Dear Editor,

Forks Young Life has partnered with State Farm & Washington Traffic Safety Coalition to help bring awareness of impaired driving. As a teen living in this community, I have had the chance to witness first hand the extreme abuse of alcohol in the high school.

Regardless of what people might think, teens have extremely easy access to alcohol and if they can’t get it from home, there are far too many legal adults willing to purchase for teens of any age. The reason teens are so interested in alcohol is because of the alleged “cool factor” that is associated with it in the media as well as the fact that it is seen as a forbidden fruit that they don’t want to wait until they are 21 to try.

As a community, we have the ability to stop teen drinking by reporting teen alcohol abuse and by making sure people know the penalty of providing alcohol to minors. Cutting down the amount of teen alcohol use will help reduce the level of impaired driving, too! Let’s keep our community safe and end teen alcohol abuse!

Nicole Rasmussen

Forks Young Life