When something strongly desired is denied it becomes an obsession.

Personally, I find America’s obsession with alcohol to be more than a little bit unsettling. After all, it seems we are taught from an early age to covet the feeling of being out-of-control.

We engage in behaviors without considering the consequences and use drinking as the ultimate social lubrication in just about any situation. As if that weren’t bad enough, they also dangle it in front of us like an enticing toy from an early age, but deny it until we turn 21.

For the record, and not that it really matters, I’m not a big drinker. I just don’t see a point to it, but hey, to each their own.

The problem here isn’t with the people who abuse alcohol. While I do think that people who spend their lives waiting in eager anticipation of their next drink should see a shrink, the problem is actually with the society that propagates this phenomenon.

Speaking from the point of view of someone who has almost died from alcohol poisoning, I take responsibility for my own actions, but also acknowledge that I was told from almost the age of eight that drinking alcohol makes people cool, makes you more likely to have sex and will essentially get you lots and lots of friends.

Of course, people love alcohol; it takes all the work out of social interaction and meeting new people. But the problem here is that the advertising is so ingrained in all of our heads that no one ever considers the effects of it.

People become alcoholics, women become pregnant from guys they probably never would have spoken to if they were sober and there is literally a laundry list of unpleasant side effects.

So my question is a little like the one that people asked when the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21: What the hell is wrong with a society that makes drinking sound so cool, but makes a point of forbidding it until three years AFTER they are considered legal adults?

Did these lawmakers not have to take Psych 101 in college? As any psychology major will tell you, when something strongly desired is denied, it becomes an obsession.

Alcohol has such a nice image in the popular media, and the negative side effects of its use are glossed over completely unless the subject is over 30 years old. People get so upset over drunk driving and binge drinking, but the deaths caused by both have done little to nothing to change the image of alcohol in the minds of kids.

To them, it will always be that cool thing that mom and dad do not want them doing, and so of course, they want to do it. It makes them adults.

In most other countries, alcohol, while not exactly encouraged for younger people to drink, at least doesn’t receive the same double-standard treatment it does here. Everyone who drinks in movies is glamourous and awesome, and we are somehow surprised that teenagers want to drink it? We can’t possibly be that stupid in this society.

Granted, considering how a lot of the people on this campus act when they’re drunk, alcohol does tend to turn you into a drooling, stinky and possibly vomit-covered weirdo, but come on. To the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I understand your argument, but you really shot yourselves in the collective foot by lobbying for the raising of the drinking age.

Now alcohol is even more of a forbidden fruit. The main problem with drunk driving doesn’t just come from people aged 18-21. It now includes people under the age of 18 as well.

To quote Robbie Hart, “alcohol equals puke equals smelly mess equals nobody likes you.” It’s not age-specific; that rule goes for everyone.

If you’re going to drink, be responsible about it – just because you couldn’t legally drink before you reached the age of 21 doesn’t mean you need to cram 21 years of drinking into one night.

In the meantime, to any future legislators reading this, take a look around you and tell me that a drinking age of 21 is a logical thing while cigarettes, strippers and military service are there for you at 18. If you are going to make it look cool, then you should expect people to covet it.

Either stop the advertising, lower the drinking age or at least make people aware of the consequences without sounding like an uptight prude. And please, stop calling the people who don’t drink losers. In the end they’ll be the ones with more brain cells.

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