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Underage drinking and driving becoming a major issue in Texas

By Staff Writer

Drinking and driving is a serious issue, but the problem can be even worse for teens. In order to uncover why more efforts are not taken to prevent intoxicated driving among adolescents, the Dallas Morning News investigated the Texas legal system.

The results of the research show that the state fails to provide effective punishment, alcohol treatment or proper tracking of young repeat offenders. According to the news source, about 8 percent of children under age 17 who have committed an alcohol-related driving offense in the Dallas municipal court system will commit several more similar crimes before they reach the legal drinking age of 21.

Additionally, about 30 percent of those aged 17 to 20, who had been arrested in Dallas County for drunken driving in the past decade, committed the same offense as adults.

The punishment for these crimes is often a warning, and repeat offenders can usually expect low-level misdemeanors such as "minor DUI," "minor in consumption" and "minor in possession."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2009 Monitoring the Future Survey revealed that 37 percent of eighth graders have experimented with alcohol.

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