It is a graduation requirement to take a health class which teaches of the many risks of drinking. You’ve seen the public service announcements on TV and listened to the majority of lectures our parents have given us. Yet high school students continue to drink under-age.
I overhear it at lunch all the time: “Hey, what did you do this weekend?” and in response, “I went to a party and got wasted, dude. It was so awesome!”
Perhaps there is a sort of incurable boredom, an epidemic in high school, which makes students believe there is nothing else better to do with life except to drown their struggles with a bottle of booze.
For some, it does consume their life.
According to surveys done by the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), individuals who begin drinking before the age of 21 are more likely to become alcohol dependent than those who begin drinking at the age of 21. More than 5-million high school students binge drink at least once a month.
When I questioned some of my fellow classmates about their destructive behaviors, I got the same response each time. “I’m totally responsible when I drink. I never drive or get in the car with people who are drinking.”
How can this be when alcohol is a sensory inhibiting drug? Or in other words, you lose your ability to make safe decisions.
That’s why in 2000, there were 2,339 alcohol-related fatalities among people ages 15 to 20 nation-wide. That’s a lot of deaths and many hurting family and friends.
I’m sure most of those kids never meant for someone to get hurt. They thought they could be responsible too. Alcohol is a drug that changes people and warps their ability to make good choices.
And what about the families of the innocent? Teenage drinking and driving also kills innocent victims. How would if feel to commit murder?
The next time you hear about a friend’s wasted weekend, think about the people that will miss them if something were to happen to them while under the influence.
It’s true, terrible things happen with or without the influence of alcohol, but why increase the risk of tragedy?
All those corny phrases you heard about alcohol and drug use when you took health class still ring true.
Just say no.