Tucson Region

Full text of the teens and booze roundtable discussion

Sara Due, 15

Sophomore, Mountain View High School

Brent Watkins, 18

Senior, University High School

Lauryn Linsell, 17

Senior, University High School Samantha Varela, 14

Freshman, University High School Kim Chayka, 16

Junior, University High School Diana Levario, 17 Senior, University High School -------- How big a problem do you think underage drinking is? What percentage of your schoolmates have tried alcohol? Drink regularly? Get drunk? Kim Chayka: Pretty much everybody that I know in high school that's even a sophomore and up has tried alcohol and I know a lot of them don't drink it regularly but almost everybody has tried it. Lauryn Linsell: I think that definitely, when you get to be older, as you get into junior and senior year, it becomes more of a peer-pressure sort of thing, a think to be accepted and parties, when you get to be older, that's all that surrounds them anymore. Parties aren't about ice skating or that kind of stuff. People that have parties that don't have alcohol are not really accepted as much as people who do have them. It's definitely a peer-pressure sort of environment. Chayka: There are a few exceptions but most kids, even kids that you don't think would have tried it, even in sports, even though it's a bad thing, performance-wise, a lot of kids, even in their season, will drink. Where do kids get alcohol? Linsell: It's definitely older siblings. If the kid has someone who is in college, it's definitely easier to get alcohol when you have an older sibling. I know some parents actually do it too because they feel that by buying their kids alcohol and keeping them at home, they won't be inclined to do it elsewhere. Brent Watkins: Pretty much every case I've had with my friends doing it is older kids doing it, older friends or older siblings. I know in one case, someone used their older brother's ID to buy it. At big events, they check your ID and then they give you a wrist band and that's the easiest thing to get by. You just get a wrist band off the ground or in the garbage and you put it on and if you look old enough, you can go get some really easily. That's the worst way to do it. You should check their ID every time they get it. It'll take longer, but that's what should be done. Chayka: You don't even need an older sibling. I know a lot of guys who get alcohol by just shoulder taps, coming up to somebody who is older and tapping them on the shoulder, asking them to go inside the store and giving them a little bit of money in return for their services. It's that easy. Do people go to bars or is it more of a private party sort of thing? Diana Levario: From my personal experience, it seems like when you get older, if you have a job and have older friends, you can go to places like that and they'll get alcohol for you. I don't think it's as big of a deal because more restaurants and bars are cracking down on that. I've encountered a situation where they don't even let minors in. Do you see young people abusing alcohol?

Watkins: I think that at our age, people are trying it out and it's been told to them not to do it so much that when they do try it, it's my opinion that they're more likely to abuse it and not have the information. Of course people know don't drink and drive, but I don't think a lot of people my age know that if you drink too much you can get sick or get alcohol poisoning. They don't know the damage it causes your brain. They don't know a lot for things. I think the younger you are, the more likely you are to drink more and more and not know how much you're drinking. Linsell: It's kind of admired when you can go to a party and get really drunk and people can laugh at you and make jokes about you and say, "It was so funny. Let's go get drunk with him too." You do it because you feel like you can be a different person, and I think it's definitely abused in that fashion. Sara Due: I know at Mountain View, I hear a lot of people talking about how they go out and drink every weekend and I guess that's abuse because they don't know what it's doing to them. If you're going to try it, try it once or twice. Don't keep continually doing it just because you're bored. Then sometimes, once people get tired of alcohol, they move onto something else. Linsell: You'd think that when people got really drunk and and puked and woke up the next morning feeling really crappy, you'd think they'd do something about it. You'd think they'd learn something from it. You'd think they'd stop, but people don't learn from it. That's what makes you want to slap them upside the head and say, "Didn't you learn something from your stomach wanting to eat you up?" Chayka: There definitely is a difference between use and abuse. I know a lot of people who go to parties just to hang out with their friends. A lot of them have to drive back and most of them know that you can't drive drunk. I know that it's still illegal, but that's never really stopped anybody from doing anything. I think just moderation is the key, because you can't really expect anybody not to do it. Do your parents know, or your friend's parents know that this is something that's happening? Watkins: My parents definitely know. What people do is spend that night at someone's house. You spend the night at so and so's, so you can drink there and then your parents don't know what you were doing. They either go there and drink or don't even go there and drink somewhere else and then they spend the night there so they don't have to drink and drive home. I think that a lot of parents don't know, but I think many do. Due: I think with a lot of parents, their kids just put on this act around them that they're just this good kid that would never do something like that. Even my parents, they don't realize what's going on. I have to tell them and they're surprised that I know all this about people my age. I know more than they think I know and