VIOLENCE IN OUR COMMUNITIES: A COMMENTARY

On Friday, February 10th we had another school shooting.  It happened during lunch hour in a cafeteria filled with elementary children happily eating lunch.  All we can ask is why?  The school is about 20 minutes from my doorstep and diagonally southeast as the crow flies.  I know several of the teachers and students that work and attend this school.  We share sports programs and the arts.  It is a good school.  Who would have thought such a tragedy would strike here and with a child so young carrying a gun and somehow getting it past the eyes of a watchful and caring staff.  It is heartbreaking. 

We don’t think of these things happening is small, rural communities like the one I live in or those children live in but it even happens here.  Why?

When I was growing up we only occasionally heard of a murder, maybe a few more robberies and off and on a case of domestic violence but it was rare, very rare, especially in rural communities and we never heard of such violence and tragedy in our schools.  What has gone wrong?

Where are all this hate, fear, bullying, desperation, violence, vengeance and moral decay coming from?  Is there anything we can do to stop it?  God help us.  I sure don’t have the answer.  I wish I did.

Maybe it is the broken families, lack of stability in the homes.  Both parents work, they have to.  They have no choice.  Maybe it is because there is only one parent to start with and you just can’t be mother and father and bread winner all in the same breath.  Parents are pushed beyond their limits and children end up ignored and without the discipline and moral upbringing they need.  We may love our children but we are too busy trying to survive to let them know just how deeply they are loved.  There is very little if any family unity anymore. 

The TV becomes the nanny, the babysitter and it doesn’t teach very high morals.  The same goes for the video games and internet games we and our children play and the media plays their part in the nightly news and the daily paper too as they lean toward scandals, violence and all manner of sensationalism with next to no reporting of the good that happens in the community, State, Nation or the world.  We are being fed a very heavy diet of negative with little to no positive.  Children learn what they live.

Schools push for the competitive edge, win no matter what it takes when it comes to sports or any other competition and academically every child still passes to the next grade and still gets some sort of award even if they haven’t truly learned or earned it…No child left behind.  It is sending mixed signals to the child.  It is okay to fail in one area or another.  Why do my best, be my best.  The effort is a waste of time.  We are all going to get some special award and our diploma anyhow.  So what if I can’t really read or write or even do basic math.  Machines will do it for me.  I don’t have to read a book.  I can listen to it or watch the movie, same difference, right?  Who really cares so long as I’m not in the way?  I don’t have to learn math, I have a calculator that with just the push of a button will give me the correct answer so why study.  Who really cares about the process?

Churches are not much if any better today.  They no longer teach morals and God given laws.  They are politically correct and just about anything goes.  That helps bring more money into the coffers when no one is offended in any way.  Many now speak of God as a higher power, not Lord God Almighty but whatever higher power you choose to believe in, be it the Judeo-Christian God or some other god or whatever power you choose, wind, rain, stars, the moon, the cobra, the cat or a tree.  It makes no difference as long as you believe in something beyond self.  Not every church is this way but a lot are today.  I’ve been there and listened to them.  God forbid we offend anyone and stand up for God and His teachings.  I’m sure God is very offended and that bothers me. 

No wonder children, our young adults don’t know right from wrong.  Oh some will blame it on Satan and his legions of fallen angels called demons (You know, the devil made me do it.) and that may be correct to a point but it is each of us who make the choice.  We decide for our self how we choose to behave.  How can we choose when we are not taught morality in the first place?

We are a society that has become segmented, segregated and morally corrupt.  Drug and alcohol abuse is no longer just ghetto garbage; it is rampant in the highest echelons of our society and affects everyone from the homeless wino in some back alley to the CEO of our multibillion dollar corporations to the government leaders of our communities and nations.  We reap just what we sow. 

It is sad when we see young children becoming so disconnected with reality and life and living and the wonder of being human and alive that they no longer feel life is worth their next breath and they put a gun to their head or their neighbors or peers and squeeze the trigger.  BANG and it is over in a split second.  No more worries, no more fears, no more feeling lost and alone, no more being bullied and belittled, no more nothing.  Is this what our society as come down to?  God, I hope not.

Maybe we shouldn’t have thrown God out.  Just a thought on my part. 

The physical disasters that follow the continued use of intoxicating beverages are sad enough, and terrible enough; but the surely attendant mental, moral and spiritual disasters are sadder and more terrible still. If you disturb the healthy condition of the brain, which is the physical organ through which the mind acts, you disturb the mind. It will not have the same clearness of perception as before; nor have the same rational control over the impulses and passions. 

