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10th graders drinking kind of weirds me out. (I was in 11th grade the first time I drank).
Then again, in my city underage drinking really is the norm. In my graduating class, only 1 person I know doesn’t drink (but she’ll have a glass of wine with her parents). A week after graduation, 2 of the 3 straight-edge kids went to a pool party and got buzzed.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m a rising sophomore, and it seems like, most of the freshman at my school always partied last year. I saw some of them, everyone drinks. I don’t mind the taste of alcohol for most things, but you can find some pretty good tasting stuff. Not all alcohol tastes bad. But the good stuff costs more lol.</p>
<p>However, less people smoke pot. I’ve been to a few peoples houses where the parents don’t care as long as we stay there. I think if done safely it really shouldn’t matter.</p>
<p>Pot isn’t big where I live. Mainly vodka. But about one-third of the students drink regularly, if that.</p>
<p>you know, it IS possible to drink YUMMY drinks (like daquiris, punch, etc) and get a BUZZ without being drunk. all of that is possible without a hangover or memory gaps. im sure most of the people on here who are bashing it have never tried drinking, or they had a really bad experience with it.</p>
<p>btw i highly respect those who choose not to drink, just dont be so close minded.</p>
<p>S0ad- i agree btw. thats a good analysis</p>
<p>High school and college students see drinking and getting drunk as a novelty. Some like the taste of alcoholic beverages. There are innumerable reasons why people drink/get drunk. Furthermore, people don’t really see it as unethical to drink as a minor and don’t understand why there’s a law banning people under the age of 21 from drinking. After seeing parents and other esteemed people drink alcohol casually for 14+ years, drinking will no longer seem to be that big of a deal. Thus, teens give into whatever reasons they have for drinking without the slightest bit of guilt. Well, that’s my hypothesis. :/</p>
<p>^ Good hypothesis. What I don’t understand is why people who condemn drinking because it is illegal get labeled closed-minded.</p>
<p>^^I’m going to disagree.
It is a novelty, like you said, but for a different reason. Those teens who are going completely wild aren’t doing it because they’ve seen their parents for 14+ years. They’re doing it because alcohol has been placed on a pedestal, so to speak. If it wasn’t so taboo (Europe certainly doesn’t have quite the extreme we do), I doubt so many teens would be crazy about it.
That being said, my parents don’t have any problem with me having a drink at dinner or going out with friends- so long as I’m being safe (and not the stereotypical, ridiculous drunk teenager). When they were my age, 18 was the legal age.</p>
<p>^Baelor, I don’t look down on those who choose not to drink, so long as they don’t look down on me.</p>
<p>^Actually, the popular image of the European drinking law system is largely based on misinformation. My government teacher wrote an extremely persuasive paper on it in which he compared actual statistics (compiled by European governments) and concluded that there was no significant difference pre capita with regard to prevalence of binge drinking among minors and alcohol-related car accidents, but that alcoholism was much more common in the countries with lax laws, that alcoholism contributed heavily to unemployment, and that alcohol-related health problems were much greater drains on the medical systems. He blames the discrepency between assumption and reality on a romanticized view of Europe which is common in our age group as well as our over-eagerness to justify our own habits by criticizing the system.</p>
<p>I know he’s objective, too, because in class he’d talk about his own drinking habits (eg., his doctor tells him that his liver is dying and he can only have two drinks a day, so he “saves up” for the weekend).</p>
<p>“^Baelor, I don’t look down on those who choose not to drink, so long as they don’t look down on me.”</p>
<p>That’s nice. I’m glad to hear you don’t judge others. I look down on the illegal actions of others, though. I think that “acceptance” and “tolerance” has reached a point of total acceptance and total tolerance of anything, which is not the intent at all. Anyhoooooo…</p>
<p>@Johnson181: That’s not what I said. I never said that drinking is a novelty BECAUSE teens see people drinking around them all of the time. I said that there are INNUMERABLE REASONS why teenagers to get drunk at the beginning of my post. Yes, one of the reasons why teenagers might get drunk is because they put alcohol on a pedestal. However, one major factor that ALLOWS them to get drunk REPEATEDLY is the fact that they feel no guilt after seeing so many people around them do it casually for 14+ years. :/</p>
<p>For those that like it, it tastes good. Just like everything. if you don’t like it, just stay away from it and get over it.</p>
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<p>My friends and I saw people casually voting for 18 years, but for some reason most of them didn’t jump on the “binge voting” bandwagon after they turned 18 like I did. :(</p>
<p>She was buzzin’ all over meee, she was buzzin’ all over me, like she fell in love…</p>
<p>I don’t drink often, but I do drink with my friends occasionally for some good ol’ fun. I don’t drink enough to get completely plastered, but enough to get a good buzz going on. When you’re in that state, everything is just light-hearted and fun. I don’t see anything wrong with drinking as long as you don’t let the alcohol control your behavior but rather inhibit it.</p>
<p>^^ i agree. i don’t go out and get drunk every weekend, but it’s common for my friends and i to have a few shots before going out, or something similar. alcohol really lightens the mood and makes everything a lot more fun</p>
<p>Basically, the simplified version, kids think it looks cool, were raised by parents that were users, were too controlled by theire parents and know what to rebel, or, and least likely, they do only because it makes them feel good. </p>
<p>I never drink, or smoke, but I have no problem with those who do. However,since I have been raised in a family in which both parents were alchoholics, if an adult or teen is a “drunk” or alchoholic, I will give them zero respect.</p>
<p>I’m not saying I drink or anything, but I understand that IF one were to drink, it would probably be a blast to lose control for a while and find everything wildly hilarious.</p>
<p>IF I were to drink, it wouldn’t be because of peer pressure or to look cool. It would be really great if you could all cut out your arrogant (and ignorant) assumptions.</p>
<p>When i drink its never enough to be completely wasted. I dont even really get that drunk. When im drinking ill start to feel wierd and i dont really like the feeling so ill stop right there. I have absolutely no problem partying with people who get completelty wasted though. Also is it just me or can anyone else not chug bear? All of my friends can easily, but when i try i gotta stop cause i feel like i gotta throw up</p>
<p>I’m not gonna go out of my way to win this thread so I’ll just say that it’s better to say “**** you” to it all (including fast food) and stay the path of a hardcore athlete.</p>
<p>I do personally think that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 16 or 18. I mean, kids would learn better responsibility with drinking and they would get the whole “excited to drink” thing out of their system before going out in the real world.</p>
<p>I guess it just REALLY REALLY REALLY bugs me when kids do it and think they’re so mature and older than they are. Drinking can be a fun social thing, but doing it because you think you’re cool doing it. . . that’s really lame. And most kids do it for that reason. It’s they’re way of rebelling against society.</p>