Every March, the National Institute on Drug Abuse promotes National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week. The annual campaign began as an effort to bring clarity about substance abuse by busting myths and has turned into a week to remind everyone, including teenagers, that separating the facts from the glamorization of drinking is imperative for living a healthy life.

For high schoolers, drinking culture has become all too normal. As a sophomore in high school, I have heard countless hallway conversations of students planning to drink or recounting a night of drinking. Whether they might make plans to steal alcohol from the local gas station, or use a fake I.D. to purchase drinks, they have decided that they will partake in drinking. Because of the overwhelming prevalence of underage drinking culture, I find myself questioning the circumstances that have led teenagers to not only drink once but continue to partake in the same unhealthy behavior. As teenagers, we are the next generation to become the face of society, so it is our responsibility to understand teenage drinking and educate those around us about healthy decision-making.

Behind the sips: What fuels teenage drinking?

Underage drinking has become more frequent despite teens knowing the harmful effects of alcohol. A common cause we’ve all heard is peer pressure, and while it doesn’t feel like a contributing factor for some, peer pressure is all around us. Young people may fall victim to drinking when they are explicitly encouraged, forced or continuously refilled with drinks without asking. When teens experience pressure from another teen, it can be especially difficult because of two main fears: being labeled an “outcast” or wanting to please others. Peer pressure can also be indirect, through social modeling. I have personally seen many teens who might witness a socially accepted, “popular” group drinking, and feel the need to partake to ”fit in” or “move up” in a social hierarchy. 

“I haven’t been peer pressured in the way that [adults] make it seem. I’ve never [explicitly] been told by somebody, ‘you have to [drink]’, but I think there’s definitely been times where other people are [drinking] and you just have to make a good decision for yourself,” former Parkway PATH leader and senior Lily Overmann said. 

As important as social mobility can feel, personal health and safety should take priority over fear of being lower on the social hierarchy; this might mean standing firmly against drinking. However, because the prefrontal cortex — the part responsible for impulse control and good decision making in the teenage brain — is still developing, many teens are easily influenced. Beyond peer pressure, social media’s reins over drinking are even harder to escape. 

Social media has sped up teenage life, making it feel like we are growing up too fast. The adults in our lives always seem to recount stories beginning with, “when I was your age…” that often end with conclusions of how Gen-Z tries to act much older than we are. In truth, the way millennials acted as teenagers differs massively from the way Gen-Z acts now. A large reason for this is the constant exposure we, as teens, have to adulthood. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have exposed us to idealized adult lifestyles. However, these lifestyles are often impossible to attain for the average teenager. 63% of teens use TikTok, while almost 60% use Instagram. The fact is that most teenagers use the very apps that feed content on adult hobbies, consumption, or the advertisement of alcohol. The National Library of Medicine explains that exposure to alcohol consumption online has correlated with participation in drinking offline. Many researchers have seen social media’s potential in becoming a reason for teenage alcohol consumption. 

At our own school, I hear people talk about wanting to or planning to participate in activities related to drinking. For example, TikTok has aestheticized the beer pong table by creating a trend around painting your own. Posing as an opportunity to bond with friends, this activity, targeted towards teens, has been glamorized by TikTok. To make it even more appealing, videos show examples of tables decorated to fit various trending aesthetics, such as the 2016 or “preppy” aesthetic. Regardless of how teens decide to decorate their table, the glorification of underage drinking through social media is just one more way in which teens are inclined to participate in unhealthy behaviors. 

Fueled by various pressures, teenagers have adopted a dangerous outlook towards drinking: normalcy bias. This phenomenon is essentially a feeling that partaking in an activity known to have negative consequences, such as drinking, won’t affect you adversely because “everyone does it.” It can also get really dangerous, really fast. I have personally seen how people’s outlook on alcohol has changed between their freshman and sophomore years in high school. The same people who currently integrate drinking every weekend into their schedules are the same people who I have known to stand up to drinking. When asked about what changed their outlook, almost everyone seems to respond with something along the lines of, “everyone does it.” Thinking that just because everyone participates in something, it’s okay to do it too, ultimately blinds teenagers from recognizing the true outcomes of drinking. 

