The Drinking Age

I was watching an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (don't ask me why) and it was discussing the drinking age. Of course, the way they handled the subject ended badly for everyone, but they made a point that we seem to have forgotten: If teens learn to drink in a safe and responsible environment, they will carry those habits with them the rest of their lives. If they learn to drink 40's in the middle of nowhere and drive home drunk to make curfew, THOSE are the habits they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. The only reason OUR drinking age is so high is that our government doesn't believe that parents can turn their kids into responsible adults. Instead, they feel the need to regulate anything that might hurt us, thereby taking the decision-making out of our hands.

I think it's a better idea to talk to kids about alcohol and teach them to use it responsibly at or before (with direct parental supervision) the age of 16. The countries where the legal drinking age is 16 or lower have very few problems with alcohol. People are taught not to drink and drive (which works better when there is a good and SAFE public transportation system), not to over-indulge (for reference, visit your nearest college), and what their limits are (which isn't happening here, as evidenced by AA and the 12 Steps) in a safe environment surrounded by people who care about them.

Sororities

I went to a Women's College and we used to joke that we didn't need sororities on campus because we were one. There was relatively little pressure on the dating front because men weren't generally around campus. For those who wanted to go Greek, there was a large University just down the street. Their sororities didn't recruit our women, but they didn't turn them away, either.

After reading Pledged by Alexandra Robbins, I was glad to have been sheltered from all of that. My college boyfriend was Greek, Phi Delta Theta to be exactly (just like my Daddy), so I got to observe the who process from the outside. I sent time in the frat house, went to formal, semi-formal, etc... and watched as girls who had previously ignored my boyfriend fell all over him once he was a brother. At least he was too smitten with me to notice!

Anyway, there was some scary information in the book, such as the fact that pipes at sorority house corrode at an alarming rate due the stomach acid that is constantly flushed through them. For the same reason, maintenance is called often to the house to clean out pipes clogged with vomit. I won't give away too much of the book, but you should know that over 75% of sorority girls have been sexually assaulted, most often by a fraternity member.

No, It's Not.

A personal disease cannot be controlled. A person becomes stricken with disease through no fault of their own. They are accosted from within, ravaged by pain, and humbled by their own mortality. Families are pillaged to pay medical costs. The individual emotional distress can be overwhelming. Cancer and bipolar disorder fall into the category of personal disease.

A societal disease is an affliction that cannot be controlled by the entity effected by it. Whether it is slow and degenerative (like religion) or swift and chaotic (like AIDS), the results are often devastating. Many of these diseases can be constrained by legal restrictions or common sense for a period of time before exploding on a world-scale. Drug and alcohol addiction fall into the category of societal disease, not personal disease.

So everyone say it with me: Drug and Alcohol addiction is NOT A PERSONAL DISEASE. Why? Because a person can decide at any time to put the beer down and back away from the cocaine. No higher power is required. There is only one step. Personal responsibility is a necessary lesson in life, and many people fail the test (and ruin it for the rest of us) by refusing to learn to partake without excess.

Forget the excuses. Addiction runs in my family, too. In fact, it runs in every family. Just because no one calls someone who plays video games 12 hours a day an addict doesn't mean he's not one. We all use escapes, some more obsessively than others. To practice them in moderation is the key, but you must be taught to do so. Temperance is not something that is seen often in America, and many of our societal ills have a lot to do with what we teach our children. If we teach people to refrain from drug and alcohol use, we are not teaching them to live in the world around them. There is a time and a place (and a limit) for everything, and addicts have not learned to recognize that fact.