Is Underage Drinking A Problem In Amarillo? [POLL]

It seems that over the past few weeks the focus has been on alcohol abuse with teens, especially girls.  Is underage drinking a problem here in Amarillo?

We see it all the time on the news: Justin Bieber was caught playing beer pong or Demi Moore's daughter Scout caught swigging beer with fake I.D. and so on.

But, the reality is that it isn't just celebrities that are doing it, teens everywhere are drinking while underage.  The fact is, underage drinking is nothing new.  Teens have been doing it for ages.  But, is it getting easier for them to get their hands on it?

I'll admit, as a teen I did partake in underage drinking.  While I don't condone this behavior, it was very common when I was in high school.  We'd go to parties that had alcohol.  It was fairly easy to obtain.

There was always that one set of parents who would buy it or an other brother or sister.  Sometimes we knew the person who worked at the beer store.  If we wanted it, we were able to get it.

The local news stations have been covering underage drinking a lot lately and it seems that it is actually easier for teens to get alcohol now a days.  Of course, there are still those parents or older siblings and friends, but something new I heard was homeless people.

A girl being interviewed mentioned that she and her friends could go to any homeless person and pay them to buy them alcohol.  Her exact words were "they will do just about anything for money."

That made me sad but it opened my eyes a little bit.  Not only are we as parents fighting to instill good judgement in our children, but there are new obstacles that we are going to have to over come.

I feel that there will always be underage drinking.  But if we teach our children to be responsible, there will be one less teen abusing alcohol.  It is our job to teach them right from wrong, not society's.

Do you think underage drinking is becoming more of a problem than it's been in the past?