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Danger of alcohol essay
Harmful effects of alcohol essay
Harmful effects of alcohol essay
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Alcohol on campus has always been a problem. Since the beginning of higher education, students have rebelled against the rules and laws of the university and the state. Underage drinking has become a nationwide pandemic. With the legal drinking age now at twenty-one, at least half of the college population is underage, leaving room for more students to engage in binge drinking at fraternities, athletic events, and dorm rooms. The fact that half the students are underage makes them more rebellious and wanting to feel above the law, often ending in underage drinking. The articles that will be reviewed and discussed in this paper demonstrate the importance of substance-free residence halls and a survey taken to analyze the effects of alcohol on campus. Substance-free residence halls are a common piece of the university puzzle. In particular, many of the campuses are considered a “dry campus,” meaning that alcohol is not to be housed or consumed on campus, even if the person is of legal age, twenty-one. Alternately, a “wet campus” means that students who are twenty-one and over can house and consume alcohol within their dormitories. However, most wet campuses do not allow the consumption of alcohol on the grounds, that is, anywhere outside the dormitory facilities. Wet campuses also allow vendors to sell alcohol at university-sponsored events. Finn brings up several points regarding substance-free residence halls, including the safety of all parties involved, the price of vandalism, and the ultimate purpose for university (1-6). A significant number of students who attend a university are susceptible to an increased risk of alcohol abuse because a family member is an alcoholic. This does not mean that simply because a student c... ... middle of paper ... ...ses still remain wet campuses, are they really doing their students a favor by allowing the students to remain on campus to drink? Are they hindering the advancement of other students who do not choose to drink by allowing these activities to go on? There are parts of each side that are convincing, and demonstrate good value judgment and intention. I do not think that there will be a definite answer or resolution to this problem, as long as the goal is to keep students safe, while giving them a place to grow and learn. Works Cited Finn, Peter. Preventing Alcohol-Related Problems on Campus: Substance-Free Residence Halls. St. Paul: Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, 1995. 1-6. Print. Weitzman, Elissa. Taking Up Binge Drinking in College: The Influences of Person, Social Group, and Environment. Publication. N.p.: Elsevier, 2003. Print.
Mantel, B. (2006, August 18). Drinking on campus. CQ Researcher, 16, 649-672. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
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 ...
Earlier studies have examined this issue of alcohol consumption and the negative peer effects among college students. Sacerdote (2001) examines peer effects in universities. He finds evidence that supports this theory that students whose roommates reported high beer consumption were more likely to replicate the same behavior. Kremer and Levy (2003) noted that peers who had a roommate that drank could potentially increase the peer’s preference for alcohol consumption. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s (CIRP’s) Entering Student Survey demonstrated GPA’s declining in peers whose roommates drank alcohol frequently, especially those who had in high school. The survey classified males as being especially sensitive to peer influences. Empirical data presented by Wechsler, Lee, Kuo & Lee (2000) show that alcohol use and abuse reported by 40% of university students had been binge drinking at least once within the past two weeks and it was concluded that alcohol use, and more specifically binge drinking, is a social influence by peers.
One of the main reasons students feel the need to binge drink is peer pressure. They do this because their peers are doing it and they want to fit in better. College dorm rooms offer many different places for students to drink. Dorm rooms give a great place for a few people to get together, and before you know it “everybody’s doing it”.
In recent studies by U.S News and World Report, college campuses are turning off the tap. In other words banning alcohol entirely. One of the reasons for the banning of alcohol on campus is due to the outstanding reports of alcohol related incidents that have taken the lives of students. September of 97’, Scott Krueger, and eighteen-year-old freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died from alcohol poisoning while at a Phi Gamma Delta initiation event.(Reisberg, 1) The lack of action taken by MIT caused the students’ parents to sue them for their irresponsibility.(Reisberg, 2) Another accident that occurred due to alcohol was to a twenty-year-old Louisiana State University student named Benjamin Wynne. Wynne had apparen...
In the past few months I have learned a lot about myself. When the incident first occurred I was very angry. I know plenty of people that drink that are under age and they don’t get caught. I kept asking myself why me? At first I was hesitant to change, but the last few months have been eye opening. I have definitely used this situation to my advantage. There are so many things that I have learned about myself. I have used these last few months to really evaluate my life and set new goals for myself. I think this experience has greatly affected my life in more ways then one. I have done many things to change my life. I have seen changes in my personal life regarding my family and my friends. Many people talk about life changing experiences and how it affects them. I think that my life has changed for the good because of this incident. I’m glad that I have used this negative incident to better my life and to change the fate of my future.
student may not attend class the day after drinking because he or she may be
Weshler, Henry, and Wuethrich, Bernice. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on college campuses. Chicago: Rodale Inc., 2002. Print.
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.¡¨
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.
Latham, P.K., & Napier, T.L. (1992). Psychosocial consequences of alcohol misuse in the family of origin. The International Journal of the Addictions, 27, 1137-1158.
College, a place once populated by contemplative students, has experienced an unexpected twist over the past few years: 1,825 deaths, 599,000 injuries, 696,000 assaults, and 97,000 cases of sexual abuse (College Drinking ). These are such drastic numbers, but there is only one reason for all these corrupted acts of society: alcohol. Abusing the privileges of alcohol corrupts students’ mind, intellectually and socially.
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.