Heavenly order in the body.

————————– 

In order to understand a subject clearly, certain general laws, or principles, must be seen and admitted. And here we assume, as a general truth, that health in the human body is normal heavenly order on the physical plane of life, and that any disturbance of that order exposes the man to destructive influences, which are evil and infernal in their character. Above the natural and physical plane, and resting upon it, while man lives in this world, is the mental and spiritual plane, or degree of life. This degree is in heavenly order when the reason is clear, and the appetites and passions under its wise control. But, if, through any cause, this fine equipoise is disturbed, or lost, then a way is opened for the influx of more subtle evil influences than such as invade the body, because they have power to act upon the reason and the passions, obscuring the one and inflaming the others. 

We know how surely the loss of bodily health results in mental disturbance. If the seat of disease be remote from the brain, the disturbance is usually slight; but it increases as the trouble comes nearer and nearer to that organ, and shows itself in multiform ways according to character, temperament or inherited disposition; but almost always in a predominance of what is evil instead of good. There will be fretfulness, or ill-nature, or selfish exactions, or mental obscurity, or unreasoning demands, or, it may be, vicious and cruel propensities, where, when the brain was undisturbed by disease, reason held rule with patience and loving kindness. If the disease which has attacked the brain goes on increasing, the mental disease which follows as a consequence of organic disturbance or deterioration, will have increased also, until insanity may be established in some one or more of its many sad and varied forms. 

Insanity.

——– 

It is, therefore, a very serious thing for a man to take into his body any substance which, on reaching that wonderfully delicate organ the brain, sets up therein a diseased action; for, diseased mental action is sure to follow. A fever is a fever, whether it be light or intensely burning; and so any disturbance of the mind’s rational equipoise is insanity, whether it be in the simplest form of temporary obscurity, or in the midnight of a totally darkened intellect. 

We are not writing in the interest of any special theory, nor in the spirit of partisanship; but with an earnest desire to make the truth appear. You must not accept anything simply because we say it, but because he sees it to be true. Now, as to this matter of insanity, let him think calmly. The word is one that gives us a shock; and, as we hear it, we almost involuntarily thank God for the good gift of a well-balanced mind. What, if from any cause this beautiful equipoise should be disturbed and the mind lose its power to think clearly, or to hold the lower passions in due control? Shall we exceed the truth if we say that the man in whom this takes place is insane just in the degree that he has lost his rational self-control; and that he is restored when he regains that control? 

In this view, the question as to the hurtfulness of alcoholic drinks assumes a new and graver aspect. Do they disturb the brain when they come in contact with its substance; and deteriorate it if the contact be long continued? Fact, observation, experience and scientific investigation all emphatically say yes; and we know that if the brain be disordered the mind, will be disordered, likewise; and a disordered mind is an insane mind. Clearly, then, in the degree that a man impairs or hurts his brain temporarily or continuously in that degree his mind is unbalanced; in that degree he is not a truly rational and sane man. 

We are holding your thought just here that you may have time to think, and to look at the question in the light of reason and common sense. So far as he does this, will he be able to feel the force of such evidence as we shall educe in what follows, and to comprehend its true meaning. 

Other substances besides alcohol act injuriously on the brain; but there is none that compares with this in the extent, variety and diabolical aspect of the mental aberrations which follow its use. We are not speaking thoughtlessly or wildly; but simply uttering a truth well-known to every man of observation, and which every man, and especially those who take this substance in any form, should, lay deeply to heart. Why it is that such awful and destructive forms of insanity should follow, as they do, the use of alcohol it is not for us to say. That they do follow it, we know, and we hold, up the fact in solemn warning. 

Another consideration, which should have weight with every one, is this, that no man can tell what may be the character of the legacy he has received from his ancestors. He may have an inheritance of latent evil forces, transmitted through many generations, which only await some favoring opportunity to spring into life and action. So long as he maintains a rational self-control, and the healthy order of his life be not disturbed, they may continue quiescent; but if his brain loses its equipoise, or is hurt or impaired, then a diseased psychical condition may be induced and the latent evil forces be quickened into life. 

The news
A man named Michael William Nivens (37) woke his girlfriend up because he noticed that his steak tasted different from hers.  He ended up stabbing her with a steak knife after he approached her about the steak.  This is what his girlfriend Jennifer Elizabeth Wear (32) told the police.

According to Jennifer, Michael drank five beers the night before he stabbed her.  He had told her over and over that he loved her.  The next day, he stabbed her with his steak knife.