The aftermath of the after-party: What happens to teens who drink?

From parents and teachers to law enforcement, all the adults in our lives tell society’s teenagers, “Don’t drink, it’s bad for you.” While this piece of advice is extremely applicable, it’s also really easy for us to dismiss, especially as teens get older. The truth is, no matter how many teens ignore it, frequent drinking leads to serious health consequences, and it all starts with the brain.

For academic-driven teens who don’t think drinking affects their performance, they are mistaken. While substance abuse negatively affects many parts of the brain, the prefrontal lobe and the hippocampus are more drastically impacted. Responsible for planning, decision making and language, the prefrontal cortex actually decreases in size as a teen increases their drinking habits. This damages their ability to organize, manage time, focus on school tasks and work with memorized information. The part of the brain that plays a role in memory and learning, the hippocampus, is proven to have a 10% reduction in size after heavy, prolonged alcohol use. While this may seem like an insignificant statistic, it is this 10% that makes the difference in being able to easily solve math problems, write English essays and remember the timelines in history class.

 Beyond its role as a detriment to academic performance, alcohol is a depressant, meaning it slows the functioning of the cerebral and central nervous system. This results in a weakening of a teenager’s ability to play sports or perform other physical demands. I often find it is athletes who make plans to drink frequently. Going back to the idea of normalcy bias, I hear them justify drinking with the fact that they have consistent and excellent performance in their sport. However, it’s important to keep in mind that while performance in sports may seem unchanged on a day-to-day basis, there are neurological effects slowly chipping away at their performance that will show up with time and increased consumption. A decline in teenage brain functions may appear outwardly in the form of reduced accuracy in fine motor skills, a slower reaction time and balance impairment. Along with all of this, alcohol reduces the body’s ability to store glycogen and glucose, meaning there is less energy for muscle contraction and movement, leading to a decrease in athletic performance. 

Although teens believe drinking to be acceptable, whether it be due to exposure to adulthood or internalized feelings of normalcy bias, there are many famous athletes whom teenagers can look up to. Football Player Cris Carter, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and baseball player John Hamilton are just a few examples of individuals who stay away from substances. Professional and successful athletes set a positive example that you can refrain from drinking while living a fun and fulfilling life.

Whatever justifications teens continuously give, none are great enough to compensate for the hard facts that have proven to be the negative effects of alcohol. All of us have the capacity to create a bright future for ourselves, and many of us have goals we want to achieve, but the reality is that even recreational drinking can be a barrier to achieving these goals. Whether it be a decreased academic performance, athletic performance or poor mental health, alcohol can be the culprit for it all. 

It might even be annoying in some senses, the way we constantly hear adults “nag” us about practicing abstinence from alcohol, but they are trying to warn us before we experience that loss of control. Due to the brain still developing in teens, it’s much easier to get addicted to substances such as alcohol, which is why we must take a stand and advocate before it’s too late. Even though alcohol’s harmful effects have been communicated in schools for several decades, 4.2 million teens nationwide admitted to drinking in 2023. Because prevention efforts have been largely unsuccessful, schools are shifting to new efforts — some centered on student advocacy and peer-to-peer education.

Paving a better PATH: the future of alcohol awareness

Parkway has implemented several programs to educate students about prevention and wellness: High School Heroes is directed towards sixth graders to educate them about drug abuse, and Now n L8r is meant to educate eighth graders about mental well-being. Seventh graders are subject to a program focused solely on alcohol awareness: Peers Advocating for Total Health.

