During the last decades, college drinking, the toll binge drinking which is taking on college campuses. Highly publicized reports have raised public awareness about the high rates of heavy drinking among college students. Also, Wechsler, Nelson and Lee JE, experts of researching the phenomenon of college drinking, have concluded that binge drinking is the most serious public health problem facing US colleges. The State had a controversial discussion about steps that can be taken to take action against the binge drinking that has become part of the so-called College culture. Not only in the US, Many countries around the world have the same problem in college campuses. Like many European countries, college drinking has been developed into kind of traditional culture in the US and she has been facing the change of the culture of drinking at colleges. However, other than the damage and injuries that happen during semester break each year, the only consequences of college drinking that usually come to the public's attention are occasional student deaths from alcohol overuse, such as alcohol poisoning or other alcohol-related tragedies. (Ramaley) In fact, the consequences of college drinking are much more than occasional and normal. According to the studies, 1,825 college students who aged from 18 to24 died from alcohol-related inadvertent injuries, including car crashes, while 599,000 students are unintentionally hurt over the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009). College drinking also results in serious injuries, assaults, sexual abuse and other health and academic problems. The impacts of excessive college drinking are more widespread and destructive than most people realize. Therefore, this essay will first consider the pr... ... middle of paper ... ...ementation of screening and counselling programs and comprehensive community interventions can reduce college drinking and associated harm to students and others. In conclusion, college students suffer from significant consequences of their heavy/binge drinking. Actions should be taken in order to control the current situation of binge drinking among college students, as stated in the above, the drinking age law can help. Moreover, it has been a highly concerning problem in the US and studies show that 77% of the Americans agree that policies should be established to protect the college students from alcohol, which is an overwhelming support for MLDA. Also, many studies show that the consequences can be alleviated with the reinforcement of the law. For the above reasons, drinking law and other related policies should be enacted in the whole US as soon as possible.
Getting Serious About Eradicating Binge Drinking is an informative article by Henry Wechsler. Wechsler has worked with the College Alcohol study since its creation in 1992, and he also lectures at the School of Public Health at Harvard. In his article, Weschler discusses the prominent trend of binge drinking on college campuses and how to solve the widespread problem. Binge drinking is a term used to describe the act drinking alcoholic beverages with the intention of becoming intoxicated over a short period of time.
“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college environment, will damage themselves mentally, physically, and socially later in life, because alcohol adversely affects the brain, the liver, and the drinkers behavior.
Although high-risk drinkers are a minority in all ethnic groups, their behavior is far from a harmless “rite of passage.” In fact, drinking has pervasive consequences that compel our attention. The most serious consequence of high-risk college drinking is death. The U.S. Department of Education has evidence that at least 84 college students have died since 1996 because of alcohol poisoning or related injury—and they believe the actual total is higher because of incomplete reporting. When alcohol-related traffic crashes and off-campus injuries are taken into consideration, it is estimated that over 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. Additionally, over 500,000 full-time students sustain nonfatal unintentional injuries, and 600,000 are hit or assaulted by another student who has been drinking. Administrators are well aware of the burden alcohol presents to the campus environment. In addition, the 1997, 1999, and 2001 Harvard surveys found that the majority of students living in dorms and Greek residences, who do not drink excessively, still experience day-to-day problems as a result of other students’ misuse of alcohol. The prevalence of these “secondhand effects” varies across ...
Many temptations are faced in college culture and one of them is underage drinking and driving. Underage drinking and driving has essentially become an epidemic, rapidly developing among today’s youth. College culture has come to encourage drinking and driving through the places and people that surround the students (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, October 2002). Some people don’t see underage drinking as an issue, when in fact it is a huge issue that every teenager will face. Since underage drinking is illegal people want to rebel by drinking; additionally, alcohol is really easy to get ahold of in college. Since many students are going to drink, the first line of defense is to educate students about the effects of alcohol and what can happen if students do drink and drive. Unless we are able to put a stop to underage drinking and driving through education, and a system called smart start the problem wont get any better.
