Socially Acceptable Poison
By:Ryleigh Lightbourn
My friend and I were sitting at a table in my high school foyer when she finally asked me, “Why are you so against drinking?” My response was simple. Alcohol is poisonous. Two students also sitting at the table rolled their naïve eyes and uttered airy words that falsely contradicted my own. These two students represent most teens today.
After countless presentations on the dangers of drinking, and hours spent in D.A.R.E., teens still struggle to believe the facts. If asked, most can spew out a stream of information relating to reasons against drinking, although they don’t actually understand the meanings behind the phrases. Too many people fall victim to the stereotype that drinking is an essential part of teenage life.
I’ve heard a particular phrase repeated many times before: it’s what teens do. That may be true. Over a quarter of Canadian thirteen year-olds drink alcohol. Twenty-four percent of sixteen year-olds drink every weekend, and only twenty-three percent have never tried booze. The statistics only increase as teens approach graduation. However, the statistics don't tell it all.
Yes, we can say we know the numbers, but we don't know why. If there were statistics equivalent to these for teens doing heroin or cocaine, would the phrase be changed to ‘heroin is just something that teens do’? If an innocent teenager was going to a party for the first time and someone offered them a line, they would refuse. They know cocaine is a destructive drug, and they treat alcohol like a soda beverage.
Many repeating sources including CBC News claim that alcohol is worse than heroin or crack cocaine. Alcohol is ranked to be more dangerous due to its range of effects on both society and the user. Think back on the questioned teen at the party. Perhaps if the offer had been a drink, and society recognized the dangers of alcohol for what they truly are, then that teen would refuse this offer as well.
The only wall preventing the defeat of teen alcoholism is a stereotype. That’s it.
If teens didn’t believe that a buzz was something required for a full, fun, youthful life, then most wouldn’t drink. They go to parties because they're expected to party. Society doesn't care about alcohol.
This situation compares to other stereotypes that have been recently destroyed. When one thinks back to 1965, the picture of a teen has a cigarette placed delicately between her fingers, slowly wasting away onto the ground. At least forty-two percent of teens smoked in the sixties. It was normal to smoke. The well renowned phrase was: smoking is cool. However, today most teens think smoking is disgusting. The statistics dropped below twenty percent after people realized the negative affects of inhaling tar. Society noticed this, yet allowed an important fact to slip under the radar. Smoking doesn’t affect nearly as many organs as alcohol.
When the information is thrown down, alcohol is poison. Mental effects such as delusions and psychosis. Cancer in the mouth, anemia, heart diseases, liver diseases, stomach diseases, pancreas diseases, diabetes type two, the list goes on. These may be long term affects, but who starts drinking as a teen and doesn’t continue? Isn’t alcohol more socially acceptable as an adult?
Even though more than five thousand teens die each year in alcohol related deaths, and seventy percent of teens who commit suicide drink on a regular basis, they still do it. Even though schools have tried to educate students countless times, they don’t truly believe it. The curiosity for the ideal teenage life is too overwhelming. The black outs, vomiting, and impaired intelligence are just too tantalizing for their excitement hungry minds. The countless pop songs brainwashing teens to “make the most of the night like [they’re] going to die young” only add to the curiosity. What makes matters worse is the fact that they most likely will die younger as a result of drinking.
Stereotypes are out there to be broken. Teenage drinking is simply another way of life that is hopefully approaching the chopping block. It's only a matter of time with the increase in healthy life styles that people live today. Perhaps all it will take is one generation to say that it's not “cool” to drink. A generation that will have posters plastered on the walls of their parties that read: Alcohol Free Zone. A generation that won't roll there eyes at the facts. This is the generation that I want to see.