If, as a society, we took more time to educate/socialize our children to alcohol, its effects, responsible drinking, etc., we could go a long way towards curbing these unfortunate tragedies. I am not talking about 10 year olds, and I am not talking about wild weekend parties in which the purpose of the drink is to get drunk. I am talking about reasonable, and appropriate, use of alcohol. And, yes, I do think alcohol is both reasonable and appropriate. Necessary? Of course not, but, the list of items on the necessary list would be pretty short, wouldn't it?

"Just Say No", raising the drinking age, forbidding alcohol, etc., has proven not to be effective.

Yeah, I do recognize that my opinion is not the majority opinion. Having been raised in a household where drinking was neither abused nor forbidden, I have a healthy respect for alcohol.