19-year-old:

Straus Newspapers: How do you feel about teen drinking? 19-year-old: It's normal, it depends on the person whether it's like, safe or not. SN: Do you think the 21 drinking age is good? 19-year-old: Yeah, I think it's the perfect age, I guess you're like more grown up, you know. SN: Do you drink? 19-year-old:I don't drink now but I used to pretty heavily, very heavily. SN: How much would you drink at in night of drinking? 19-year-old: It varied a lot. I tended to drink a whole lot when I did drink. Anywhere from 6 to 14 drinks. SN:Why did you stop drinking? 19-year-old: I got in a little trouble and I need to stay completely clean for a while. SN: Was the trouble you got in drinking related? 19-year-old: Not drinking related but drug related, so now I am involved in this system where you just have to stay clean. SN: Did you drink to the point of blacking out or throwing up very often? 19-year-old: No, I have puked because of drinking one or two times but I've never blacked out. SN: Why did you like to drink? 19-year-old: Because it's fun. SN: Why do you think other kids your age drink? 19-year-old:They think it makes people more social, some are depressed and just want to feel better; I guess it makes some feel more grown up, but I think kids mostly just drink for fun. SN: How do underage kids get alcohol? 19-year-old: Sometimes people would sell it to me at stores, or I would just get someone who's over 21 to buy it. Sometimes it's just there, like at friend's houses. SN: What is you're drink of choice? 19-year-old:Budweiser, definitely, its what I grew up with. It's without a doubt the "All American" beer. SN: You're not the first to say that; do you think Budweiser gears its product toward kids? 19-year-old: No, not as bad a cigarette companies. SN: Do you know any younger kids who have gotten in trouble for drunk driving? 19-year-old: Not a lot of kids, maybe one or two. They had to go court, no one went to jail but probably got probation, and big fines. SN: Do you think kids mostly just drink at parties? 19-year-old: I don't know, not really, but they definitely do drink at parties. SN: Do you think kids go to parties go just to drink? 19-year-old: A lot of them do. Probably at least half. SN: Have you been to a lot of drinking parties that got broken up by the police? 19-year-old: Not really, sometimes they don't get broken up, but I have been to one or two. Plus some parties where the police showed up but didn't break it up, just said to quiet down. SN: Do you have a story you can share? 19-year-old: Yeah, my birthday a couple of years ago. We had a party out in the woods, off these trails. And at one point four state cops walked up to the party, they were like "Hey! We got the kegs!" No one knew it was them until they got real close and yelled, "State Police! Anyone runs, they're getting shot!" So they had us form two lines, one for boys and one for girls. A lady cop searched all the girls and a guy cop searched all the boys and they sent us on down the trail. SN: Were a lot of the kids drunk? 19-year-old: Everyone was.