In Psychology, students learn about alcohol as a depressant: something that lowers vital activities — a sedative. Simply from this definition, one can draw the conclusion that good things rarely come from consuming alcohol.
Against the law
Illegal. This word pertains to many things ranging from vandalism to murder.
Yet, within the walls of Blue Valley Southwest, alcohol is an issue that stands out.
Unless a person is 21 years of age or older, consuming alcohol is flat-out illegal. There are no loopholes and no excuses for underage drinking. In many instances, teenage drinking is the result of peer pressure from one’s friends. Even under extreme circumstances, being peer pressured is never an excuse to drink under-aged.
Although the drinking age set in stone, many teenage rebels like to booze away the blues and kick back with a cold one.
No logic exists in the inability to wait the four or so years until legally able to consume alcohol. While you may be given temporary relief from your day to day insanities, the aftermath of alcohol is not worth a short-lived, alcohol-induced high.
Over-Publicized and Glamorized
They appear in the photos of many party-goers, and add splashes of color and ounces of booze to any party scene. Needless to say, by the end of the night, the red plastic cups are the life of the party.
After long weekends, you can expect to see photos from ‘partayyys’ littering the news feed on your Facebook home page. Over the following hours, people click aimlessly through the montage of pictures taken throughout the previous nights.
These viewers are simply seeing what these party-goers wanted them to see — that they are “cool.”
With groups of girls gathering together to fit into the camera’s viewfinder, it is common to see a majority of them ‘attempting’ to conceal cans, bottles or those red cups containing alcohol behind the person next to them. It doesn’t take much brain power to conclude that more drinking than anything occurs at these gatherings.
Although it seems distasteful, tales of a Friday night spent ‘trashed’ make their way to more than just Facebook.
While sitting in class during a group discussion, the last thing one should hear is a student announcing just how ‘hammered’ they were Saturday night, or how they were totally ‘smashed’ at a party the previous weekend. Why people find this information necessary to share at school while in the presence of teachers is beyond most.
It is now becoming more apparent that the ‘cool-meter’ is easily swayed by alcohol, as are the many teenagers who attend these parties.
Even as teenagers, there is an unlimited number of ways to gain access to alcohol. Be it through a friend of a friend or by raiding your parents’ liquor cabinet, no circumstance will make the underage consumption of alcohol any less illegal. With risks of vomiting, blackouts and even liver disease, drinking alcohol is not worth your time. So, the answer to avoiding these risks is simple: don’t drink. It’s unhealthy, uncool, and unnecessary. Being cool is easy — just ‘lose the booze’.
In order to support teenage drinking prevention, purchase a “Lose the Booze” bracelet, which will be sold by BVNW at the Jan. 25 and 28 varsity basketball games for $4 per bracelet.