they're shocked. Linsell: A lot of parents seem to be oblivious. You would think that if they knew that their kids were going out to drink, they would do something about it. There are a lot of kids that do it and you've got to wonder what their parents are thinking. Those commercials on TV that are about truth being the anti-drug, they need to make those for alcohol. I think that would be effective if they did it for alcohol too. Who discourages you from drinking? Due: I think a lot of that comes from teachers and parents even. I think a lot of that irresponsibility comes from parents that let you do whatever you want all weekend. They don't give you any times to be home or anything to do. I have limits and I think that's something parents should do. Chayka: As far as drinking, I think my parents have a good way of dealing with it. They don't want me to be drinking and they discourage me from drinking, but they want me to know that if I do drink, what's more important to them is that I don't drink and drive and that I don't hurt myself. Watkins: For me, it's been my parents and other family members. I noticed that Sara said teachers, and just for me, when I was younger, in middle school, people would say things like that, but in high school, I've had teachers that either don't say anything, or I've actually had some who have made jokes about it or talked about what they did over the weekend. I think it's just really irresponsible for them to say things like that. They might just think that they're just joking or trying to relate to the kids, but I think it's just horrible because the kids look up to them. They think they're so smart and they look up to them and the teachers are saying things like "Oh, do you know what I did last night?" or "I'm so sick of this school," and I think it's probably not many teachers, but there are definitely a few like that. About not driving, I think people have turned toward advertising that "If you're going to drink, don't drive," but I think it should be "Don't drink." There are definitely more problems than just drunk driving accidents. I think they're probably just thinking that they can't get kids to stop drinking, so they might as well get them to stop driving, but I think they should try to shoot for better than that. Are there programs in school, some class where somebody sits down and lays it out for you? Does that happen, and does it make an impression on people? Due: At my school, we have this program we're starting up and it's basically an abstinence program, but it's going to be taught by students on everything you need to know about STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), and I think we should have something like that for drinking, maybe something about why it's not cool to drink, or the dangers of drinking that people may not know. I think that would help a lot. Diana Levario: In our school, we don't really have that many programs where we talk about the effects of alcohol or anything. Maybe if we incorporated some sort of program like their abstinence program, maybe if students taught it or adults who had experience with it taught it, and I think that would help people. Linsell: We were also talking earlier about how we have a program with Driver's Ed that is teaching STDs and they have a day where, and it's only a day, but it's like a slide show, and there are pictures of STDs, pictures of all kinds of gross stuff, and just looking at that, it just really discourages going out and doing that. I think something like that in a school, where reading these articles, you talk about what to do with tax money, I think you should have classes like that in school. I think it should be taught all four years. We're only taught that STD course in sophomore year, and when you're a sophomore, you're really young, you're sort of coming into being an upperclassman. If they were to do something like that and show people with liver disease, show people who died at 50 years old because of liver disease, or show people who died of brain cancer, and they showed actual cases, and they showed it every single year in school, that could make a big difference. They should make a big thing out of it. It would really affect people if they saw things. You can only say 10,000 people died from liver cancer this year so many times, but something like this would be really effective, I think. It's something that you should be taught every year. The health class, they teach it to you once, for a quarter, when you're a sophomore, when you're young, and it doesn't make a difference, but I mean, things that are effective in that sense, those "Truth in Advertising," ads, the carnival or, yeah, "Crazytown." That's really effective. I mean, he's showing you pictures of these irradiated people and then he shows you a picture of yourself, when you look in the mirror, and that stuff is really effective. Due: Drinking almost needs to be made like a tragic case, every case, to actually have any kind of effect on anyone. People just think that you can go out and drink and nothing is going to happen. You might puke, you might get sick, you might get drunk, but people don't think about how many people die. People die a lot drinking and driving, that kind of thing. It's like those commercials on TV, like the anti-drug commercial with the kid watching his friend die in the middle for the road. It almost needs to be made like that every time they talk about it for it to have any effect on any kid. Chayka: I think it has a lot to do with how strong an individual is, because if a kid can give in to peer pressure really easy or is taught the wrong values by his parents, then it's a lot easier for that to happen. A kid who grows up in a good home with good parents and is taught morals and what is right and what is wrong probably is a lot stronger of an individual and can make a lot better decisions than somebody whose parents are always missing. Linsell: Things that might