I was allowed to drink at home with parental supervision as a teenager. If my uncle brought a bottle of wine for Thanksgiving, I was allowed to have a glass. When I got to college, I drank maybe once or twice a year until I was 20 or so.
I think binge drinking has more to do with the crowd you hang out with and peer pressure to engage in that sort of behavior. I think it would be less likely to happen if the drinking age were lowered and more people talked openly and honestly about the consequences of binge drinking. However, the puritanical attitude in regards to alcohol consumption in this country persists--and it turns alcohol and alcohol consumption into forbidden fruit. It creates this attitude that when a person drinks, they must drink to the point of being wasted. I see this among friends of mine still today--people who are recently 21. It disgusts me to think that this is the attitude they have--but almost all of them were raised in a manner that is the complete opposite of how I was raised. I can't help but think that if only they had been exposed to alcohol in a controlled and responsible manner prior to coming of age they wouldn't have this attitude.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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