Evidence Please
From a letter to the editor in the Lebanon Express:
Allowing teens to drink alcohol under adult supervision does not teach responsible drinking.
In fact, this approach may actually lead to more drinking and alcohol-related consequences. Please remind your teen to “think before they drink.”
Oh, come on. Let’s think this through. A parent tells their kid to think before they drink, then refuses to let them drink at home where the parent can engage with the teen about alcohol, as well as monitor alcohol consumption and promote safe drinking behavior? Instead, the parent punts the kid into the arms of their peers?
Yeah. That’ll work.
This is basically an abstinence-only, head-in-the-sand approach to alcohol, and there’s a boatload of evidence that suggests that abstinence-only sex education simply doesn’t work. I’m sure turning a 21-year-old with no information about alcohol consumption loose at Merlin’s or Peacock East, where they can learn the finer points of tolerance, will work perfectly fine.
I’d love to see evidence that an abstinence-only approach is effective with alcohol. Anyone?
