Alcohol

Everyone hears the stories about people dying in car accidents caused by alcohol, or kids killed in a collision caused by a drunk driver. But when you're at a party and everyone else is drinking, it takes a lot of nerve to take a stand against it. Your friends may say drinking is cool, but that doesn't make a difference. Alcohol is very dangerous to your health, both physically and mentally.

Consequences

Legal

An example of some of the legal consequenses of being caught drinking underage are those in Illinois. In the state of Illinois, for your first conviction you will lose your driving privileges for a minimum of two years, possibly be imprisoned for up to year, and be fined for up to $1,000. If you are convicted a second time, you will lose your driving privileges for a minimum of three years or until age 21, whichever is longer, a mandatory 48 hours in jail or 10 days community service, and a fine of up to $1,000. If you're convicted a third time, you will lose your driving privileges for a minimum of 6 years, possibly be imprisoned for 1 to 3 years, and be fined for a maximum of $10,000.

Drunk Driving

Over 40% of all 16 to 20 year olds who died in 1994 were killed in accidents and of those about half of them were alcohol related. Imagine: you're at a party with your friends. You're hanging out, having a good time, and someone shows up with some type of alchol. They tell you, "It's cool, take a drink. Don't be uptight!"
You decide that you want to look cool in front of your friends, so you take a drink. As the night goes on you have more and more drinks to the point that you are drunk. Its now 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and past your curfew, so you have to get home. You seem to be able to get in your car, so you start to drive home. You come to a interesection which looks safe to cross, so you accelerate your car across the street when, suddenly, another car seems to come out of the dark and smashes your car, critically injuring you.

Tragic stories like this happen daily with about 2,200 teens dying from alchol-related accidents every year. The best way to avoid drunk-driving accidents is... not to get drunk. (Surprise!)

Below is a public domain poem written about a teen who was killed by a drunk driver, providing a touching reminder never to drink and drive, and to always be wary when associating with those who do.