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Alcohol is a drug, and alcoholism is an addiction. But addiction itself is a disease, and it seems to be more of a mental disorder type disease than a physical disease. This is why some people can light up a cigarette or two, and then just decide they're nasty and put the pack down and walk away, but others will chain smoke for 40 years. Some people can smoke pot and not be addicted, and studies have even shown it doesn't cause a physical addiction, but other people would swear they cannot get through the day without a joint. And this is why some people can have a drink now and again and be fine, but others will lie about their drinking, hide the bottles, and become angry with anyone who suggests they need help. I've even seen people who have avoided all of these things because they knew they came from a family of addicts, but then they became perfectionists and workaholics. Some people just have the addictive brain chemistry.
In fact... and I wish I could find links to these studies online... there was a series of studies that showed you could put someone with the addictive brain chemistry in an environment where there was no alcohol, cigarettes, or street drugs, and they would find something that they'd develop an addiction to. And it's not something that goes away. My very best friend is an alcoholic who has been sober for 12 years now. One night a couple of months ago, I asked him when he stopped wanting a drink. He said he never has. He hasn't had on in 12 years, but he wants one every day. My grandmother said the same thing about cigarettes the day my grandfather died. She hadn't smoked in almost 20 years, but she said she wished she had a cigarette. I don't know if she felt like it every day, but in a time of great stress, she wanted that crutch she'd thrown away almost two decades before.
I do not, however, believe giving alcohol to a teenager will turn them into an alcoholic. If that was the case, wouldn't most of Germany be alcoholics? In fact, I think the US's current underage drinking laws cause more problems than they solve. If you deny someone alcohol all their lives, telling them how bad it is, then give it to them on their 21st birthday because they should just be "magically mature" now... that's just stupid. I think it should be a step-by-step process. Wine at 15, beer at 16, wine coolers at 18, everything else at 21. Breaking kids into it would give them time to develop the responsibility gradually. The way we do things now is like never teaching a kid to use matches or lighters, then asking them to go build a bonfire when they turn 21. I think that's really where most of the drinking problems among young people come from.
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