Alcohol is the most common substance in our society used for intoxication. Every year, the amount of its usage gains new heights regardless of our economic conditions.
Most consumers of alcohol start to use this substance from their very young age. Studies show that teenagers are much more likely to get addicted than a person in their mid-twenties or early thirties.
We can start with how. Usage of alcohol is not illegal in our country. But we have laws and regulations about the access and distribution of Alcohol. Then how do our kids have access to alcohol?
It’s most probable that their first taste of spirit came from their peers, or it might be an elder person who can have legal access to these substances.
It can also be from their own home. If anybody in their house uses alcohol, it influences them to peek for a taste. It also gives them easy access to their first ounces of liquor. Once addicted, they look for other sources. There is a network of people who work below the radar of our system, to satisfy such needs.
Why? Adults use their tensions and work pressure as an excuse to get a drink. What is the reason an underage takes a sip of hooch?
It might be peer pressure, their curiosity; to be someone who stands out from the crowd or else, just to show off.
Acceptance and recognition inside their social group are important for kids. Especially for teenagers. If their circle asks them to take a drink, they do so for being relevant. Kids are curious; they like to do things always beyond their restricted lines.
Drinking hard liquor is not going to allow them at any cost. So the taste of alcohol is also the taste of forbidden freedom.
Films and tv shows are also unavoidable influences. The portrayal of drinking in many movies is not an accurate representation, and it might give our children a misinterpretation of alcohol consumption.
The Aftermath. Underage drinking causes several physical but also mental issues. Teenage is the transition period of a person from a kid to an adult. There is a lot of rapid change in their physical structure. Usage of alcohol affects this change in a bad way and might create permanent damage. Alcohol affects our brain, blood, and liver. Usage of alcohol hampers their ability to think straight and further, they lose concentration in their studies. Alcohol also affects motor control and athletics. This leads them to be physically ineffective.
Alcohol addiction is likely to end in criminal activities. Kids and teenagers don’t have any source of income. Once the supply of free booze is over, they try to find money to buy more.
They start stealing a few dimes from their parents and slowly get into more complex and serious activities. Our media proves that such activities are very prominent in our society.
Alcohol also acts as a gateway for other intoxicating substances in our teenagers. Once they are saturated with the euphoric feelings that liquor provides, they slowly move towards drugs and other hallucinating agents.
The remedy. We cannot solve this problem with a single solution or cure. It is connected with our social structure, the efficiency of law and order, and cultural quality.
We are very good at many things but we do not have a good drinking culture.
Creating a culture of consumption of alcohol is better than banning the entire usage of alcohol.
Put some conscious approach to the portrait of alcohol in the media, such as films, tv shows, and tv commercials.
Counseling and therapy is an effective solution. Ignorance is a common reason for the usage of alcohol in minors. If we give them a good education about the side effects of alcohol, there is a better chance that most of them turn sober. A few classes or seminars are not good enough to make a difference, but a constant effort will slowly enlighten them on the vices of alcohol abuse. Each of those brains is the powerhouses of tomorrow. We need to save them for our future.
