The James Logan Courier

By Sarena Bains, Courier Staff Writer

It is no surprise that underage drinking is becoming a bigger issue everyday. Parents and guardians are important role models for their children—even children who are fast becoming teenagers. Parents need to be more aware of what is happening in their child's life. Even if parents want to deny the fact, there is a major increase in the chance that their children is at least part of the quarter of underage consumption of beer and alcohol.

Parents think " Oh not my wonderful children, " said Orinda a parenting expert. Many parents do not even assume that their children would be capable of doing this. Alcohol abuse is a significant problem among young people. Parents are just in denial and if this continues it will become an even bigger problem. According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, this is a major issue with over 11 million youth from ages 12 ‑ 20.

The most recent data collected shows that teens are starting to drink at much younger ages. Binge drinking is at its all time highest point at the moment having reported nearly 7.2 million teens participating in it. Many teens admit to having consumed alcohol until they become very drunk or even throw up.

What is astonishing is the number of middle school students that are drinking. Drinking is becoming " the cool thing to do, it is becoming much more excepted."

Even 9 ‑ 13 year old have admitted to being part of the spreading epidemic. A fifth of California's seventh graders have admitted to consuming at least one alcoholic drink.

The number of students who drink alcohol gets even higher when asking high school and college students. At least a quarter of the states freshman and 41 percent of its juniors have gotten drunk at least once already in their life.

Parents may deny that their own children are doing this or even some who are aware of this situation tend to point fingers at television shows or even music as a major influence. But among teens the impact of television pressure rarely even effects them, since unsupervised teen partying is a weekend occurrence. Parents need to be much more aware what their children are capable of doing.

" They drink to have fun. I'm not sure if showing consequences makes much difference," said the Diablo Valley College psychology professor. Teens main focus is on the do now think later approach.

The main focus health experts have is the dramatic impact alcohol has on teenage sexual activity, physical assault and teen driving deaths. Recent research has tied teens who drink before the age of 15 to be four times more likely to develop alcohol dependency as an adult.