Going into its fifth year, the Parkway School District’s Peers Advocating for Total Health (PATH) program aims to combat drug and alcohol abuse by creating high school-directed discussions with middle schoolers. The participating Parkway high schools and middle schools, Central, West, North and South, are committed to changing students’ attitudes about drug abuse, using their “Live it, Learn it and Pass it on” motto. 

“[Middle school students] have heard it from adults, but they get tired of hearing [it from us], and quite frankly, I understand that. [However,] they look up to high schoolers, whether they [admit] it or not. They [try to] act like they don’t, but they really do,” PATH sponsor and physical education teacher Tommie Rowe said. 

Subject to PATH lessons as a seventh grader, I vividly remember my classmates and me pretending we didn’t find the older kids interesting in an attempt to impress them. However, it was undeniable that we were all more attentive during these lessons than if our teacher had given us the same lesson. The approach of using high school students to mentor and pass their knowledge to the middle school students proved to be incredibly impactful, as I still hear my peers referencing the lessons that the PATH students and sponsors curated for their audience. 

“We have a lesson where the advocates show the kids two pig lungs. One is healthy and [looks normal, while the other] is shrivelled and black, representing a smoker’s lung. Anytime that you can visually show kids [the effects], it lasts with them longer. The visual representation just makes it that much more real for them, and it’s almost a wake-up call for prevention,” Rowe said. 

In their sophomore year, after taking health classes in high school, students transition from learning to educating; they receive the opportunity to become a PATH leader. 

“We went to [a] two-day retreat at Babbler Park, where] we worked with other students and teachers throughout the Parkway district. We worked in groups that helped deepen our understanding of the topics we [would] present to students. Some of the topics that we went over were how we stay safe through mental well-being, a support system and activities you [can] do to keep yourself healthy. Then, we went through things [such as] drug awareness and alcohol awareness, and how we navigate that in our own lives, so we can project it and teach the other students,” PATH leader and sophomore Olivia Briner said. 

Beyond PATH, there are a variety of prevention efforts that a West student could expect in high school. While many opt to take the class during the summer, the Health and Family Education course taught here at West is a great way for high schoolers to be exposed to the effects of drugs and alcohol. From lessons that allow teens to learn about different types of alcohol to ways we can find our “natural high,” the class does a great job of reiterating the importance of substance abstinence to students at the high school level. PATH, on the other hand, targets a younger group of students. 

“It [all] starts in middle school, not later in high school [like people would think]. The goal is to teach those kids not to go [down an addictive path]. It used to be [just]

cigarettes and alcohol, but now you have marijuana and vaping, which is just as] horrible for you. [Also,] the media hone in on young people. They say they don’t, but that’s who their audience is. They think if they get you hooked on [young], they [will have] you forever, and a lot of them do [end up] having you forever, ” Rowe said. 

Along with providing an opportunity for middle schoolers to learn about substance abuse, PATH can unknowingly aid high school students as well. 

“The leadership part of our program is incredible. [They’re] strong enough to be a leader and come out and say, ‘I don’t do this.’ Along with that, we have our leaders sign a contract, so while they can definitely go to parties, they [have to practice substance abstinence]. However, [they] can blame it on us and say, ‘I can’t do that because I signed a contract.’ [PATH] is a way to give [highschool] kids a safe haven [along with educating],” Rowe said.

No matter the grade, PATH has proven to be an incredibly useful tool to combat alcohol abuse. Parkway’s integration of this program has proved to be vital in increasing awareness among teens across the district. Leadership opportunities such as PATH can even serve as a precedent for schools around the nation to take on new approaches in educating middle and high schoolers about the effects of partaking in substance consumption. 

“[Talking to high schoolers] helps middle school students understand that what we’re going through is what they’re going to go through. It’s nice for them to look up to someone and [see how] we might go through hard stuff with school or at home, [but] make healthy choices. [Ultimately], they’re going to walk the same path and the same way as us, so being able to show them[in a way] that’s more understandable, helps them implement it into their life,” Briner said.