When Jennifer went to sleep, she woke up to Michael putting the knife to her and telling her that he loved her.  According to the police report, Michael asked Jennifer why she wanted him to die.  Then he wanted to know why his steak tasted different from hers.

He pulled her hair and stabbed her with the knife.  Jennifer has cuts on her forehead and the back of her neck.  He also stabbed her fingers.  Michael admitted to the police that he stabbed his girlfriend.

There is no word whether or not Michael was arrested and charged for stabbing Jennifer.

My thoughts
I was shocked to read something like this.  Michael must have issues with Jennifer.  Did Michael have too much to drink?  Did he think she was trying to poison him?  Maybe she tried something different on his steak.  Maybe she used a different sauce with his steak.  If she didn’t do something different with his steak, maybe she did it with hers.

In Michael’s defense, maybe Jennifer was trying to do something to his steak.  There must have been some reason why his steak tasted different from hers.  I noticed while I was reading the story that she never explained why the steak tasted different from his.

Michael didn’t have to stab Jennifer over food.  If he noticed something different, he never had to eat the steak.  He didn’t have to stab Jennifer just because he noticed something different about the steak.  Stabbing Jennifer was not the right decision.  Now he will most likely go to prison because he noticed something different about his steak.  I can only imagine what will happen to him in jail if the other prisoners find out why he was in jail.

What are your thoughts this man stabbing a woman over food?  Do you think he had reason to stab her?  Do you think he overreacted to the situation?

You’re having a quiet drink in your favorite local pub.  Near you is a biker dude in full regalia – chains, leather, etc. – chugging down large quantities of brew and with an angry scowl on his face.  Also nearby is a solitary guy who looks like a clone of Bill Gates, very shy and introverted.  He’s also drinking heavily but his demeanor suggests he wouldn’t hurt a fly.  Which one do you think is about to explode into a violent, dangerous rage?

If you’re answer is the biker dude, you’d be wrong.

Look Out For the Quiet Shy Type

According to Scandinavian researchers, it’s the introverted types, those who tend to keep their emotions to themselves, who are the most likely to have a bad – indeed, very bad – experience when they drink to excess. Looks alone don’t tell the entire story, they say.

“Alcohol use may be related causally to violence, but the effect of drinking is confined to individuals who are inclined to suppress their angry feelings,” concluded the researchers.

Violent or Not? (Image via CrunchBase)

The study was based on based on information gathered from a survey of young Norwegians over several years.  The first survey in the form of surveys and questionnaires took place among almost 3000 people when they were 16 or 17 years of age.  They were surveyed again at ages 21 to 22.

The More Anger Is Suppressed, the More Danger

The participants were divided into three evenly divided groups and studied to determine the levels at which they tended to suppress their anger in a variety of situations. For the individuals who reported a high inclination to suppress their feelings of anger, there was a 10 percent increase in drinking to the point of being drunk which was associated with a five percent increase in violence.

When the researchers matched those observations with volunteers who had shown little or no inclination to suppress their anger they were less disposed to become violent when they had too much to drink.

The researchers concluded that while “only a tiny fraction of all drinking events involve violence … whether intoxicated aggression is likely to occur seems to depend on the drinkers’ propensity to withhold angry feelings when sober.”

So, when drinking looks can be deceiving.  I’ll drink to that.

Click here for more articles by The Writin’ Cowboy.

College students have always used stimulants to study all night long. Now mixing alcohol with stimulants to drink more and drink longer has become very popular.

Alcohol Stimulant Drink Mix

Putting caffeine into alcoholic drinks is nothing new. A product with the name Four Loko became very popular several years ago with 135 mg of caffeine and 12% alcohol in the same beverage.

After numerous incidents of college students going on a Four Loko drinking binge that resulted in several deaths, many college campuses banned the drink. Finally, fearing FDA (Food and Drug Administration) action, the company Phusion, who makes Four Loko took the caffeine out of their alcoholic drinks. Today the FDA has banned caffeine or herbal stimulants with alcohol in the same beverage.

Having an energy drink with alcohol in the same drink is actually a contradiction, since alcohol is a depressant causing your body to fight the stimulant in the same drink. It is not healthy to force your body in two directions.

Drinking More Alcohol with Stimulants

A 2010 study conducted in Canada revealed that college students who drank alcohol without taking any type of stimulants drank on average 4.7 drinks. When college students combined an energy drink or stimulant along with the alcohol, they drank an average of 8.6 drinks [1]. Mixing alcohol with stimulants almost doubled the amount of alcohol students drank and that is dangerous.

