Foolish parents who enable teen drinking

Some teens want to drink. But obviously they can't buy the beer or liquor on their own.

So they work up the nerve to ask those who can buy alcoholic beverages legally.

Such as their parents.

"Hey mom, dad, do you mind if you pick me up a six-pack of beer?"

In all instances, you would think the response to such a ridiculous question would be shock and outrage.

"No! Are you out of your mind!"

Followed by a stern lecture.

Unfortunately, such a dialogue often ends the wrong way. In the past month, one in 16 underage drinkers was given alcoholic beverages by their parents, according to a new report.

And if they weren't getting it from their parents, other adults were glad to oblige. More than 40 percent of the nation's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers were provided free alcohol by someone 21 or older, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This includes other members of the family besides parents, and those over 21 without family ties.

So now we have a clearer answer to the question - where did they get the alcohol - which we have asked too many times after teens die after driving drunk. In far too many cases, it was supplied by parents. Or other adults who should have known better.

This is appalling, but not necessarily surprising. Not when we have seen instances, in the suburbs, of parents hosting teen drinking parties that led to the deaths of teens who got drunk at these gatherings parents naively believed could be kept under control.

Fortunately, this recklessness on the part of parents is not being lightly dismissed as a regrettable mistake. The laws forbidding hosting teen drinking parties have been toughened in Illinois and parents have been sent to jail for breaking these laws.

And just last month, a 25-year-old McHenry man was sentenced to three months in jail as part of his punishment for providing beer for an underage drinking party that resulted in the death of a teen in an alcohol-related crash.

You would hope that the fear of winding up behind bars, and all the stigma and potential financial ruin associated with that, would stop adults from enabling teen drinking. But it shouldn't have to take the reach of the law to pull parents back from buying that six pack of beer. They should be mature enough to see the risks this presents to their own flesh and blood.

Not only is alcohol use a major factor in teen crashes, but also in sexual assault and date rape. And each year, an average of 3.5 million people aged 12 to 20 meet the diagnostic criteria for being dependent on alcohol or for abusing alcohol, according to that same federal study.

When teens ask their parents to buy them alcohol, you would think that is one of stupidest things they could ever ask. They'll survive the chewing out that follows.

But when parents say OK, teens die because of this stupidity.