my two cent worth

• In Albany and Carbon counties, more than 30 percent of people under age 20 binge drink — 50 percent above the national average
• An earlier federal study found that rural youths ages 12 and 13 were twice as likely as urban youths to abuse alcohol.

My opinion

There are a few causes to the increase in teenage alcohol intake:

• Boredom
• Following bad examples set by parents
• Parties held which usually offer alcoholic drinks
• Advertisments eg. At the nightly rodeo in Cody, beer signs are ubiquitous, and on the town’s main commercial strip, a giant beer banner welcomes tourists.
• Flavoured alcoholic drinks which hide the taste of alcohol eg.alcopops
• Incooperative parents who do not see their kids bingeing on alcohol a big deal

I think for cities like Cody, an age limit for the consumption of alcohol should be implement. Then as alocoholic drinks will be made less available to them, it will be more unlikely for under-aged teens to consume alcohol or engage in binge drinking.

Cities should also educate its teens about the negative effects of alcohol which will be detrimental to their health through mediums such as advertisments,flyers and giving talks in their schools. An example of a school that really needs this educational talk is Cody High School whereby 65% of the students drink. Educational talks should also reached out to the masses especially the parents. Then not only can they set a good example for their children to follow, they can also further reinforce the need to curb binge drinking in their children. Mr Ralph Boerner, who counsels alcoholics of all ages in Butt, Mont, indicates that his youngest patient is 5 years old. This calls for an urgent need for parents to play a part in educating their kids against alocohol drinking since they are young if not their health will suffer an impactful blow when they carry this bad habit with them when they grow older.

Cities can also introduce more night life for teenagers to engage in so that they will not resort to alcohol drinking due to boredom. This can be done through building more arcades, shopping malls, LAN shops.

posted by nutty-me @ 3:50 PM