Here’s another important consideration raised by this week’s report on underage drinking.  This message comes from a viewer in Greensburg:

I have been watching your reports concerning underage drinking and parents who supply their children and their children’s friends with alcohol.  The focus seems to be strictly with the law and the argument about providing a safe place for underage drinking since “everyone does it”.  I think it is very important to provide information that includes the effects of alcohol on the adolescent brain.  Numerous brain studies show that the prefrontal cortex of the human brain is not fully developed until a person is in their mid-twenties.  This area of the brain controls reasoning and decision-making (thus the reasons why teenagers sometimes make “stupid” decisions).  Alcohol, in any amount, disrupts the development of this part of the brain at a very crucial time of development.  Just because parents are continuing a tradition of providing alcohol in a “safe environment”, doesn’t make it right for more than the reason of breaking any laws.  Parents are supposed to protect their children and we now have the information to show that alcohol is a dangerous substance that can affect development and learning. What was acceptable behavior in the past isn’t always acceptable now with the information we have.