Drinking 101: College Drinking & Its Effects

Drinking 101: College Drinking & Its Effects

Everyone knows that drinking is the biggest problem on many college campuses around the nation. Some of the students who drink not only put themselves, but others in all sorts of dangers: accidents, rapes, violent assaults, and even deaths. There has been a significant rise in the binge drinking over the past. Binge drinking is considered five drinks in a row for a male and four for a female. It is done for the intention of getting drunk. Whether it is to get drunk or because everyone's doing it, drinking should never be considered a part of the campus experience. It should be banned from all colleges and specially from the hands of the underage drinkers. There are not enough rules and regulations that control or punish these underage consumers. The students often easily avoid the rules that many of the universities have because they don't have to party on campus grounds. Many of the alcohol activities now days are taking places outside campus grounds to which the colleges can't do anything. As a matter of fact, according to an article by Richard P. Keeling, "Binge drinking among students living in resident halls has decreased over the 90s, whereas it has increased among students living off campus." These students who live in their own apartments have the alcohol easily available to them and they share the goods with everyone including the underage students. This issue is one that needs more attention from the government as well as the parents. This problem should be handled before it worsens.

Why do these students feel they have to drink or binge? Could it be because of peer pressure? Although sometimes, a person's friends might be a little forceful in wanting him or her to drink, but it doesn't mean that he or she should drink. If one feels that he or she needs to drink because the friends are pushing it, then they're not really his or her friends. No good friends would ever force a person into drinking alcohol. It all ultimately rests on the shoulder of the person drinking or not drinking. If a friend offers a drink and one refuses, it is more than likely that the friend will understand and respect that decision.

Furthermore, the media has an influential role in students drinking, especially those that are underage. The media tends to glamorize and sexualize drinking which attracts many of these underage students. There are numerous movies such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Animal House that show students just drinking and partying away practically all the time. They do nothing but throw these huge parties and everyone drinks all they want. While in reality, the media forgets that this might just be the trend that the students can start and usually does start. These movies always have these fraternities and sororities portrayed as bars or pubs where they drink and do nothing beyond it. This could be the reason for all the drinking that takes place in real life fraternities and sororities. The media needs to cut down on such things and also the beer and other alcohol commercials that also invoke the need for one to have a cool one. There is just too much drinking going on to afford any more of it. Binge drinking is one common practice on college campuses in part because of the media.

In most of the studies done by different organizations and universities, the outcome of the results shows that binge drinking is on a rise. According to an article by Mark Clayton, a study by Harvard School of Public Health shows that 42 percent of students in 1997 binged regularly. While according to the Harvard Gazette in 1993, the number was about 2 in every 5 students. Whatever the numbers might be, one thing is clear and it is that there is no gap between genders. The number of students that binge regularly or otherwise is about the same for males as it is for females. The statistics tend to also point the finger to mostly white students that often binge.

Many complications exist in the surveys and observations of the amount of alcohol and other numbers for the students who drink. For example, during a class on alcohol awareness, the average drinks per student for a week was thought to be by the majority of students to be thirty-four. However, in reality the number turned out to be three for females and seven for males. This just goes to show that the surveys that are done could be somewhat erroneous. Also, while in high school, the average drinking by students was higher than anyone really anticipated as to the passing of the controversial law that prohibits alcohol to be served at any gatherings with minors attending that event in the town of Newington. The town thought that the teenagers were partying too much and the parents were letting it go. Therefore, this law affects the parents since having fines imposed on them will hurt their wallet a bit.

Laws like these should be passed frequently because they do slow down drinking amongst the underage students since these are the ones who go on to drink throughout college. A lot of these underage students who binge in college are the ones who did it in high school. It's alarming to see that eighty percent of high school students have tried alcohol, out of which more than 5 million admit to binge drinking at least once a month (CNN.com). Underage drinkers are also starting earlier and earlier. Going to high school just a year ago, it's still fresh seeing how more and more eighth graders coming into high school were drinking alcohol as opposed to entering high school as a freshman four years ago. It's also estimated that underage drinkers account for almost half of the total drinking population among the students who drink. Therefore there is a strong need of stricter laws to stop the underage drinking.

The dangers of drinking can be seen throughout the campuses around the nation. For instance, drinking is the leading cause of fatal accidents for college students. ABCNEWS.com cites that 1,400