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Would You Let Your Kids Drink In Your House?

When I was a student of the 60’s, the average teen had their first drink at age 19. Today, the average male has his first drink at age 11 and the average female has her first drink at age 13.

I am involved with an underage drinking prevention coalition in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, though we network with state and national leaders in our effort. Underage drinking, the leading cause of death among teens, is an emerging public health crisis, and, in my opinion, is comparable to the history of the tobacco industry, only much more costly to society.

Alcohol is the drug of choice for teens, and kills more of them than all of the other drugs combined. This does not even take into consideration its adverse effects on their health, education, or welfare.

Yet, it has amazed me, both in and out of my courtroom (I continue judicial assignments around the State), the attitudes of resistance that originate from some parents. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, my guess is that they simply have no comprehension of the frequency and levels at which their children are drinking or the dangers of underage drinking. It’s further complicated by the fact that they view the issue through a prism of their own lives as teens. Unfortunately, those days no longer exist.

I admit that my perspective is influenced by a court filter of violence (homicides, assaults, rapes, etc); other serious crime; suicide; spousal and child abuse; death and injury on our highways; non-highway related accidental death and injury; broken careers, lives and relationships; alcoholism (it’s estimated that 3 million teens are alcoholics with another several million with an alcohol problem incapable of self-management); etc, etc, etc. – all with alcohol as a common denominator. 75% of “date rapes” involve alcohol as a factor. My guess is that the societal cost of tobacco pales in comparison to the societal cost of alcohol. In all of my years in the legal profession, I have never heard someone say they committed a crime or some other harmful act because they were under the influence of a cigarette.

Though their glamorous advertising would never convey the dark side of their product, no one understands alcoholism or the negative results of alcohol consumption better than the alcohol industry. They don’t talk about it and hope that you won’t either.

Our effort is aimed at protecting young lives from being corrupted by alcohol before they ever get started. I understand the immaturity of judgment in a 15-yearl old. After all, if your view of alcohol is shaped by the advertising of the industry, you don’t know what you don’t know. But I have an often unmet expectation that adults will actually exercise adult judgment about this issue. Alcohol abuse by children is serious, and it’s time for adults to get serious about it.

Delaying the onset of drinking from teen years is critical. Studies find that a teen drinker of 15 is four times more likely to suffer long-term alcohol abuse issues than one who delays onset of consumption until age 21.

Best wishes,

Ronald E. Bogle
Superior Court Judge (Retired)
Mediator & Arbitrator
P.O. Box 227
Raleigh, NC 27602-0227
(919) 931-0164