The U.S. Surgeon General's office says that 10.6 million teens are drinkers. This is about half the national population of high school juniors and seniors. More than one million teens in that group will become alcoholics if they are not already addicted. Alcohol is a factor in about half of all serious car accidents involving youth. In Coping with Peer Pressure, one study reported that nearly 80 percent of high school students interviewed said that they were pressured by peers to drink.
Some teens drink because their friends drink.
I, myself, started drinking because my friends drank and they started drinking because their friends drank also. I didn't even like beer when I first started drinking. But I had to fit in so I drank. Other teens drink to escape family or personal troubles. I had a friend who was a drinker.