Binge Drinking Among College Students

Unless you live under a rock, it is no surprise that most college students like to drink and get drunk. What most people do not understand is the seriousness of the binging episodes that occurs when some college students come into contact with alcohol. Students binge drink because it is a social activity and for some reason, not being able to stand up is exciting to them. When starting this paper, first I believed that binge drinking was a problem, and now after my research, I understand that it is a much bigger problem than I realized. When it comes to the topic of binge drinking college students, most of us will readily agree that binge drinking is hazardous to their health, puts them at other risks because of judgment impairment, and can ultimately lead to untimely death by way of alcohol poisoning. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how to stop binge drinking. Whereas some are convinced that there should be laws or regulations to prevent this behavior, others maintain that it will happen anyway and laws put into place to stop it will only cause it to go underground and prevent those people that need immediate care from receiving it.

Binge drinking has been present throughout history, but it has never been as serious as it is today. In 1949, Straus and Bacon, two students at Yale University, started a survey that covered more than six thousand students on twenty-seven campuses. The survey revealed that in 1949, seventeen percent of men and six percent of women reported drinking more than once a week. Compare this to 2001, where twenty-six percent of men and twenty-one percent of women report binge drinking more than once a week. History also shows us an attempt to lower the drinking age, as suggested by some college presidents today. In the 1960s-1970s, the drinking age was lowered to eighteen in twenty-nine states. After the change was made, there was a sudden increase in alcohol related deaths and injuries among teens. By the mid 1980s, it was reinstated to the original twenty-one years of age, but underage students felt like they had a right to drink since they had been drinking all along (Wechsler and Wuethrich 29-30, 78). Given that lowering the minimum drinking age has been attempted before and failed, why would otherwise intelligent people suggest that our country lower it again?

Since binge drinking has been around all these years, it can't be that bad, can it? Wrong. Binge drinking effects have always been serious, we are just more aware of the consequences now than we were in the past. .08 is the legal limit on blood alcohol concentration level when driving. Up to this level and a little past is not going to cause much harm to a person. However, once the BAC level gets to .15, there is an increased possibility of blackouts. Around .20-.25, a person cannot move without assistance. At .30-.35, the gag reflex is suppressed and the person now has the possibility of passing out, vomiting, and choking on it. This amount of alcohol can also shut down breathing and at .35 BAC one in every one hundred people die. At level .40 the person becomes unconscious and enters into a coma. At level .41, they have just had their last drink because they will enter into a deep coma and die (Wechsler and Wuethrich 164-165).

How many drinks does it take to reach the deadly level? The potential for drinking related deaths is the greatest at BAC level .35 and above. To reach that level, a one hundred sixty pound man has to consume nine drinks or more in about an hour, and a one hundred twenty pound woman has to consume only a little over five drinks in the same time frame. How much does a person need to drink to guarantee death? To reach BAC level .41 or above, a one hundred sixty pound man needs to consume about sixteen drinks in an hour, and a one hundred twenty pound woman needs to consume about ten. If drinking is spread out over about six hours, the man needs to consume about nineteen drinks and the woman around twelve and one fourth (Wechsler and Wuethrich 164-165). This may sound like a good bit of drinking, but when college student turn drinking into a game, like "beer pong," it is easy to not realize how much has been consumed until it is too late. A person may think that this will not happen to them, but according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, fourteen hundred deaths and half a million injuries a year occur because of college binge drinking (Wechsler and Wuethrich 150).

Binge drinking is associated with other problems other than death. Alcohol poisoning, unintentional injuries, intentional injuries, suicide, hypertension, pancreatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and meningitis can all be results of binge drinking (Courtney and Polich). Binge drinkers also face other problems as well. They are forty-three percent more likely to use illicit drugs, twice as likely to have poor school work, four to six times as likely to cut classes, and sixteen percent more likely to drive drunk (Peterson, Nisenholz, and Robinson 65-66). Approximately five drinks on occasion show a lowered GPA by half a grade and each additional drink on occasion is associated with fifteen minutes that the student will not study (Wechsler and Wuethrich 19). According to an Action News report, there are seventy thousand rape and sexual assault cases a year occur due to binge drinking ("College Binge"). Frequent bingers, which are about one-fourth of all students, account for over three-fifths of serious alcohol problems on campus and drink seventy-five percent of all alcohol consumed on campus. They are responsible for sixty-two percent of alcohol related injuries and sixty-five percent of property damage (Wechsler and Wuethrich 149). Binge drinking has short term effects, such as blurred vision and loss of balance. But there are also long term effects that can harm a person for a lifetime. Conditions such as hepatitis, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, mouth and throat cancer, and brain damage all can be attributed to binging ("Alcohol Abuse"). All of the previous information answered my original questions well. I wanted to know what the effects of binge drinking are and how many students die a year from it.