Alcohol and Adderall

Where there is a will there is a way and mixing stimulants with alcohol is not hard to do. It isn’t hard to drink one or two 5-hour energy drinks while drinking alcohol. That is about the same thing as mixing alcohol and caffeine in the same can.

A new craze has college students and teens mixing the prescription drug Adderall and alcohol so they can drink all day and night. Adderall is a prescription drug that is usually prescribed for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and also narcolepsy. In other words it is a prescription amphetamine, a stimulant.

Of course alcohol has its own side effects and so does Adderall. Adderall has the same side effects that any other stimulant does. Adderall can increase blood pressure which can lead to stroke, heart attack and sudden death.

The Health Risks of Mixing Alcohol with Stimulants

Mixing alcohol with a stimulant like Adderall can mask the effects of alcohol, causing the person drinking alcohol to feel as if they are not drunk and in complete control of their senses and reaction times.

Since Adderall is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant, you are pulling your body in two different and opposite directions. Adderall can raise the heart rate and raise blood pressure. Alcohol can also raise blood pressure as well. That is one health risk.

The main health risk that concerns parents and college officials is the fact that teens think they can continue to drink and drink more alcohol while the Adderall or some other stimulant is masking the actual effects of the alcohol.

This can lead to binge drinking which can lead to alcohol poisoning and possible death. You might be thinking this is overly pessimistic, but there are statistics linking college students who had gone out for a night of partying and mixed alcohol with Adderall leading to death by alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol and Stimulants Leads to Death

There have been recent reports of deaths at colleges around the country due to alcohol poisoning where evidence points to mixing alcohol with stimulants. Police found text messages on one student’s cell phone that mentioned trying to buy Adderall and texts that said he wanted to go out and get drunk and do “Addy”. Addy being shorthand for Adderall.

Taking stimulants with alcohol gives a false sense of not being drunk, and that is a major health risk and danger. This also leads to false sense of being in control and driving drunk. The percentage of deadly accidents related to drunk drivers is actually up instead of down considering all of the media attention and police actions trying to stop drunk drivers.

Drinking alcohol with stimulants leads to the false confidence that the alcohol is not affecting the person drinking. But the blood alcohol content (BAC) is still just as high with or without the stimulants.

Passing out is one way the body tells a person, enough alcohol, I can’t take anymore. Fooling the body with stimulants while drinking alcohol is forcing the body to take in more and more alcohol, but the stimulants are not countering what the alcohol is actually doing to a person’s brain and body. This leads to alcohol poisoning, which can lead to death. 

Conclusion

Mixing stimulants with alcohol is very dangerous. It short circuits the body’s defense mechanism and causes a false sense of being sober and alert. Do not fool yourself into thinking stimulants counter alcohol, because they do not.

Safety Tips

No amount what, animal advance is never a victim’s fault. And it’s not a person’s albatross to “prevent” themselves from accepting assaulted. The alone accepting amenable for a animal advance is the accepting who commits it. But the afterward tips can advice you accept a safe and fun time if at a party, bar or just blind out with friends.

Keep an eye out…

Keeping an eye on your booze and accepting alert of humans about you are important, but possibly a lot of important is befitting an eye on yourself. How abundant you booze is the one accident agency that you accept 100 percent ascendancy over. This doesn’t beggarly that you should never go out and accept a few drinks, but it’s important that you are acquainted that this abomination exists.

If you’re bubbler alcohol, accumulate an eye on yourself and your friends. If you’re afraid about accepting into an afflictive bearings with someone, acquaint your accompany how you feel and ask them to watch out for you. And if at any time you feel so bashed that you ability canyon out, accede area you are and the humans you’re with. It ability be a acceptable abstraction to get a ride home with a trusted and abstaining acquaintance or alarm a taxi. If that’s not an advantage and you accept to beddy-bye about others (such as at someone’s abode afterwards a party, a auberge room, etc.), ask humans you assurance to accumulate an eye on you if you canyon out.

Watch for signs…

Watch for signs that your booze has been acicular – it tastes or looks weird; or you’re activity absolutely giddy, comatose or just “way too drunk”. Remember, these drugs yield aftereffect actual bound and you should get advice immediately. If you are not planning on bubbler alcohol, bethink that a soda or any added non-alcoholic booze can aswell be spiked.

