Do I waste my time?

[LunarSolaris]

Steve gives some very good advice which I don't need to repeat.

The only thing I would add to it, is that I truly feel that drinking is WAY overrated. It's entirely too common for teenagers to drink because it's taboo and they usually do it for the purpose of getting drunk.

No one argues that drinking kills brain cells... so I would ask this question: Knowing that alcohol kills many brain cells when you drink, why drink during a time in your life when your brain is still developing? (I'm sure Anyee can speak very specifically to brain development in teenage years)

Of course, it's all about "freewill", but still...

[ItsaMeMario]

I love it when young girls like you start drinking at my partys. *bares teeth*

[SaroDarksbane]

Meh. I'm 21 and I've never touched a drop. Don't plan to either.

There's no real upside that I can see.

[MixedVariety]

Don't let peer pressure sway your resolve about drinking. You never need to drink. You will actually have fun in your life whether you drink or not, and will never risk becoming an alcoholic or driving drunk if you never start.
Why bother, unless it's such an overwhelming impulse you can't resist it? You aren't missing anything, anything at all.

[Vorzheva]

Well, if you're from Sweden, why drink? Go to Amsterdam!

[VaN_haMMerSteIn]

Things are different in Sweden(Harja is swedish IIRC). Most people(say 70% where i live) of ages 14-18 drink alcohol(beer or liquor usually). It's part of the social scene.
Harja, i say do it, but don't do it to excess. Getting wasted and having 3-day hangovers is not fun, trust me.

How do you have a 3 day hangover? It doesn't make sense.

This one time I had six beers, a half a 2/6 of Vodka and then we smoked a FAT joint and I passed out and puked and **** any my hangover only lasted like 2 hours. Other then that I have never had a hangover. I prolly shoulda tho. I have done stuff liek that many times.
Like the time i drank 7 beers and then traded a 1/4 bottle of Vodka for a gram of magic mushrooms! That was insane.

The sad thing is that I am only 15 but I live in Alberta, Canada so it's all good.
The social scene there is drink and drink and drink and drink and drink and fight.. so it's ok/socially acceptable here.

DOwn in the states however, drugs are VERY frowned upon aparently, or atleast that's what my american friends say. It's sorta scary actually. :buddies:

[tydon]

I know someone who took a blood alc test 24 hours after the last drink and had like a .05% still..........I can see a 3 day hangover based on that.

Canada is much more drinking friendly......

I am 19, and went up there and went bar hopping, went to about 6 bars. Never got carded....


OH edit:

From what I have been told, for every one drink you drink, it takes an hour to have the effects wear off completetly. So if you drain 8 beers, then go to bed, you will wake up with a hangover.

[piff]

I don't drink. I'll use my volleybal lteam for example, because I've found that my teammates have a total of two views on drinking.

Never drink or drink because you can. We've had players come to tournements hungover and throwing up from drinking at cast parties and Jr. Prom afterparties. Then there's a few of us, much outnumbered, that won't touch alcohol because we'd rather not. We who don't drink still have fun, and a couple of us (not me) are somewhat popular/partyers. And those that drink have the same fun, if not more...except they don't remember it. They only know because they film the room when they drink.

In all, don't be pressured in. I still have fun when friends have a buzz or are drunk and I'm not. It's even more fun to make fun of them afterwards. Drink if you want to, but beware that there can be trouble from doing it, and also know that it is fun.

EDIT: Tydon, the liver can oxidize (change the alcohol to something body-friendly) alcohol at I think 1.5 oz. per hour. Not sure if they mean 1.5 oz. of pure alcohol (which I think is deadly) or just 1.5 oz. of alcoholic drink.

[Sergeant]

[color=silver]It might seem like fun now but, drinking, to me, is a waste of time and money. You'll be glad you didn't drink when, years from now, they still are, their health is poor and their whole social life revovles around "getting trashed". All they're reall doing is wasting their money in the hopes of giving their life some meaning.[/color]

[color=black]poison dagger[/color]

[color=silver]It always amazes me to see people who do nothing every evening but get all dressed up, go to a bar to hang out, get drunk and then go home, only to do the very same thing the next night, and the next, and the next. It's fun at first but, it gets old real fast. At least it did for me.[/color]

[color=silver]~Sergeant[/color]
[color=black]poison dagger[/color]

[color=black]poison dagger[/color]

[Stevinator]

Now sarge, not everyone who drinks drinks just to get trashed....usually you grow out of that after a while. besides teh people that have to "get trashed" tended to be the ones that didn't drink much as they were growing up. i think if you start earlier in your life you don't look at it like adrug, but a part of your life. similar to guns. kids that learn to respect guns from a young age tend to be much more careful with them than people who pick one up when they're 21 just for protection.

hte 21 yr. old drinking age creates this sense of oh, I'm turning 21 I should get blasted. or only 21 yr olds can drink legally, but I'm cool now so I'm going to go get some brew. it's dumb. it would make much more sense to make it legal and take away the incentive to be sneaky about it and abuse it.

I'm all for drinking...i drink often myself, but from what he's saying here it sounds like he's drinking for the wrong reasons. i've been through all of it, and i've seen alcohol do some terrible things to people...but I also grew up with it being a big part of my family's daily life. our"happy hour" is a time where the family gets together and does nothing but talk as a family. usually mom nad dad would have a drink and when we were old enough they let my brother and i have a thimble of wine or a little shot of beer. eventually i was having a beer with my dad and discussing what happened that day. also wine with dinner is big in my family...well when we make anything interesting any way. so I used to drink wine with meals--again when i was a kid it was very little and I never got drunk or anything...it was always a little here and a little there. now just like other kids I experimented and i got too drunk a few times, but I'm not likely to do that again.

so agian my advice would be to do what you're going to do but do it for the right reasons. if it's incentive to talk more with your family or your friends that's fine...but if it's hey let's see if we can do 8 shots and drive home...well that's not good. and don't feel like you have to drink either. some people just don't react well with it. they get addicted, they can't stop they are always drunk. just keep your wits about oyu...