Underage drinking is a serious social issue. Drinking before the legal age has been linked to many short- and long-term negative effects on physical, mental, social and academic factors. Parental involvement can help curb underage drinking and influence teens to make safe choices.

Here is a good resource provided by Brown and Crouppen law firm. Click the link below to read the full article:

https:/https://www.brownandcrouppen.com/underage-drinking-and-its-dangers/

I still recall high school and all of the pressures to go to parties and the drinking involved when you got there.  One of my first parties, when I wasn't even driving yet, my dad even dropped me off at this house, I found no parents home, abundant alcohol and sketchy behavior.  I should have called my dad and left, but instead, I just played on the ping pong table with a friend of mine and stayed away from the alcohol....hence the societal pressures in high school to do the right thing but fearing reprisal and gossip at school had I left because I was too good to be around that environment.  Social pressure is hard on young people but with the right parenting, kids can get passed those tough situations with a bit of grace.

Parents are indeed the key factor in helping young adults grow up with a good social foundation by instructing kids that they don't need the alcohol as a social crutch or a habit that could last a lifetime.

When I was at high school it wasn't really a problem. I don't know what your high school years are but ours is 12-16. The alcohol problems started just after we left school when parents would go on holiday and start leaving their kids alone, that's when the house parties started!

I have to say though that although I now have a problem with alcohol (in recovery of course!) I never started to drink until I was the legal age of 18. However, a lot of kids did start drinking quite heavily after leaving school.

A bigger problem in the village where I grew up was glue/solvent sniffing. I saw some doing it from the age of about 14! You could usually tell who had been doing it regularly because as they sniffed it out of plastic bags they would start to get red and blotchy around the lips and nose, sometimes developing scabs as well.

I don't know what their parents must have thought but I'm with you, good parenting is one of the key basics growing up into later life! 

In the US, drinking and gateway drugs, such as marijuana, started with some kids in the junior high years, which were grades 6th through 8th grade (ages about 12 to 14).  You could tell pretty quickly the kids that were starting in their downward spiral.  High school was ninth through twelfth grade, (ages about 15 to 18) and the kids that were smokers were usually the kids that also drank and did experiment with drugs.  They all hung out together outside to smoke.  There were labels to kids in my high school, you had the "jocks" (athletes), high life's (wealthy) and the "freaks" (did drugs etc).  I mean no disrespect in sharing this but sharing because it's a long time past cultural label and today's labels are likely different. For the record, I don't like labels as they can be pretty hurtful.  You could be a kid that was different but only accepted in a group that had less then a stellar image, but some of these kids might be really nice and supportive, so labels are poor designations for any group.

Sniffing was pretty popular in my high school years too, often called "huffing".  I didn't realize kids that did this got sores on their mouths?  Where are the parents?  Why aren't the parents paying attention?  So often kids gravitate to these options because they are lost or hurting inside and really need support from their parents or a good mentor.  I can't say enough about kids getting involved in sports or music through out Jr. High and High School.  My sport and music kept me very busy through Jr. High and High school.  When kids are busy between school and an outside program of some kind, they don't have time to get into trouble, and especially for athletes, drugs and alcohol are not on the menu.

Alcohol is very easy for kids to get, if they have friends that are older, the friends pick it up or if they have access to it at home, they can get it there.  I can recall being at a friends house in high school, and she got into the liquor cabinet.  I was like, nah-huh.  It's really too easy.  What starts out as a harmless dare, now becomes a habit hard to break with all of the emotional issues attached to it too.