not work good are ads where if they don't have enough money to put something in, they just run it in the early morning, because kids don't watch TV in the morning because they're sleeping. Kids watch TV at night. It's great to have a bunch of different things, but if you were to put all the money together for one commercial that was really effective, that could really draw people into it. Reaching people by telling them facts and figures, that doesn't work because that doesn't include you. That just doesn't work. That's not something that really affects you, but if you create something that affects someone's emotions, that will definitely work, and even if it's just one commercial, if you see a kid that died because of alcohol poisoning, that can really reach you, and if it's in your community, or there is a story you hear about, it really reaches you if it's a story that affects you emotionally. Do you think advertisers try to get young people to drink? Do you think alcohol ads target young people? Watkins: I don't know if they are really trying to get young kids underage to drink or not, but I do know that they definitely are trying to make alcohol seem like a cool thing to do and it's socially acceptable and it's definitely something to do in groups. Every single alcohol commercial you see, there is definitely never a person sitting on their couch drinking. There is always a whole group and they're all dressed nicely, they're all good looking, they're all partying, and that's the way it always is. I'm sure, I guess they are gearing it toward teenagers and younger than that, because those are the type of people that go out partying. Linsell: Another thing that encourages that sort of thing are movies, media. Every single teen movie I've ever seen includes a party scene where a bunch of kids are together having fun with alcohol, and that's what it is. It's like, "Hey, are your parents going to be out of town? Well, let's get together." That's definitely something that's around. It's not just what is in our everyday lives, but it's what is in everyone's lives generally across the nation. One movie comes out and, you know, there have been like five movies come out in the last year that encourage that type of thing. Watkins: I think there needs to be more movies like "Ferris Buehler's Day Off" than there needs to be movies like "American Pie." There are three "American Pie" movies and they made so much money because every single teenager in America went out and saw those movies, and they're all about drinking. It's all about prom and graduation parties and those are like the characteristic movies of our lifetime, of our growing up. It's "American Pie," and "American Pie 2"and "American Wedding." Your parents didn't want you to see them, but you still went and saw them and they made money off them. I think it's just crappy. Chayka: I don't think you can blame the media as far as you want to say that, because the television is not supposed to be your parent or anything. You can't really say something like that. I think that your parents should be telling you what to do and you shouldn't be influence by a commercial. If you're influenced by a commercial, then obviously, I don't think you should be drinking in the first place, because obviously, you're not responsible enough to make your own choice. Due: I kind of think he's right there. Part of it is OK, because they are really pushing it really hard. You have to be intelligent enough to realize that all of that stuff is really unrealistic. That I guess it just has something to do partly with the way you were brought up, how thing were taught to you, how you were taught that they were wrong. Linsell: You can't influence a parent to teach their kid something. I think it's really hard to do that with millions of parents who raise children every day and you're not going to get an adult to question their kid about something. The media and movies and that sort of thing are one of the only things that can influence a wide group of people. You can't change of bunch of parents' views and have them teach their kids something, but you can watch a movie and a kid can say, "Ooh, that looks like something that I want to do," or "That looks admirable to me." Parents are not going to change what they think. People don't change that way, but it's something that kids can come to on their own by watching a movie or seeing a story like that on TV. It's something that they could decide for themselves, and come to their own decisions about. Watkins: Lauryn is right that you can't really change the way parents are going to parent, or it's hard to, but it all comes back to the parents because even if a movie is rated R, it's up to the parents to let their kids see it or not. All the "American Pie" movies are rated R, but every single kid saw it, and it's because the parents didn't know what the kids were doing. They didn't ask them what movie they were seeing. They didn't make them stay home when their kids told them they were going to see "American Pie." They just said, "Go ahead. I don't care." Some parents probably even bought their kids the tickets or rented the movie and those movies have a lot more influence than maybe a parent just saying, "Don't drink." A movie that shows kids drinking and having fun is going to have a lot more influence than a parent. Chayka: In the same respect, though, I think I've been watching rated R movies for pretty much as long as I can remember, except for a few scenes, and I don't think that my parents are bad parents for doing that. I've never done any drugs. I've drank, but I think, I almost can't remember the last time I was drunk. I think my parents have done a pretty good job, despite letting me see that and I've kind of decided on my own that that's not what I want to do, Watkins: Kim, I think you're the exception. Most of the time when a kid gets, they see rated-R movies from a young age and their parents let them