Teen drinking

     Teen drinking is the subject of three town hall meetings in the area this week. One was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at Marshall University. One was scheduled for Tuesday evening at Spring Valley High School. The final one is scheduled for Thursday evening in Culloden.
     Teen drinking is nothing new, but it’s getting more attention lately. According to a Marshall spokesman, the meetings were organized, in part, because of United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s recent declaration that underage drinking “has reached epidemic proportions.” He has issued a call to action and is seeking comments on the problem of underage drinking.
     Is teen drinking that big of a problem here in this area? If so, how do we deal with it?
     As far as I know, none of my three children – ranging from almost 14 to 6 1/2 –  has ever seen a drunk person. For starters, I don’t drink. Alcohol has done nothing good for anyone in my family, and it has done much harm, so I tend to stay away from it. Having seen a lot of drunks in the small town where I grew up, becoming intoxicated has never appealed to me.
     It can’t be denied that drinking appeals to young people. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many bars and convenience stores within a mile of the Marshall campus. Teens will be tempted to drink and to drink to excess. So what, if anything, do we do about it?