A major epidemic is hitting this country. Alcohol consumption among minors is spreading like a virus. It's not just college teens who drink; there are numerous kids in high school, middle school and even elementary school! How did we let it get this far? There are no more excuses for being oblivious. Underage drinking is right before our eyes. It is killing our children. The good news is that this is a problem that can be solved. There is no way to completely eliminate underage drinking, but it is possible to significantly reduce it. With the efforts of the government, parents and the media, we can significantly reduce underage drinking. We need to start educating our children that alcohol is a dangerous drug. We need to start setting better examples for our children. The government needs tougher laws for underage drinkers. The government must also enforce these laws more effectively. The media must stop targeting today's youth. Our society needs a change of mentality. Drinking at a young age is happening; It's serious, but it can be prevented. Drinking starts at a young age. A third of fourth graders were forced to drink alcohol, and more than half were pressured starting in sixth grade. By eighth grade, nearly fifty percent of all teens have had at least one drink. Then, by twelfth grade, more than eighty percent of all adolescents had a drink and sixty-four percent were drunk (Youth and Underage Drinking: An Overview). These are shocking and surprising facts to some. But the truth is that it is there. What's the deal with all these underage drinking? There are many people who don't think that drinking at a young age is harmful. There have also been advocates of changing the drinking age to eighteen. This is absolutely absurd. Alcohol can cause many problems for anyone, but especially for teenagers. By raising the minimum drinking age to twenty-one in 1975, an estimated 20,000 lives were saved (Alcohol Alert). Drinking and driving has a lot to do with this statistic. Even though alcohol is illegal for people under the age of twenty-one, teenagers have double the number of drunk driving fatalities than drivers over the age of twenty-one. Every day three teenagers die from drunk driving (Alcohol Alert). These statistics are incredible, considering that alcohol is illegal for these teenagers. Can you imagine what's in the middle of the paper...and it's too late.Works Cited?Alcohol Alert.? National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. April 2003. December 9, 2006. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa59.htmArmstrong, Elizabeth. ?The new face of underage drinking: Adolescent girls.? The Christian Science Monitor. July 8, 2004. December 9, 2006.http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0708/p01s01-ussc.html?Executive Summary.? Alcohol advertising on television 2001-2003. 2003. The Centeron Alcohol Marketing and Youth. December 9, 2006. http://camy.org/research/tv1004/Nuwer, Hank. Passing Mistakes: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999?STOP Underage Drinking Act: An Important First Step.? Alcohol advertising on television 2001-2003. July 21, 2004. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. December 9, 2006.http://camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=23?Youth and underage drinking: An overview.? Alcohol and Drugs Information.Health.org. December 9, 2006.http://www.health.org/govpubs/rpo990/?Youth Statistics.? Statistics and resources. CRAZY. December 9th