Yeah I have my 2 cents to add too!

I recently attended a Drug and Alcohol info session at DD's school. It was presented by the students (DD is 15).

I wasn't exactly sure what my stance was going to be on drinking before, but I certainly do now.
Our children are dying from alcohol related issues at a rate of one each week. Not long term use, but what happens when they are drunk, and the fact that they binge.
This is such a serious issue I can't stress it enough.
The long term use is a big problem too - there was a big article in the Age recently about the effect we shall start seeing in the next decade or so.
Underage drinking is NOT cool, we need to educate them, yes -but buying alcohol for your underage child is not the way to do it.
My daughter will not be allowed to drink until she is 18. He friends parents know that she is NOT allowed to drink at their homes, and their children will not ever be permitted to drink at mine until they are 18. This has not come up as an issue for us yet, she is very unimpressed when she hears the "cool group" at school discussing how drunk they got and who they had sex with on the weekend.
BTW - I come from a long line of publicans, we often joke there is red wine in our blood - but none of our kids are permitted to drink until 18.

Tanya - hopefully Alecia's school will have a similar program - it was very good, and all the kids involved had to research all kinds of drugs and are all quite happy to wait until later to drink.