College Students And Binge Drinking

Imagine the pain, the feeling of resentment, the sickness that overdraws you, when you attend funerals for loved ones. Imagine attending a funeral for a good friend of yours, pretend his name is Josh. Josh in high school was a star athlete, kept an ok grade point average, around a 2.7. He was considered an alright guy by the sounds of it right? First couple weeks of college you guys are tight as the threads on a tapestry, because you're new to this college thing, trying to take it all in and still be the cool freshman is what you're all about. Now imagine Josh throwing his future and his good judgement out of the window by trying to fit into peer pressure, and binge drinking at a college party. Before you know it Josh keeps taking more and more shots of Tequila or even bonging 3 beers in under a minute. Then his last words to you before he enters a comotose state of drunkeness, "Dude I'm F***ing WASTED!" Josh ends up dieing that night from alcohol poisioning. Everyone thought that he would be okay, he just needed to sleep it off. He died as a result of no one rushing him to the hospital to save his life by pumping his stomach of the alcohol and direct injecting fluids into his body so as not to dehydrate. Now a week later, at Josh's funeral, you burst into tears because you have just lost your best friend, he was always there for you, and always looking out for you. Now he's gone. Events exactly like this happen EVERY year. Each year some 1,700 students die from drunken driving or other alcohol-related incidents (Mantel, Drinking on campus paragraph 1). Frankly, this is 1,700 more students than there should be.

My study seemed to focus closely on a subject very similar to the fictional character of Josh. Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath, was 18 when he died at a fraternity party at the University of Texas. His parents sued the fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon, alledging Jack had been forced to drink in a heavy hazing ritual. Jacks family won the suit, stating their main case for the lawsuit was,"We don't want any family to go through what we had to go through".

While the death at the University of Texas and other campuses capture media and public attention, they only hint at the extent of heavy drinking among college students and the harm that results. In the early 1990s, Harvard University's School of Public Health showed that 44 percent of students questioned in a nationwide survey reported binge drinking -- consuming five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more for women -- during the two weeks prior to the survey. Other studies have shown similar results. (Mantel, Drinking on Campus paragraph 6)

There are countless problems that can arise from binge drinking as a college student. I believe though that the most important and influential factor is, death. Many, many, students die every year as a result of alcohol and bad decision making. It could be getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol, or even having a fellow friend's life hang in the balance because of alcohol poisioning. The truth is many students don't know the effects of Alcohol poisoning which leads them to think when someone is "black-out-drunk" that all they need to do is just sleep it off, qand they'll be okay in the morning. I truly believe that life is more important than throwing inhibitions to the wind and getting completely intoxicated from alcohol. Majority of college students' stand on the opposite side of the topic, and that is why so many accidents occur every year.

Another problem that arises from college students and their drunken habit would have to be the effect alcohol and attending parties has on your grades in all of your classes. I have a perfect example of decline in grades with increase of alcohol consumption; last year I had a friend that attended school here at Ferris State University. He arrived here in the fall with just over $2,500 for his miscellenious expenses, the occasional restaurant takeout, putting gas in his car, expenses like these. He then adapted to the lifestyle of drinking alcohol every night and not attending class during the day.