make decisions for themselves and their kids are going to make the wrong decisions. I think your parents probably parented you very well and you are an awesome kid, so you made the right decisions most of the time, and I think I'm probably the same way. Both of our parents probably parented well, but there aren't very many kids who were parented bad and who made the right decisions, I don't think. Have any of you ever discouraged friends from drinking, or wanted to? Due: I don't think any of my friends have ever actually wanted to because they're all pretty much the same. They have the same ideas I do for the most part, but I think even if I did try to discourage them if they wanted to drink or smoke or whatever, depending on how much they look up to me would really depend on what they did that night or whatever. I don't really think I'd be a big factor in whether they did something or not. Usually, your friends aren't what stops you, and I don't even think it's your parents either because usually kids want to defy what their parents say. It's the classic thing. Chayka: Obviously, you can't convince your friends that it's morally wrong to not drink or anything. As far as that, I don't think I'd ever intervene unless it was getting to a point where it was getting dangerous, or you were in a situation that it would make it harmful to drink, in which case you'd have to make them stop it, take them aside and explain to them why they have to stop. Linsell: I personally don't think it's very easy for a friend to do that to a friend. Friends aren't other people's authorities. You can't say, "You don't do it," because you're not important to them, you're a friend to them, but you're not their mother. I think it's really difficult to take someone aside and say, "This is going to hurt you." They're just going to say, "It's going to be fun." It's not that easy for a friend to do that to another friend. Is part of the problem that there is nothing else to do that doesn't involve alcohol? Are there cool things to go do that don't involve drinking? Chayka: As far as in Tucson, I would say no, and I would say that that's one of the main problems why it's happening so much, because I know a lot of kids here who say Tucson is a really boring place. As far as alternatives to having fun, what is there? You can go see a movie, play some sports, but there is really not that much to do after six o'clock, after it's getting dark. Due: I was just going to say something about that. I go to a lot of shows, concerts. Movies are good too, but they can get boring sometimes. If you want to do something, you go to a show or, this may sound really babyish, but you go mini-golf or something. It's better than drinking out all of your brain cells. I think that stuff like music is really good and also that you stick with, I think doing fun things other than drinking comes from doing things like that at an early age instead of just sitting at home and watching TV. You already had made up your mind that you were never going to smoke and never going to drink, that kind of thing. Linsell: It has to do with things kids want to do when they get older. Some kids think that when they get older, mini-golf isn't a fun thing to do, but I mean my cousins in Ohio play mini-golf and it's fun. It also might have something to do with, you know, if you go to a party and you're not hosting the party, you get in for free or don't pay too much, and it's something that either doesn't cost anything or doesn't cost very much. You don't have to pay money for a movie or a show or anything or mini-golf. You just get to drink and it's great, you know. There is nothing you really do about that. When I was a sophomore, I thought things like mini-golf were really fun, but for some reason, as I got older, I drifted away from that. My friends starting drifting away and finding things like alcohol were more fun. It didn't get any less fun, it's still fun. It just depends on what your priorities are. I'd kind of like to talk about solutions. Parents seem to have a role to play. I think you've said that pretty clearly, as well as more education in schools. Any more ideas about that? Watkins: One thing we didn't bring up was the influence of upperclassmen, like when you're a sophomore. Something that happened to me was like a friend who really looked up to a senior and thought he was so awesome, and that's all he did on the weekends, was drink, and now that we're seniors, this friend of mine thinks that that's what we have to do, that we have to take their place, that's what we have to look like to the juniors this year, that we have to look awesome, that we have to look cool. I don't know what you're going to do about that, tell the seniors they need to be better role models. That's not going to work, but something has got to happen. That has a lot of influence. It's not just parents. Due: I think a lot of the thing with recurring drinking is the punishments we get are like getting put in juvy or something like that. I think people need to be put in the real world and face it like that. They need to face what an adult would face and they don't. They don't get enough. It's like, I don't want to say we're deprived but … The punishment is not severe enough when kids are caught? Due: Yeah. Linsell: Especially when, the worst thing that can happen if you're underage and you get drunk is the cops to leave it up to your parents. They tell you to call your parents, and if your parents are really strict, they can enforce it in your head that it's really a bad thing and that can help, but if your parents don't really care and they let you go out in the first place, it's bad. Chayka: I don't think you can stress the morality issue with kids, but they're going to ask why it's wrong, and I can't really think of a reason. Seriously, I don't want to say that it's not wrong, but I can't really think of a reason that it's not wrong. I don't think you should really try