Binge Drinking on College Campuses

Binge drinking on college campuses is a growing problem in the United States. Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting" (Presley 36). Many people have been injured or killed because of underage drinking. However the root of this problem stems well outside the gates of colleges. Majority of drinkers in college have had their first drink well before they go off to college. So while preventative-drinking methods in college is important, it is far more pertinent to attack the root of when kids decide to drink for the first time. After all, there are very few pre-college students who have the self-control to drink responsibly. The average student either binge drinks or does not drink at all. By the time kids arrive at college, they have already made their decision whether to binge drink or not. It is the country's responsibility however to turn this into an educated decision. That is ultimately one of the very few ways to prevent dangerous drinking habits on college campuses.

Underage drinking is currently a largely controversial issue in The United States. While many people believe that it is a dangerous act that is morally reprehensible, others find it to simply be a form of harmless entertainment. The term dangerous drinking, refers to the "well documented phenomenon in which college students consume unhealthy quantities of alcohol..." (Lederman 5). Although the drinking age is 21, many disregard the law and most students have had their first taste of alcohol well before they step onto a college campus.

In the state of Maryland, the law states that it is illegal to posses any alcoholic beverage if you are under 21. These laws also punish the possession of a fake identification card to obtain alcohol, use another's identification card to obtain alcohol, or attempt to operate a motor vehicle if your blood alcohol concentration is .02 or higher. (Minimum drinking age laws.)

In order to fully analyze the phenomena of underage drinking in America, I will look at all perspectives involved in the controversial issue. I will look at various cases where underage drinking has caused major harm as well as look at the perspectives of those who regularly participate and enjoy the act of underage drinking.

One of the biggest issues that need to be looked at when analyzing underage drinking is why people choose to drink in the first place. It is no secret that the legal drinking age is 21, so why would people knowingly break this law?

One reason would be powerful advertising in the media aimed at the youth. A staple of American society is beer commercials placed during the super bowl. Additionally, various movies set in colleges glorify the consumption of alcohol. One of the most famous college movies is "National Lampoon's Animal House." All this movie revolves around are fraternity parties and beer. While some may say that "Animal House" was made in the 70's and represented a different era's attitude towards alcohol, modern movies like "Old School" are just as successful and stand for the same morals. The movie's crude alcohol related humor raked in a total of over 74 million dollars (Rotten Tomatoes OL.) This is the same movie that actually featured a man at a college party consume beer through a funnel made out of objects that cold be found around the house. Movies and commercials are practically placing the alcohol in the hands' of college students around the country.

The advertising push of alcohol has not gone without notice. "Between 2001 and 2005, alcohol companies spent $4.7 billion on 1.4 million ads for alcoholic beverages. Spending for distilled-spirits ads soared from $5 million in 2001 to $122 million in 2005, according to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University" (No Winking at Underage Drinking). With the prevalence of advertising for alcohol, there is no doubt that underage viewers are subjected to the marketing.

The counter-offence to alcohol advertising is noticeably weak. While alcohol commercials have catchy recognizable spokespeople, the anti-drinking commercials have outlandish and laughably bad slogans. Nine out of ten teenagers will be able to quote the friendly Jamaican man in the Red Stripe beer commercials and everyone knows the popular "Hooray Beer" saying from Guinness beer commercials, not to mention the smooth "Vive Cuervo" slogan for Jose Cuervo Tequila. The anti-drinking commercials contain the forgettabley bad saying of "Above The Influence." The anti-drinking commercials appear as if they are done by 55 year-old high school principals. They simply cannot be related to. They only make abstaining form drinking seem even less cool then it already is. The point is, whoever makes these commercials should not be getting paid half of whatever their salaries are. There are definitely kids out there who do not drink and are still very cool, but the kids that they cast in these commercials come off terribly.