To make this problem even worse, most students are in denial about how much they truly drink. Eighty-six percent of women and seventy-eight percent of men who are frequent bingers consider themselves to be only moderate or light drinkers (Wechsler and Wuethrich 21). Communities are also in denial about their role in college binge drinking. At one college, one hundred and eighty-five alcohol outlets were found in a two mile radius of the campus (Wechsler and Wuethrich 6). If alcohol surrounds students, how can we expect them not to access it? College campuses also play a role in binge drinking. Fraternities and sororities members are the most likely to binge drink. Eighty- one percent binge and fifty-one percent are frequent bingers (Peterson, Nisenholz, and Robinson 75). In some colleges, practically no students binge, while in others four out of five do. This points at something in some college environments that promotes binge drinking ("Binge Drinking Most Affected").

Perhaps the only positive thing in the binge drinking culture is that not all students participate. Fifty-six percent do not binge and twenty percent do not consume alcohol at all (Wechsler and Wuethrich 21). Some students that are aware that this is a problem are working together to help provide alternative methods for socializing and having fun. Most support taking action against binge drinking. Sixty-seven percent agree with cracking down on underage drinking, sixty percent believe in doing something about drinking in Greek houses and feel that kegs should be banned, and sixty-five percent agree with enforcing rules more strictly (Wechsler and Wuethrich 215, 217). Parents and recovering students are forming groups to talk about their stories. Parents of Brad McCue, a student that died in the late 1990s from one night of binge drinking on his twenty-first birthday, are sharing their story in hopes to educate other students. Brad went out with his friends to celebrate his birthday and in one and a half hours, he drank twenty-one shots. When everyone was ready to go, Brad got up and walked out of the bar. On the way home he passed out in the car and at 4:30 AM, he died. He had BAC of .44 and his brain stopped telling his heart to beat and his lungs to breathe ("Teen Danger Zone").
Something needs to be done to prevent binge drinking. The CDC suggests that a few interventions can be made to solve the problem, or at least reduce it. They suggest increasing alcoholic beverage costs and excise taxes, limiting the number of alcohol outlets in an area, enforcing laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving, and screening and counseling for alcohol misuse ("Binge Drinking"). Further studies and research need to be done to determine the best method of action. The one thing that we do not need to do is lower the drinking age to eighteen. Making it legal will not reduce intake. There was not much evidence to suggest a solid solution, so my question of passing laws to help prevent binge drinking still remains unanswered.

Binge drinking is a serious problem that needs a serious solution that our country is not prepared to give or commit to just yet. Binge drinking is an epidemic sweeping across college campuses. We need to come together and recognize that there is a problem in order to come up with a solution. Easy solutions, like lowering the drinking age, will not work and should not be put into action. We need to catch these kids before they even have their first taste of alcohol, when they enter middle school, and work hard to educate and encourage them to drink responsibly. There is no reason why another student should die because of binge drinking.

WORKS CITED

"Alcohol Abuse." Bupa. Dec. 2006. 26 Mar. 2009.

"Binge Drinking" CDC. 6 Aug. 2008. 26 Mar. 2009.

"Binge drinking Most Affected by Environment, says Wechsler." Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly 20.32 (18 Aug. 2008): 4-7. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. 26 Mar. 2009

"College Binge Drinking." Youtube. Bingles.12 Sept. 2007. 26 Mar. 2009. .

Courtney, Kelly B., and John Polich.. "Binge Drinking in Young Adults: Data, Definitions, and Determinants." Psychological Bulletin 135.1 (Jan. 2009): 142-156. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. 26 Mar. 2009

Peterson, Vincent J, Bernard Nisenholz, and Gary Robinson. A Nation Under the Influence America's Addiction to Alcohol. Pearson Education, 2003.

Teen Danger Zone: Teens at Risk. DVD. Cambridge Educational, 2006.

Wechsler, Henry and Bernice Wuethrich. Dying to Drink Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses. Rodale: 2002.