to stress the idea that it's wrong because it's against the law and you can go to jail. I think you could stress other things like how you could endanger the lives of others and endanger yourself, not just that you can't drink until you're 21, that's the law and you better follow it. And you can't stress moderation. That won't work. Not everyone will understand moderation and you can't expect them to. Linsell: The only way moderation can be stressed is if you had something in a school where people could see the effects over time. You were talking about solutions, and I know of a few schools that do this, but after prom or homecoming or these other huge things, they lock down wherever it was and you're not allowed to leave and they have all kinds of stuff. Watkins: They have games and carnivals. Linsell: Yeah, and it sounds really fun. If the temptation to drink is not there, you don't have to worry and you're having fun. It's worry-free because you don't have to worry about the temptation to drink, or who is going to take you home, or how you're going to get home if you drink. It's worry-free. I think things like that should be present in more schools. It could be initiated by a student group and then enforced by the administration, and times like that are the most important times for a lot of people. I know a lot of people who, the first time they got drunk was something like that, homecoming or prom, and that could eliminate a lot right there. Do you think parents should be held responsible if their kids get caught drinking? Watkins: If it's at their house and the parents are present, obviously there should be something that happens, and I think there is, because parents who do that, that's just horrible, because then, it's obviously seen in the kids' minds as something that's OK, and when they grow up, they're going to do that with their kids, but I don't know about doing something to the parents if the kid was at a party and they get caught, that the parents should be in trouble. I don't think so. Maybe, I don't know. Things that could be stricter is one, when the cops break up a party, of course that's like everyone's big fear, "I'm having party. I hope the cops don't break it up." I've heard of a lot of parties where the cops come in and all they do is say like, "You guys better get rid of all this stuff and you better get out of here, or in like 20 minutes, I'm going to start arresting people." Everyone leaves, a lot of people get in their cars, drink and just leave, and a lot of them drive drunk. I don't how often that happens, but I've heard of it happening a lot. I think if a cop comes to a party and sees people underage drinking, they should arrest every single one of them, take them down and make them spend the night in jail. Do something. Another thing, if someone is having a party at a house and they get a red tag on the house, I think that could be kind of effective because that person is not going to have a party again, because if they do, they're going to have cops watching them and they're going to get them, hopefully. There has been a suggestion made that more taxes be placed on drinks to fund education programs or treatment programs. Do you agree with that? Due: In general, I think there is too much alcohol in general in Tucson. It's not just teens. It's adults who have not quite made that jump and still feel the need to be a teenager. You still hear a lot of things about people doing stupid things when they're drunk and it's not teens. It's 35-year-olds. Watkins: And now the bars are open an hour later. Due: Yeah. They're pushing everything to be worse because they're selling more alcohol and things are getting out of hand. Watkins: You hear all these advertisements on KRQ about 20-cent drinks all night long. People are going to spend $2 and they're going to be wasted, and there is nothing good that can happen from that. Obviously, people are making money off that somehow. They're charging big entrance fees or like, I don't know, charging people for rides home. I don't know. But there should definitely be more taxes. Linsell: When I was young, I thought of this thing that I thought would be really cool. It would be a taxi system for people who are drunk. You could do that with tax money by taxing alcohol more at bars, not restaurants. I don't think it should be taxed more in restaurants, because in restaurants, they really do enforce it. I know places where you can't even sit in the bar before or after hours if you're not 21. But take money and have a number that you could either speed-dial or make it real easy to dial and somebody would come and pick you up. That won't affect alcohol and how much you drink, but it will affect DUIs and accidents and how many people drive drunk. Also, in schools, programs that could bring awareness, teaching kids every year, the same thing. I don't know how much that would cost to do it every year, but you have to try to influence people from all ways, so if you do drink, we want you to be safe, but it would be better not to drink, and it should be stressed. Chayka: I'm not really sure but I thought there was already a cab company that picks up people when they were drunk. Then again, would people that don't get drunk every weekend want to pay tax dollars for some idiots that want to drink irresponsibly? But could you really restrict the liberties of people to drink, though? I don't think that can happen. Even people that don't support drinking are going to have a problem with that, being from the United States. Due: I know that my family, my dad, is tired of being taxed to death for stupid things that we're not even a part of, and I know this would never happen because it would be only too fair, but what if we could tax people who do that? You mean fining people who break drinking laws or drinking and driving laws? That there would be more fines or taxes for them? Linsell: If someone is caught driving drunk or if someone is caught