What do you do with a drunken brother?

No, not Shawntay. And if he was a drinker, I wouldn't mind, he's old enough to know what he's doing. *sigh* The saga of my younger brother continues, and I will not hide my dissapointment.
He's been nailed for drinking before, when Mom discovered the empties in his room (christ, you'd think he'd at least know to hide the damn evidence). He had pilfered it from their own supply. Mom and stepdad are far from heavy drinkers, but they do enjoy entertaining and keep a decent stock of beer as well as hard liquor around for just that. The first time it was about a six-pack worth of different beers from the 'party fridge', as I coined it.
I know, I know, we all did that at his age. But with my brother's constant battles with depression, not to mention chronic fucking up in general, this was a good sized blow to the whole situation. I know they rode him pretty hard (well, hard for them) about it, and I had hoped that he had learned his lesson. I know a big concern is that he is turning 16 this week, as most of his friends already have, and the friends he had over could've very likely driven while intoxicated. And we all know how that would've gone, Mom and Step would've been held accountable. I know my Stepfather doesn't take this lightly, as he had a very close friend about ten years ago get into an accident while driving drunk and had killed a child. Your stupid teenage son drinking in the house in one thing, your son's stupid teenage friends getting drunk on your stash and possibly endangering all around them in a vehicle is a freaky matter all in it's own. Knowing how stubborn my brother is, I can only imagine his friends would not have the common sense to say "Hey, I've got the spins, maybe taking a little trip to 7-11 in mom's car ain't the hottest idea right now." No, we know how the adolescent mind works...it'd be more like "Wow..hu huh huh...I'm drunk...let's go get cheetos...I'm INVICIBLE!"
So, there you go, a bad situation getting much worse. I am not sure exactly what measures my folks took to prevent this event from happening again, but likely NONE from the sounds of what has happened this weekend. Adam was depressed, and rightly so this time. Beyond the typical teenage angst, coupled with his uber-gothness, his lovely girlfriend had to move back to Romania...yup, three days before his 16th birthday. Talk about SUCK! I felt bad for the kid, and upon finding out Hunter S. Thompson died, who was one of his literary heroes, I was almost wondering if Adam was going to end up throwing himself off a bridge (well, not really, but then again, little gothy teens can be melodramatic.)
Well, he chose his method of self-destruction as...you guessed it...drinking! Apparently he went to hang out with a friend who is a notoriously bad influence (the kid doesn't live at home, has an Aunt who loves doling out sizeable amounts of cash, and has been a little too friendly with a few drugs, aka heroin and E). Adam came stumbling home way after his curfew, and attempted to hide something in the bushes outside the house, which my thankfully observant mom noticed and immediately sent Step to go investigate. BTW, in case I've never noted this before, Adam is my halfbrother, his father being my stepfather. Anyhoo, turns out the secret treasure was a water bottle full of alcohol. Later examination of their liquor stock revealed that bottles of tequila, triple sec, and vodka were mysteriously absent.
So, big family blowout, Kid's grounded three days before his birthday, and mom is currently bashing her head against the wall. *sigh* She's been adamant that he get his license when he turns 16 so that he can go get a job, but I am really thinking that's a very bad idea. Not the job, kid needs to learn some fucking responsibility at this point, but the license. After all, as much hassle it is I am sure to cart him around everywhere at his whim, driving is a priveledge that I think at this point he is clearly proving unworthy of. I mean, if he can't knock off the drinking, what's to say he isn't headed towards his own lovely career of DUIs and possible accidents?
I guess I just can't figure out how a kid can be so friggin smart in one instant, reading Kafka at his young age and actually grasping the meaning of William S Burroughs, and then so completely goddamn STUPID the very next. I seriously wanted to just give him a nice sized whack with a whiffle bat upside the head at this point. *ugh* God help me, if Anthony dares put me through this shit in a few years, I am headed straight for teh looney bin...or jail for battery.