How Young is Too Young: Underage Drinking

I’m now 16 and a sophomore, and I can vouch for people in my grade when I say they have been heavily drinking for at least a year now. The majority of the graduating class of 2011 hadn’t started drinking till summer going into Junior year. Class of 2012, most started shotgunning beers, spiking drinks, and taking shots Sophomore year. Then there was my class, the class of 2013, taking a step down and beginning yet another year earlier. The worst so far though is the current Freshman class, class of 2014; partying hard since eighth grade. There seems to be a pattern, each class seems to start the drinking trend earlier then the grade above them. Why does the age keep lowering?

Maybe it’s because each grade looks up to the grade above them. They see them as the “cool” kids, the kids they want to be like. When a freshman hears about a sophomore getting hammered on a Saturday night, they want to try it.

Or maybe it’s because partying and drinking is portrayed as the norm in movies and T.V. shows. Media shows that it’s okay to get drunk. Take the show Gossip Girl for example, high school aged kids living in New York who come home drunk on school nights. Hollywood celebs receiving MIP’s and DUI’s is published everywhere.

Either theory leads to the same thing: underage drinking.

The pattern continues to go on and at this rate we may have elementary school kids spiking their Kool-Aid’s and Capri Suns.