Another cause for the drinking epidemic among the underage population is the uneven punishments. Authority figures think that handing out severe punishments to one or two kids will discourage everyone from underage drinking. Basically when the police bust an underage drinking party, they let everyone go except for the kid whose house it is. The person who lives there gets slapped with a hefty fine and then let go. "Social host ordinances give police a tool beyond standard disturbing-the-peace laws. Typically these ordinances call for civil fines, thus avoiding the courts and the higher burden of proof required under criminal laws" (Ritter, 2007.) Unfortunately this punishment does absolutely nothing. Their parents, who really do not care because they did the same thing when they were kids, will then yell at their child. Then they tell their child that they have to pay for the ticket. Except that the child has probably made enough money charging people at the door to pay for the ticket. Or they get everyone who was at the party to donate ten dollars to pay for the ticket and everything is fine. Couple that with the fact that there is only about a one in five chance of the party getting busted. Basically if you are an underage drinker with an open house, it is completely worth it to have an underage drinking party. The punishment is completely ineffective.

The biggest problem in the fight against underage drinking is that people are focusing on the wrong issues. Adults generally make drinking into an issue of morality when in fact it is an issue of safety. Common arguments against drinking include that you act improper when drunk and do things that you will regret. The fact is that no one has the right to tell you that how you act is embarrassing yourself. It is moral degradation like this that makes kids want to drink in the first place. Research says, "it is society that attaches the deviant label to those youths who commit the act of consuming alcohol illegally" (Felsted 32). If parents would just admit that drinking is fun, however the repercussions make it not worth doing, they maybe they could get through to their kids. For example in most places, people who do hardcore drugs like heroin and cocaine are social outcasts. No one is saying that getting high off these drugs is a bad feeling, we just learn from a young age that they are very dangerous and not worth doing.

The true focus in the fight against underage drinking needs to be on people making the right choices. Christianne Esposito-Smythers and Anthony Spirito tell us that, "From a policy standpoint, the focus should be on situations that put young people at risk" (2006.) The point is that drinking is dangerous, end of story. You are not a bad or stupid person for drinking; you just need to know the true risks of what you are doing.

Just because most kids have gotten drunk before college, does not mean that colleges are not at fault in their treatment of underage drinking. On the first day of school at the University of Maryland, students greeted us and told us that they know that almost all of us drink, just do not do it in the dorms. They told us to go out to the frats and off campus houses if we felt the need to get drunk. There is no doubt that it is much safer for kids to drink in the confines of a dorm than out at the frats. In the dorms, worst-case scenario is that people get drunk and maybe tear down some flyers, make a mess in the hall/bathroom, or get into a fight that they could have gotten into anywhere. Outside of the dorms while drunk, the possibilities of danger are endless. A car crossing the very busy route 1 could hit a drunken kid, some persistent frat boys could drink a kid to death or they could easily take advantage of a drunken girl. Not to mention the fact that if a kid has a car on campus, his or her friends will pressure them into driving them to the party, creating the risk of an accident while driving under the influence. Colleges Officials need to teach students the risk of drinking anywhere, not just the consequences of it on campus. Educational programs should "explicitly include provisions for troubled faculty and staff, an inclusion that reminds a community that alcohol and drugs do not pose problems for students alone" (Howard 170).

Works Cited

Christianne Esposito-Smythers, Anthony Spirito. "Underage drinking debate: zero tolerance vs. teaching responsibility." Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter 22.3 (2006): 1-7. Academic Search Premier. 14 April 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.

Donna Leinwand. "College Drug Use, Binge Drinking Rise." USA Today, Academic Search Premier. 5 April 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.

John Ritter. "Laws crash underage drinking parties." USA Today . Academic Search Premier. 14 April 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.

"NO WINKING AT UNDERAGE DRINKING." Christian Science Monitor 99.73 (2007): 8-8. Academic Search Premier. 11 April 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.

"Old School." Rotten Tomatoes. 2007. 12 Apr. 2007 .

Presley, Cheryl. Alcohol and Drugs on American College Campuses: Use, Consequences, and Perceptions of the Campus Environment. Volume II. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale: 1995.

Howard, George. Alcohol Use and Misuse by Young Adults. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame: 1994.

Felsted, Carla. Youth and Alcohol Abuse: Readings and Resources. Oryx Press, Phoenix: 1986.

Lederman, Linda. Changing the Culture of College Drinking. Hampton Press, Inc, Cresskill: 2005.