As one of the major social problem, underage drinking can cause negative affect on both teenagers themselves and the whole society. Based on the research, approximately 190,000 youth under 21 visited emergency room for alcohol related hurts, even I accompanied one of my friends to ICU for alcohol poisoning nearly month ago. Annually about 5000 individuals under 21 die from it, not including other mature people directly or indirectly killed by them. Meanwhile, child’s brain and emotional developments are still in process until 20s so that taking alcohol will produce great damage on their body health. For example, alcohol can interfere with children’s capacity to build new, short, and lasting memories of information because it shrinks hippocampus about 10
Engs,Professor at Indiana University has been studying the topic of lowering the legal drinking age for the past twenty years. He has found that “a majority of the college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing “forbidden fruit” (Why the drinking age should be lowered,1). This is not the first time that this policy has been discussed. During the National Prohibition in the 1920s these laws made every state change their MLDA to 21 years old. But these laws were repealed because they were unenforceable and caused other social problems. Facts show that young adult underage are more likely to be “binge” drinkers. 32% of heavy drinkers were underage while only 24% were of legal age (Why the drinking age should be lowered, 1). Research from the 1980s reveal that there has been a decrease in drinking and drinking among students before the law that made every states MLDA 21 years old. But many other factors may have decreased this rate. “There has been an increase in other problems related to heavy and irresponsible drinking among college age youth. Most of these reported behaviors showed little change until after the 21 year old law in 1987. For example from 1982 until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50% after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after drinking" jumped from 9%
Weshler, Henry, and Wuethrich, Bernice. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on college campuses. Chicago: Rodale Inc., 2002. Print.
We all know what it is like to wake up in the morning, with our head aching, and our body feeling like it was just hit by a train. College students world wide know this feeling. These are the results of binge drinking. The question of why college students continue to submit themselves to alcohol is unknown. While many reasons are given, the cause generally falls into one of three categories, peer pressure, insecurity, or to help solve there problems. But the one thing students don’t realize are the consequences and effects that binge drinking can have, health and social problems are just a few.
Binge drinking is commonly defined as five or more consecutive standard drinks in a row for a man and four or more for a woman. Also, it has been discovered that “binge drinkers consume a reported 91% of all alcohol used among college population and frequent binge drinkers consume 68% of this total amount, with half of these frequent binge drinkers reporting 5 or more different alcohol-related problems;” and this is one of the reasons why I think the MLDA should be raised and enforced more (Saylor 330-331). If the MLDA is lowered, this percentage will keep increasing; it won’t stop the college students from not doing binge drinking. Furthermore, heavy alcohol use among college students has been considered a public health concern with serious consequences. These alcohol consequences do not only relate to death and injuries, but also dangerous sexual behaviors; it increases the probability of “physical or sexual assault, and violence” (Saylor 331).
Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations in which anyone can be or be placed. Drinking and driving is a serious offence that can cause someone to be physically harm or even killed. Not only are you putting yourself at risk but you are also risking the lives of passengers in the car as well as any other car and occupants sharing the road with you. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a compelling role in cutting down the occurrences of driving under the influence. However, while harsher DUI laws will look effective on paper, they will not make a significant step in the fight against drunk driving. Although there is a law enforced for drinking and driving in the
Binge or excessive drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, health, and education on college campuses today. Binge or excessive drinking by college students has become a social phenomena in which college students do not acknowledge the health risks that are involved with their excessive drinking habits. Furthermore college students do not know enough about alcohol in general and what exactly it does to the body or they do not pay attention to the information given to them. There needs to be a complete saturation on the campus and surrounding areas, including businesses and the media, expressing how excessive drinking is not attractive and not socially accepted.
Binge Drinking is an intriguing phenomenon that many college students take part in all across the country. The issue of binge drinking has been a problem on college campuses for decades. Binge drinking has many horrible effects, but the problem starts with the causes for it. If the causes could be controlled then the issue would not get out of hand. Many college students give different causes for their drinking problems, and experts on the subject have their explanations as well. The problem is, while growing through adolescence anything can become an excuse for drinking, such as ¡§its Thursday the day before Friday, we need to drink¡¨ or, ¡§it¡¦s the last Wednesday of the semester, lets get some beer.¡¨
The United States should lower the drinking age back to the age of 18 before The 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act that made the drinking age 21. There are health benefits to drinking alcohol in moderation, like reduce your risk of developing and dying from heart disease, possibly reduce your risk of ischemic stroke (when the arteries to your brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow). In other countries with the age of 18 for drinking there was less car accidents. The drinking age at 21 is pointless because teens find a way to consume alcohol. A lower drinking age would help the economy.
The legal drinking age has been a long debated topic for America; who should be allowed to drink? The drinking age has varied from state to state over the years, and the effects of the varying ages have been studied in depth. Examining the problem politically throughout our nation’s history has led to the conclusion that the legal drinking age should be the state’s decision.
Most people do not realize that alcohol is a drug that claims the lives of youth in college campuses across the world. In my case, it took the encounter with the ORL staff at UCLA for me to come to understanding that I am putting myself and those around me in danger through my risky drinking habits. With hours of self-reflection and the help of a cosmopolitan article called The Deadly Drinking Mistakes Smart Girls Make, I have found that there are several risks associated with alcohol that can put me at a quarrel with death. Even so, drinking does not always need to be deadly, and by keeping in mind the well-being of my fellow bruins and the skills mentioned in the article, I can find a balance between drinking for fun and drinking till death.