Some drug-facilitated animal assaults ability alpha out harmlessly abundant as flirting. If you are absorbed in someone, you may wish to anticipate about how far you’d like to go with them beforehand, and accomplish it bright if you’ve gone further than you’d like to. Flirting with anyone is not an allurement for sex, nor do you “owe” them something if you do. Remember, you consistently accept the appropriate to change your apperception about how you feel about someone.

Other assurance tips:

Limit how abundant booze you booze and bethink that not anybody has the aforementioned altruism threshold.

Be alert of opened beverages offered by strangers or acquaintances, and accessible bottles yourself or beam the bartender accomplishing so.

Avoid bubbler from bite bowls – you don’t apperceive what’s been added.

If your opened cooler looks, smells or tastes aberrant don’t booze it.

Watch your booze – if you leave it abandoned to go dancing or to the washroom, accede affairs a new one.

If you feel bemused or ablaze headed, absolutely comatose or “too drunk”, get abetment from a friend. If a drifter offers to advice escort you from the bar, club or party, they may wish to yield advantage of you.

If you accustomed with friends, analysis on anniversary added afore you breach up later.

If you anticipate you or one of your accompany has been drugged, get help.

Use a associate system: you accumulate an eye out on your accompany and they accumulate an eye out on you.

Have a appointed disciplinarian who can leave a affair or bar with you at any time.

Parties wouldn’t be complete without drinking. I don’t know who first made this as a tradition but he must be a crazy yet a genius drunkard and a party guru. He is crazy both in good and bad ways. Whether it’s a birthday, wedding, formal gathering or even in SOMEreligious celebrations, liquor is always present. Nature really has its magic. Liquors are made from fruits.Fruits come from nature. And who would have thought that fermented fruit juices could make a party a super-party?

Okay, with what I was saying in the introduction, it seemed like I have high praise on liquors. That’s not really the case. Despite the magic effect of alcohol in parties, its real demise comes the following day after the party. Having headache, dry mouth, bad breathe and body pains and feeling dizzy, are just some of the after effects of too much drinking in the party.

Despite of that, we continue to patronize liquors. May it be beer, tequila, rum, vodka or local coconut wine, as long as the party has started, it doesn’t really matter!You probably saw from restaurant ads “once tasted, always wanted”. I guess this is also true with drinking. And perhaps that makes the liquor companies accumulate more income and get richer. So, I don’t think it is possible to get rid of them. And I don’t think I also would dare to do that!

When invited to join in a group of friends to drink, I would usually say no for a reason thatI wanted to do a lot of things other than getting drunk and feeling a little sick the following day.That would be too much time wasted. With the persistence of alcohol-spirited friends however, I would sometimes give in and join the group with a little promise to myself “I would leave after a few sip”. It wouldn’t probably hurt to enjoy sometimes, I would justify in my though.As the session would get longer and further heightened by fermented aroma of the liquors, I would end up losing my grip to my prior promise instead. Good thing despite of alcohol invasion in my blood, I would still remember everything that I do and see during the night. And seeing other people wasted and out of their minds when drunk is enjoyable. And as a ‘mind-wanderer’, party scenes end up as perfect materials for my right-brain tickles.

Surely there are disadvantages of drinking. So still, drink moderately!

Alcohol has become intertwined with celebrations.  For example, eggnog seems to be ingrained in Christmas celebrations and champagne is used to toast the New Year. Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among America’s youth.  While other dangerous substances are used by teens, curbing alcohol abuse should be a public health priority.

Holiday alcoholic drinks are even offered to underage teens by their parents.  Perhaps even more preposterous, many parents will allow their children to have holiday parties and provide alcohol under the pretense that “they are going to do it anyway, so it is better if they drink while being monitored.” 

A parent’s main objective should not be to monitor drinking; they should strive to eradicate alcohol consumption by minors to safeguard teenagers and their peers.  When a parent offers alcohol to their underage children, they influence a blatant disregard for the law. This even promotes the notion that the parent approves of their teens drinking thus encouraging the behavior.  Like other states, New Jersey has strict laws which punish people for providing alcohol to underage drinkers. 

Any adult who knowingly allows their children to drink alcoholic beverages and turns a blind eye to the fact is acting dangerously irresponsible.   72% of twelfth graders report that they have used alcohol at least once in their lives.  This is a remarkable fact considering that alcohol consumption is considered illegal for persons under age 21 nationally

According to the Surgeon General’s office, each year about 5,000 people under the age of 21 die of alcohol related injuries involving underage drinking. The Marin Institute reports that alcohol is a leading cause of death among youth, particularly teenagers. It contributes substantially to adolescent motor vehicle crashes, other traumatic injuries, suicide, date rape, and family and school problems.

