Alcohol in the Family

Debate continues on whether serving alcohol at home will teach teens to drink responsibly.
On the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (3/8, D1, Beck) reports in "Health Journal" that some parents believe teens can be taught to be responsible drinkers by being allowed to have wine and beer at home with the family. That way, the youngsters will be less tempted to binge drink when out on their own. Other parents, however, believe adolescents should not consume any alcohol at all until they reach the legal drinking age, saying that early alcohol exposure could predispose young people to alcohol abuse later on in life. Last month, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released a report saying that about six percent of middle-school students used alcohol in the past 30 days. Forty-five percent of those children obtained the alcohol at home, with 16% of them getting it from a parent, the report found.