it would only

increase their desires for alcohols.

The rapidly spreading of "binge drinking," is a result of the alcohols prohibition

law. On college campus, this is known as "pregaming," which is to get drunk, and get

good secretly before any social event occurs. In his essay, the author use some of the

educator's viewpoint and says that allowing teenage drinking could prevent the "pre-

game" binge. Then he argue that this would get the school in trouble for go against the

prohibition laws and possibly involves for civil court cases. Furthermore, the dean from a universities says there is nothing that can change the national drinking age and the only

purpose of that law is to prevent teenagers from drinking.

The author use Richard Keeling point to assert that most college students drink

without doing harm to themselves or other people, despite of the legal drinking age.

The author