Why do we, as teens, turn to alcohol? You can come up with a dozen hypothetical reasons for why high-schoolers and even middle schoolers waste their time and energy on illegal substances: to get the thrill, to relieve stress, to fit in. And despite the best efforts of education experts, teens have clung tenaciously to alcohol. Some may claim that shows like Gossip Girl cause underage drinking, but I hesitate to say that TV shows create our culture. It is our culture, our society that shapes what we see on television, and there is something culturally wrong with how American society views underage drinking and educates teenagers about alcohol.

Take tobacco, for example. Mention cigarette smoking to any sixth-grader, and they will immediately envision the pictures of blackened lungs that their health teacher showed them and the long lists of toxic chemicals found inside a cigarette. They may think of a popular sticker that says “Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.” They will remember a movie that ended with a smoker in a hospital room, stricken with lung cancer and surrounded by crying family members. These educational drives have made smoking drop drastically, especially among teenagers. Everyone knows that smoking’s not a gamble. There is a one hundred percent chance that tobacco will harm your body.

But alcohol awareness programs don’t seem to have the same effect. My school district’s DARE program, run by the police department, bombards students with facts about illegal substances from elementary school onward. My high school holds an “Every Fifteen Minutes” program every year, in which a student is pulled out from a class every fifteen minutes to signify a death from drunk driving. The school stages a mock accident in which family and friends mourn the loss of a loved one who died from someone else’s bad judgment. And while students may cry during these emotionally charged presentations, it doesn’t seem to stop them from buying a keg for their next after-game party.

It’s all about the odds, really. No matter how terrible a drunk-driving accident is, it’s still only a risk. And teenagers rise to the occasion when presented with the “challenge” of buying and consuming alcohol. Police officers are, after all, authority figures whose rules can be circumvented and evaded. Teenagers see underage drinking as a crime, and, like all crimes, there’s always a chance that you’ll get away.

Since current awareness methods don’t seem to work, perhaps American public schools should try a different approach to prevent underage drinking. Replace handcuffs and smashed cars with medical diagrams; bring doctors as well as policemen to schools. Without deemphasizing the effects of drunk driving, educators should directly counteract the “glamor” of celebrity drinking as they did with smoking. For every limoncello and wild party that the media shows to us on television, for every chic woman with a martini and sexy man with a beer, drive home the images of damaged brain cells, swollen livers, and cirrhosis. Change alcohol’s dangers from a risk to a certainty and you will change teens’ views about drinking.

-Aliya Deri