April 10, 2023 7:24 PM BST
When I was at high school it wasn't really a problem. I don't know what your high school years are but ours is 12-16. The alcohol problems started just after we left school when parents would go on holiday and start leaving their kids alone, that's when the house parties started!
I have to say though that although I now have a problem with alcohol (in recovery of course!) I never started to drink until I was the legal age of 18. However, a lot of kids did start drinking quite heavily after leaving school.
A bigger problem in the village where I grew up was glue/solvent sniffing. I saw some doing it from the age of about 14! You could usually tell who had been doing it regularly because as they sniffed it out of plastic bags they would start to get red and blotchy around the lips and nose, sometimes developing scabs as well.
I don't know what their parents must have thought but I'm with you, good parenting is one of the key basics growing up into later life! 
This post was edited by
markransome
at April 10, 2023 7:24 PM BST
