Tips to Reduce Binge Drinking Amongst College Students

Imagine waking up in a hospital bed with tubes and monitors attached to you, relying on technology to save your life. What's worse, imagine not waking up at all. An episode of binge drinking has caused many young people to suffer this fate.

Binge drinking has led to untimely deaths and nights spent in the hospital for many students, but will only claim more victims unless we put a stop to it. Instead of coming together as concerned Americans who care about our citizens, we are fighting about a solution to fix the binge drinking problem. We need to put a plan into action and help this situation before more people suffer. The solution is not a simple, one part, easy to implement course of action. It requires multiple steps of action by many people. To lessen binge drinking, we need to increase taxes and the price of alcohol in order to make it less available, we need to encourage parents to be more involved in their children's lives, we need to create more social activities that are alcohol free, and we need to educate youth about the dangers involved with binge drinking.

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? If binge drinking is allowed to continue, more students will lose their lives.

Students claim that binge drinking is just a harmless social activity. Jeremy Clarkson, a student at a South Carolina University said "I don't see the point in going out and not getting hammered!" One student "John Doe," who wished to remain nameless, said that the stupidest thing he ever done after a binge drinking episode was "bashing the fridge in because it would not give him beer, and then realized that he left the beer on the table." 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). "Getting hammered," as Clarkson said, would consist of multiple drinks and could likely cause the person to reach the deadly BAC level of .35. Students need to realize that binge drinking isn't a fun game to play on Saturday night, it is deadly and could even take down Superman, if he was real.

Binge drinking is all around us. As a student at USC Upstate, I do not see evidence of binge drinking, however I do not participate in the nightlife here. According to The Office of Alcohol and Drug Education Programs here at Upstate, from 2002 to 2005, about thirty-three percent of Upstate students reported binging in the past two weeks ("Upstate"). Considering that Upstate has approximately four thousand five hundred students, this means about one thousand five hundred report binge drinking, which of course does not account for those that did not take the survey or did not answer honestly ("Enrollment"). While thirty-three percent does not sound like a significant amount, over one thousand students binge drinking is significant. Upstate isn't the only campus that has binge drinking, so imagine how many binge drinking college students there are in the world.

Increasing tax on alcohol would lessen binge drinking. This method has been used to reduce cigarette smoking, which is a less dangerous disease. If the government can do this with cigarettes, then they can do it with alcohol-and should. The 2000 U.S. Surgeon General's Report, "Reducing Tobacco Use, found that raising tobacco product prices decrease tobacco use, especially among kids and young adults. The report concluded that raising taxes on tobacco is one of the most effective prevention and control strategies ("Reducing"). This method worked on reducing cigarette usage and can work on reducing alcohol usage that would ultimately reduce binge drinking. If alcohol is more expensive then it is less available to students.

Parents should be more involved in their student's lives in order to reduce binge drinking. A study done by the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, Department of Health Policy and Management at John Hopkins University, and the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland examined if parental involvement creates a protective effect on college drinking by reducing high school consumption. This study found that parental monitoring did not necessarily have a direct influence on college drinking, but did indirectly influence it by reducing high school drinking. The study results show that high school drinking levels predicts college drinking levels. The study also examined binge drinking and found that the same applied. Binge drinking in high school predicts binge drinking in college. A survey that was carried out as a part of this study showed that

"70% of college students reported that their parents' concerns or expectations either somewhat or very much influenced whether or how much they drank, smoked, or used other drugs, and that parental attitudes were significantly related to the likelihood to binge drink, use marijuana, and smoke tobacco" ("High School").

Providing consistent discipline, setting rules, monitoring activities, providing positive encouragement, and communicating are all great tools that been proven successful in reducing and even delaying student drinking ("High School").

Students need to have more social activities available to them that do not include or advertise drinking. Studies show students who participate in community service more often are less likely to binge drink ("Solutions"). Many colleges have provided a "rich academic and extracurricular environment" that has helped curb binge drinking (Wechsler and Wuethrich 221). Colleges have also worked with the fraternities and sororities in order to reduce binge drinking and have found that if binge drinking is reduced at this level, then it shows a significant decrease in the overall population (Wechsler and Wuethrich 222). Social activities that provide fun and entertainment will reduce the urge of students to go out and get drunk for fun.

Students that binge drink are unaware of the extreme consequences, or just believe that nothing can happen to them. Programs need to be created in schools, early-during middle school, to educate students about binge drinking. They need to be told what could happen to them if they drink irresponsibly. Schools need to scare them with the harsh reality that is binge drinking so they will be less likely to take part in it. Students should be educated at an early age, before they even get a taste of alcohol, but when they can understand what we are trying to teach them.

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"). The more that groups like these can educate students about the realities of binge drinking, the more we will see binge drinking reduced. The most important thing is to get to students before they start binge drinking because most binge drinkers consider themselves to be light drinkers (Wechsler and Wuethrich 21). If we can effectively educate at the middle school level, then we will see results.

Binge drinking is a serious problem that the world needs to come together to create a solution for. If one method can't be agreed on, then we should put multiple methods into place and see what reduces binge drinking the most. Trial and error may not be the best way to combat a problem, but at least it is trying. Parents need to get more involved with their children, from the time they are born until death separates them. Students with concerned parents who check up on them are going to be less likely to binge drink for fear that their parents will be upset with them. Colleges and communities need to provide stimulating social activities that remove alcohol completely. Most of all, we need to teach students that binging is not the only way to have a good time and is not something to be proud of. It is suicide. If the nation allows binge drinking to continue, then we are just assisting in their suicide.

WORKS CITED

Clarkson, Jeremy. Personal Interview. 8 April 2009.

"Doe, John." Personal Interview. 8 April 2009.

"Enrollment Services Frequently Asked Questions." USC Upstate. 7 April 2009.

"High School Drinking Mediates the Relationship Between Parental Monitoring and College Drinking: A longitudinal Analysis." Keyston Symposia. 7 March 2008. 7 April 2009. < http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/3/1/6>

"Reducing Tobacco Use." CDC. 29 April 2008. 7 April 2009.

"Solutions to Stop College Binge Drinking." Minnesota 2020. 8 April 2009. < http://www.mn2020.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FF9DF958-14A9-4585-98BD-A8BDC924DD78}&DE=>

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

"Upstate Alcohol and Drug Facts and Stats."USC Upstate. 7 April 2009. < http://www.uscupstate.edu/uploadedFiles/facts_stats.pdf>

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