Children Who Watch Parents Drink 'Are Twice as Likely to Binge on Alcohol'

Children who watch parents drink 'are twice as likely to binge on alcohol'
Young people also more likely to drink if parents leave them unsupervised, according to Joseph Rowntree survey

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  Children who spent every night with friends were four times as likely to drink heavily. Children who regularly see their parents drink are twice as likely to binge on alcohol themselves, according to a survey. Youths who are left unsupervised are also more likely to drink, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found.
  
  Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/general-discussion/35992-children-who-watch-parents-drink-twice.html
  Researchers for Ipsos Mori questioned 5,700 teenagers in England, and found one in four 13 to 14-year-olds had been drunk more than once, compared to just over half of children (52%) aged 15 to 16. Those who said they had seen their parents inebriated were twice as likely to have been drunk several times. And the odds of a teenager having ever had an alcoholic drink are also greater if their parents do not know where they are on a Saturday night or if they are allowed to watch 18-rated films unsupervised.
  
  Claire Turner, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "This research shows that parents can have more influence on their teenagers' behaviour than perhaps many assumed. "Both what parents say and how they behave have a strong impact on their teenagers' drinking, drinking regularly and drinking to excess."
  The survey found the influence of friends was the most significant factor in childhood drinking, as the likelihood of youths drinking to excess more than doubled if they spent more than two nights a week socialising.
  
  Spending every night with friends multiplied the odds of drinking heavily more than four times. The report concluded that schools were key to distributing information about drinking.
  
  "The findings suggest that efforts to improve drinking behaviour among young people at a national policy level are best directed at supporting and educating parents," it said. "This should include positive messages for parents about how they can influence their child's behaviour and stress the importance of parents' own drinking and what their children see and think about this.
  Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35992
  
  "Friends are another key area of influence. Schools could help here by challenging incorrect perceptions about the regularity and scale of heavy drinking by peer groups. "Schools could also be a channel for information, getting targeted messages to parents encouraging actions at specific times in their child's development."
  
  Diane Abbott, the Labour health spokeswoman, said: "This report confirms that the government's failure to take real action on alcohol pricing is helping to feed an epidemic of teen drinking.
  "We should equip young people with the skills they need to resist peer pressure to go out drinking. There are concrete lessons to be learned from overseas, where tried and tested programmes aim to reduce alcohol and substance abuse through classroom-based education. These types of programmes have had excellent success rates."
  
  A Department of Health spokesman said: "Alcohol misuse is a major public health issue. We know that teenagers can be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of drinking.
  
  "For young people and children not drinking is the healthiest and best option."
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...-binge-alcohol

 
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It is known that alcohol and tobacco in the forms we consume them in are more dangerous than marijuana and other drugs. Yet marijuana is illegal, while the other two and found everywhere.

Why not make alcohol illegal if the goal is to reduce consumption and prevent children from getting their hands on it?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35992
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35992

Also, people have always used and further abused drugs. The abuse becomes more likely when drugs are purified. Coca leaves when chewed make the body more energetic yet after purification to cocaine, the drug induces a quick high and the person becomes addicted.

Why not have drugs available in their raw form for consumption?

During the American prohibition era (when alcohol was made illeagal) there was much more death attributed to binge drinking then there is now. Similarily, in amsterdam, legalizing maryjauna has resulted in a decrease of pot smokers.

I wouldnt make alcohol illeagal unless you really want kids to start binge drinking. The whole "illeagalness" of it makes it more cool among other things. If it is harder to find then that also promotes binge drinking because you dont know when ur going to get some next. Legalizing alcohol helped if anything—they should legalize maryjauna under the same logic (even if it was as deadly as alcohol and tobacco, which it clearly isnt).

Why not have both? As long as their safe ... :P
LSD is manufactured from a yeast but even in its most chemically pure form it is safer then caffeine. Far more powerful as well :P

So I would legalise chemically pure lsd but put a cap on cocaine, crack, meth, etc. One problem could be that if all the raw materials are readily available—this might result in some people extracting more and more potent/pure forms of the active ingredients.

Heres a helpful chart