at a party and it's an adult who is allowing kids to drink or something like that, they should have something on their driving license, something permanent, so that if they presented their license to buy alcohol, they should be taxed more. Take those people who are making mistakes and make them pay more for their alcohol, for their mistakes. That would not only discourage people from drinking and making mistakes but put more money into a fund for alcohol programs and things like that. Samantha Varela: People that do have DUIs, maybe they could get served less drinks, maybe not as many as they want, so two or three instead of five or six. Linsell: It would be on your permanent record, so if you lost your license, it would be there when they called your name up on the computer. Any other ways we could discourage people from drinking? Linsell: If you were a kid and you were caught drinking, that could be something that went on your permanent record, since kids don't have driver's licenses, but when they do get old enough, that could be something that would show up on your record. Let me throw this out. What if there was no drinking age? Due: Since there is a drinking age, that has cut things down a little bit. If there wasn't any drinking age, people would just running wild, and it would be way, way, way worse. Varela: If there wasn't a drinking age, there would probably be a lot more parties and a lot more people being killed and a lot more people driving around drunk. Watkins: It might lessen the idea that people have that drinking is so cool because if you can get away with it, you're breaking a law and you're rebelling. In the short term, it might cause more drinking, but if you were to get rid of the drinking age, it might cause kids to start looking more at what it's going to do to them, instead of now, where kids are thinking, "Oh, I'm 17. I have to wait four years, so I'll start drinking illegally now." Due: I think that he's right there, also that, God forbid anyone get tired of drinking, but that might be something that eventually might happen, that people would move onto something bigger and better, and hopefully not something worse than drinking. Chayka: I don't think you can effectively reduce the drinking age, because can you expect a 12-year-old to make good choices? Watkins: Well, I think some states allow 18-year-olds to drink. Chayka: I think 18 would be a better age. Especially in Arizona where you have these crazy gun laws that make absolutely no sense where anybody over the age of 18 can just walk up to a counter and buy a gun without a permit or anything. Due: I know that when a lot of people turn 18, well, for one of my friends, he turned 18 two weeks ago, and a lot of people, when they turn 18, they go out and buy a pack of cigarettes just because they can. That might be a big thing for people, to buy alcohol just because they can. Watkins: You can do just about anything when you're 18 except drink, right? Chayka: You can't gamble. I think a lot of these things are related. I think if you're going to cut one thing down, you should take another thing down. If you're going to lower the drinking age, maybe you could raise the driving age, mix and match. Other countries, most of their drinking regulations are non-existent. In Russia, for instance, you have to be 21 to drive but drinking comes at a much earlier age than that. Due: I have a friend from Germany, and they're allowed to go drink at 16. Watkins: I have a friend, and when he goes back to visit his family in Russia, he tells me he drinks a beer with lunch and wine with dinner, and everyone does that from the age of 10 up. That just makes drinking more like, they know what it is and they're not so curious about it. They're not like, "Oh, I wonder what it's like," and then they try it and get out of control. That's a cultural thing, so we probably couldn't do that here. Linsell: If you lower the drinking age, it's going to ... people, if they can't drink until they're 21, kids are really curious about stuff, and if you tell them, they can't do something, they're just going to do it. They're really curious about stuff and they just want to try it just to see what it's like. When you tell a kid they can't do something, they're just going to do it. We were all kids once, so we all know what that's like. If you lower the drinking age so that if you sit down with your family and have a glass of wine with dinner or whatever, you don't feel as inclined to go drink it in excess because you're like, "It's just wine. It's just beer. I drink it all the time." You have to expose people to it early so they know about it. Parents who do that can also tell their kids that this is what can happen if you drink too much. I think that could help lower all the alcohol poisoning that goes on. Due: I know that a lot of families do this. I don't want to get anybody in trouble here. They have the policy of "It's here, it's here in the house, if you want to try it, do it here. Don't try it somewhere else." They have that type of rule, and maybe that's better. I still think there is the whole factor that this whole thing is wrong that your parents are letting you do it, but maybe since you're in a spot where you can't drink and drive or give it to your friends, it's more like you have your little experience and if you don't like it, then hey. Watkins: I think that's a good thing. It didn't happen to me. My parents weren't like, "We're going to let you experience this once at our house and then that's it, and you'll get to see what it's like." That didn't happen to me, but I've definitely heard of that happening, and I was wondering, if I was a parent, and I was to do that, I would give my kids some really nasty tasting beer, and then they would get sick and wouldn't want to do it. Varela: If parents were to do that, though, they still have all the kids that are going over to the house to do that. It just keeps their own child safe.