While many teens spend spare time playing video games or sports, sleeping, or whatever, some use that time to do a less, shall we say, legal activity -- drinking.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80 percent of high school students have reported that they have had at least one drink in their school years, and 52 percent had at least one drink in the past month.
Many adults think that teens use alcohol as an escape from their problematic lives or from the pressures from school or sports. But these people have overlooked one important reason many teens drink: they think it is fun. As one senior put it, "Getting poo-faced every night is fun, and it's fun doing it with other people."
These teens are social drinkers, described as a person who drinks alcoholic beverages in moderation, chiefly when socializing.
Most teens who drink are not the rampaging alcoholics that parents, teachers, and police try to portray them as. They are just a bunch of kids looking for a fun time without resorting to knocking over the local gas station.
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So what can be done about these rebels? They don't seem to be hurting anyone, unless you count the police that must spend time giving these kids minors instead of doing useful things, like protecting the United States from terrorism. Yet by North Dakota and federal law these same teens are classified as criminals.
These kids don't deserve a criminal reputation. While they are wrong for breaking the law, the law should be changed to decriminalize underage drinking.
Four year olds should not drink, but there is something wrong with a country that lets 12 year olds be convicted in adult courts of murder because "they knew what they were doing," yet even 20 year olds cannot consume alcohol because they are considered "too irresponsible." But this is the skewed view it seems most lawmakers have.
But until someone comes along who understands teens, we will always have adults thinking for us. Sometimes it can be a plus, but most of the time these adults just think they know what's in teens' best interests.
While they debate the future of teens' freedoms and rights, 80 percent of teens will just keep on drinking.