 The nature of the holiday season and the presence of alcoholic beverages being served may never change.  Yet, teens should make a conscious effort to avoid alcohol consumption.  Further, adults should discourage alcohol use by their children. 

An adult can remove alcohol from holiday parties, or suggest another social activity as an alternative to their teenagers attending parties.  Any effort to prevent alcohol use and abuse by teenagers is productive to protect the safety of young people

MYTH: Alcohol gives you energy.
TRUTH: This statement is false. Alcohol is a depressant, and can actually make you sleepy. It slows down your motor skills which control the way you think, speak, move and react.

MYTH: Beer before liquor, never been sicker – liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.
TRUTH: This is an old urban legend used to explain why people get sick when they drink – but it’s just not true. Your blood alcohol content (also known as BAC, the percentage of alcohol in your blood) is what determines how drunk you are. It doesn’t matter what type of alcohol you chose to consume – a drink is a drink, and too much of any combination can make you sick.

MYTH: I can sober up quickly if I need to.
TRUTH: If you think that taking a shower, drinking 10 cups of coffee or eating a loaf of bread will help you sober up — think again. The only thing your body needs is time — depending on your weight, it takes about three hours to eliminate every two drinks from your body.

MYTH: Driving with someone who drank can be safe, because they drive extra carefully so they don’t get pulled over.
TRUTH: Drinking and driving is extremely dangerous and can be deadly. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 of these deaths are from motor vehicle crashes (NIAAA). In 2002, alcohol was involved in 41% of all fatal crashes (NIDA). A person might think he’s in control, but alcohol slows down reaction time which makes driving a car one of the worst decisions one can make — even if he’s had only a little bit to drink.

MYTH: Everyone who gets drunk acts the same.
TRUTH: Not true. There are lots of factors that affect the body’s reactions to alcohol, including weight, age, gender, body chemistry, genetics, amount of food and alcohol consumed — the list can go on. The way one person reacts can be vastly different from how another person reacts. You can’t predict how alcohol will affect you.

MYTH: Alcohol makes sex better.
TRUTH: Wrong again. Alcohol can make people feel less uncomfortable in a social situation. But the reality is that alcohol can actually keep guys from getting or keeping an erection, and it can lower girls’ sex drives, too. More importantly, alcohol can affect your decision-making ability: You might put yourself in a risky situation; you might think you’re ready to have sex when you’re not or you might forget to use a condom — which can result in pregnancy and/or contracting a sexually transmitted infection – like syphilis or HIV.

MYTH: If I drink too much, the worst thing that can happen is I get my stomach pumped.
TRUTH: This is false. If alcohol is drunk excessively, it can lead to alcohol poisoning which can cause death. Also, drinking excessive alcohol can cause vomiting. When drunk and unconscious, a person may inhale fluids that have been vomited, resulting in death by asphyxiation. Long-term, heavy use of alcohol can lead to addiction (alcoholism), and can even cause a heart attack or stroke.

MYTH: Talk to me about drugs – that’s a bigger issue than alcohol.
TRUTH: Both drugs and alcohol are serious problems among teens. Alcohol kills young people just like cocaine, heroin and other serious illegal drugs. Also, according to recent studies, nearly one-half (47%) of persons who began drinking before age 14 were alcohol dependent at some point in their lifetime.

MYTH: Alcohol isn’t harmful to my body.
TRUTH: Again, this statement is wrong. Large amounts of alcohol can take its toll on your body, causing disturbed sleep, nausea, and vomiting as well as a dreaded hangover. Heavy drinking can inhibit the firing of nerve cells that control breathing, a condition known as respiratory depression — a condition that can be fatal.

MYTH: My friends will think I’m weird if I don’t drink.
TRUTH: Friends are your friends no matter what – and they won’t give up your friendship over something as silly as a beer. And if they do, they’re not your real friends. Also, keep in mind that most people are usually too focused on themselves to care what others are — or aren’t — doing.

MYTH: My parents drink — so what’s the big deal if I do?
TRUTH: Science now proves it is a very big deal. According to new research by A. Thomas McLellan, Ph.D., teens who drink and take drugs are at greater risk than previously thought. Research shows that the brain is not fully formed until age 24. Using drugs and alcohol during this important time as your brain develops might have negative long-term effects on brain functions such as memory.

Sources: NIAAA, NESARC