Underage Drinking

Do you remember your first taste? That first sip of an alcoholic beverage? Whether you snuck a glass of champagne at a wedding or you stole one of your dad’s beers from the garage, whether you happened to sit down at a table setting with a wine glass or an older friend offered you a pull from his flask -- you had a curious thirst that had to be quenched. What possessed you to do it? Did you want to be like the grown-ups? Did you think it would make you cooler? Did you like it?

I asked a few people about their first experiences with alcohol. Most said their first taste was given them from a parent or trusted relative. Sheila was about nine years old and recalls thinking her dad’s beer was “so foul, I couldn’t believe anyone would want to drink it.” Matt was twelve. He told me: “My grandpa’s whiskey burned my throat and made me gag. He said it would put hair on my chest.” At ten, Bill tried some red wine after his “lush” aunt handed him a glass. “I thought it was okay, like weird juice.” Another guy, a country-boy I know, said his parents gave him blackberry brandy as a child when he was stuffed-up or had a sore throat.

It seemed to me that that first taste was no more than an innocent offering, a harmless introduction to something capable of ruining lives. Ask someone about their first time getting seriously intoxicated however, and you’re almost guaranteed a different response.

Most were about seventeen or eighteen years old. Most also said their first drunk was an unpleasant, forgettable one – one not permitted (or supervised) by their parents. You could blame it on the reckless gusto of teenagers, their ignorance of the ‘look-before-you-leap’ adage, or their eagerness to fit in with their peers. I think that most kids, having little to no experience drinking alcohol, simply don’t know their limits.While everybody I asked remembers exactly what they were drinking, their memories of what followed are often blurry. One common thread runs through everyone’s account: sickness. Emily spiked a Slurpee with rum and stained her shirt and pants with blue-colored vomit. James drank Southern Comfort with Dr. Pepper and barfed on a campfire. Andrew drank 40 ounces of Olde English and puked in a friend’s car. Sarah drank Lemon-flavored MD 20/20; she was hungover for two days. Alex broke his parents’ glass coffee table, threw up and peed his pants after drinking too many Coors Lights. Jessica drank a succession of vodka shots, didn’t get sick, but got disoriented. She ended up alone in the woods, missing a shoe, after the cops broke up the party she ditched her dad’s birthday to attend.

It seems that everyone has had a bad experience with alcohol, either in high school or college, while pursuing inebriation. Though all the people with whom I spoke told their stories with a fond smile and a chuckle, there are many who can’t look back and laugh, whose bad experiences didn’t just end with a hangover. Many people end up with court dates. Worse, some end up as parents, some end up hurt. Indeed, alcohol use can be fun – but alcohol abuse is no laughing matter.

I think the lessons learned from underage drinking, often hard ones, are necessary ones. They teach us about ourselves. They reinforce the fact that all of our actions have consequences, good and bad. They inform us of our limits and help us realize when enough is enough. That’s not to say that every young person should get wasted as part of their continuing education, no. But every young person, should they get wasted, ought to come away from it having gained some kind of knowledge about, and awareness of, themselves. And knowledge (wait for it...) is power.