If you're honest, you'll admit that way back in high school you may have had friends who frequently drank beer or the hard stuff, who often - OK, regularly - got plastered on the weekends, who may have driven when they could hardly walk, and still they somehow managed to become a passable member of society.

If you're a parent, and if you're still honest, you may admit to having those fears about your teen. You may wonder if they've funneled a beer or nursed a Jack Daniels. Were they hung over last weekend? Or were they just tired? You hear stories about other people's kids, of their reputations as partiers, and you feel secure that your kid's reputation is safe, that they don't drink.

I'm a parent, and I was a teen (yes, who drank) several decades ago, so I know it's all about trust. Parents have no guarantee; it's why parenting is humankind's most difficult job. You do your best, you expend every ounce of energy your soul can muster, you teach and counsel and correct. And at the end of the day, when your maturing teen is out of your sight they are also out of your control. Like a guiding wind, hopefully the years of counseling and teaching and parenting will lead them in the right direction.

I bring this up because there is increasing concern that alcoholic drinks sophomorically called “alcopops” may be causing yet another resurgence in underage drinking across America. These drinks are nothing new; they've been around for decades. The '80s introduced us to wine coolers - fruity, citrusy drinks that didn't taste like beer or booze but still had the not-so-unique ability to cause a mean hangover. Now they're called Mike's Hard Lemonade or Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi Silver. Same story, different packaging, different manufacturers. And teens, like a lot of adults, like them.

Last week a New York Times story detailed the efforts in several states - California, Arkansas, Illinois and Nebraska - to get the drinks reclassified as hard liquor and removed from the shelves of convenience stores and groceries, which ostensibly would make it more difficult for teens to buy them. Maine already has done so. Thus far, the alcopop controversy hasn't reached Alabama's Legislature, though don't be surprised if it does.

Expectedly, national opposition has been swift. The Distilled Spirits Council, The Times reported, has started a public relations campaign that pinpoints access to alcohol - and not the drinks themselves or their marketing campaigns - as the principal problem. Small-business owners in California are concerned about lost revenue if the drinks are reclassified. And manufacturers point out in The Times that alcopops are not distilled drinks - like beer, they're brewed - and that their alcohol content is roughly the same as that of a regular, ol' Budweiser.

In truth, it's a lot of wrangling about a small point. The legislation may find sponsors, and some states may make liquor stores the sole locations to buy alcopops. But in the end no real societal change will occur.

Some teens will drink - just like some will get hooked on cigarettes, some will have unprotected sex, some will smoke weed or dip into their parents' medicine cabinet for a Valium, and a majority will do things not as unhealthy or as deadly but just as worrisome to their parents.

Look, we have every reason to do what we can to discourage underage drinking. The statistics from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism are ironclad, and grim: About 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year from underage drinking, including 1,900 in car crashes, 1,600 in homicides and 300 from suicides. Three-quarters of all high school seniors in America have drunk at least once. Wonder which teens binge drink? Nearly a third of U.S. 12th graders have done so, as have 22 percent of 10th graders.

We have to try. Parents must be aware. Lives are at stake. If reclassifying alcopops as hard liquor offers a little help, let's do it. But it's asinine to believe that restricting teens' access to alcopops will suddenly stem surges in underage drinking. As long as teens want to drink and have access, some will drink. It's inevitable.

Which is why we must be honest. Many of us drank in high school. Many of us know how easy it was then to get booze, and we're glad that in most towns a teen can't just waltz into the corner BP and bag a six-pack. But we know the problem remains, and that some parents turn a blind eye to their senior's drinking as long as it's done at home, where at least they won't be getting behind the wheel.

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