More Teens Are Leaving The Malt Shop For The Beer Cooler

Growing up my parents would let me have a beer or 2 every now and then or a glass of wine with dinner, and as I got older would let me drink "harder" stuff, but if I consumed any alcohol when I was younger (mid teens) I couldn't go anywhere for the night or as an older teen I had to be picked up by a friend. Their thoughts were that if I was monitored I was less likely to abuse alcohol when I got into college and such. It was the same story for my brother and now that my sister is in high school, the same rules apply to her, but she's too straight edge. And as it turns out, I'm now of legal age and because I wasn't just dumped into this booze soaked world known as college I know my limits, I know when to cut myself off and I know which liquors I can handle and which I can't. I have a very healthy respect for liquor after having a close friend die of alcohol poisoning and I truely belive that if kids are educated through example it sticks with them more than any lecture of "Don't Drink," because the first time they go to any sort of party they're going to be so overwelmed they won't know which way to turn and if someone offers them a mixed drink like vodka and punch or rum and coke and they don't know what alcohol tastes like they may find themselves in serious trouble.

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My dad was always trying to get my brother to sit down "and have a drink with your old man" when we were teenagers. My brother would tell him no thanks, which irked him no end. Neither of us could understand why he would encourage the behavior when the parents of so many of our peers would give anything if their kids weren't "going drinking" or using drugs or smoking. (All of us kids gave a wide berth, steering clear of kids who did that. Our thinking wasn't that we were better than those who did these things; it was just that we didn't see how any good could possibly come from it.) That was forty years ago and, to this day, he still doesn't use alcohol or drugs. The rest of us have an occasional drink with dinner.

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Parents need to wake up!!! How is it you can't tell whether or not your kid has been smoking pot??? Unless you were born in the 40's or a sheltered life in the 50's, most parents born in the 60's and 70's should know what pot smells like!!! My God-son tells me a lot of his friends smoke pot and even more smoke cigarettes and apparently all the parents are clueless!!! Of course he's been offered to smoke w/ them and when I asked him why he didn't, he said it's just not him, he wants to conserve his health for sports. I told him I was no angel when I was younger but if you're serious about sports, he's right not to smoke anything ever and more importantly when he was growing up, his parents and I taught him to respect us and respect authority and basically "Don't F*** Up!" He has grown up not wanting to disappoint us, he's an honor student and star athlete, girls love him cause he's cute, tall and a gentleman and guys like him cause he's a great athlete and a great friend. All this because he had a strict up-bringing and he always had someone besides a parent he could turn to, I'm glad i was that guy, and by the way, he's only 13 and yes quite a few of his 13 year old friends are smokers, WAKE UP PARENTS!!!!

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Kids use because they are bored, peer pressure, cause its cool, cause the cool guy in the movie he just saw does it, let's face it many times drugs and alcohol are glorifed in the media. Kids don't smoke because of Joe Camel, they smoke because Johnny Depp smokes or Robert Pattinson smokes or whoever the cool kid is in the movies these days. Teens only started wearing white tee-shirts in the 50's cause Marlon Brando did in a movie, men stopped wearing hats in the 60's because Kennedy didn't, we're all sheep, whether its fashion, drugs, alcohol or religion, people need to belong.

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LOL, I gotta say it's true. . . Being High Does FEEL GOOD. . . . I hate Booz. . . could never enjoy havin a drink cuz of the taste, but I smoked Weed through 10-12th grade and Graduated with a 4.0, I am 25 now and have a great life. . . My parents both smoked weed till a few years ago but that never played a factor into my use of it. . . I had access to it, I knew where they kept it and could at any time took a lil, but never did. . . a friend of mine had it and I tryed it and it just worked for me, I was less depressed, I thought more about what I wanted out of life, I concentrated like hell on the things I was doing. .. .LOL instead of going out partying with friends I'd just go to a friends house, smoke out and do homework or talk about life. . . . . I hate how people are so quick to demonize weed LOL, especialy people who have never used it ! ! ! I had stopped for a long time and ended up with post-pardum depression, before I was diagnosed I smoked a little here and threre and it helped me get through, so I now have a legal perscription and am thankful for it!!

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