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would lowering the drinking age decrease binge drinking?
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According to a national survey conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month, 1 and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe” (NIH). Binge drinking culture refers to the recent rise and normalization of college age students drinking excessively. The CDC describes binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol level to 0.08grams within two hours” (CDC). For many young adults, college is one of the first times they will experience complete freedom. This freedom often leads to partying, which goes hand in hand with the consumption of alcohol. However, since the age at which …show more content…
She argues that when the drinking age is lower, binge drinking is less of an issue. Before the legal age was raised, college students were able to drink relatively responsibly compared to today. Sipping beer at a controlled party was the norm, while today students feel the need to pregame before going to a party since being caught with alcohol at a party can get you into serious trouble and end in a possible arrest. Also, since the parties were patrolled by police, things never got too out of control. Now, a lot of parties have to be off campus, which allows more room for dangerous situations to occur. The mentality has evolved into drinking as much as you can, and only drink what will get you the most drunk in the shortest amount of time. Young adults are more inclined to down one too many shots and head out to a party. Not only is over drinking the issue anymore, it is much more common for hard liquor to be the alcohol of choice. Drinking liquor makes it more difficult to gauge one’s limit, since it is so concentrated. While three ounces of liquor may not seem like much, in most bars, a shot glass of alcohol is seen as 1.5 ounces. This would equal two drinks, and that is already halfway to the legal blood alcohol level
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.
Weshler, Henry, and Wuethrich, Bernice. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on college campuses. Chicago: Rodale Inc., 2002. Print.
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
Why do college students drink so much? This timeless fad has effected this generation in high percentages since the beginning of college education. Today in America it is estimated that approximately 29% of college students are regular alcohol abusers. Another recent study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism performed showed that college students suffered 1,400 deaths, 70,000 date rapes and assaults, and 500,000 injuries each year as a result of alcohol. (McDonald) Although binge drinking (5+ drinks in one sitting) is considered a normal part of the college experience many factors contribute to whether or not an individual is more prone to be an abuser.
...them when they take just one drink of alcohol, even if it is just one shot or one beer, it affect you. Most college student drink to socialize and that is not a good thing to do. When a students, or anyone, drink to be social there are more likely to have more then what they intended. Alcohol will affect the way that students think, feel, act, and socialize with others. Drink is a dangers action to participate in but that is a choice that one needs to make on their own. It is always fun at the time, but at that same time one does not think that they are permanently arming to their bodies. Whether children and teens drink 15,25 or even 30 percent of the alcohol consumed, the reality is that America has an underage drinking epidemic and alcohol is by far the drug most used by children and teens and poses the greatest threat to their well-being” (Underage, CNN.com pg2).
It has been stated in each research source that hazing and particularly binge drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, academic life, and health on college campuses today. The journal article pertaining to this issue, How Harvard’s College Alcohol Study Can Help Your Campus Design a Campaign Against Student Alcohol Abuse (CAS: Campus Alcohol Study for short), focuses more heavily on binge drinking and prevention than it does on the Greek system itself. The authors, Wechsler, Nelson, and Weitzman, contend that binge drinking is a nationally recognized problem but has not been studied efficiently enough to warrant effective prevention plans. The purpose of this article is to share with the public the results of a survey representing 50,000 students in 140 colleges, in 39 states. This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind and the analysis of its outcome by the authors of this article has resulted in seemingly sound prevention ideas. To begin interpreting the binge drinking phenomenon, a solid understanding of the term must be presented. Binge drinking is defined by all the articles as consuming five or more drinks in rapid succession (four or more for women) at least once in a two week period. Shockingly, the College Alcohol Study (CAS) found that two out of every five college students binge drink. The authors of this article argue that binge drinking has negative effects not only on the drinkers, but also on the entire student body. The binge drinker might get alcohol poisoning, other related physical injuries, or weakened academic performance, while the non-binging students are subjected to insults, arguments, vandalism, physical and sexual assaults, and loss of sleep due to alcohol influenced peers. The next topic that the article gets into is the different areas that change need be made to lessen the presence of binge drinking and ways in which these changes might be made. The first idea presented is that simply educating students about alcohol abuse and related problems is not effective. The CAS shows that four out of five students have been exposed to anti-alcohol education and still two out of these five binge drink, let alone drink at all. In fact, Wechsler, Nelosn, and Weitzman state that most members of predominant binge drinking groups like athletes and Greek organizations openly admit to being educated in this area. These findings display how ineffective alcohol education on college campuses is.
college students have found drinking at American universities has grown to become a defining part of college life despite the fact that a majority of college students cannot even legally drink. Lowering the drinking the drinking age could prove to be an effective step in changing the party hard way of life by encouraging responsible drinking and take the trill away from getting away with drinking. Students also binge drink to get as drunk as fast as possible. The dangers of this are obvious. If the age...
The behaviour of National Rugby League players has been well documented with a number of media publications insisting the NRL is facing a culture problem. The large volume of alcohol related incidents involving NRL players has prompted the NRL to acknowledge the issue and put forwards strategies to change its culture. In 2016 more than eight players, coaches and officials have been involved incidents all involving alcohol. The frequent mishaps made by these individual and the strong media scrutiny has resulted in the NRL being labelled a “binge drinking” culture. An organisation’s culture refers to the shared beliefs, values and expectations between corporate management and stakeholders (Gottshalk, 2011). The ARLC stated in their Vision,
College students under the age of 21 are drinking heavily and by some are being called binge drinkers. Binges drinkers are people who have more than five drinks at least once a week. Professor Engs brings up a reason for these actions. She calls it the theory of reactance. “The theory of reactance suggests that, whenever people believe their freedom either has or will be unjustly threatened, they enter into a reactance motivational state and act regain control by not complying.” (Engs and Hanson) This means that the underage students are drinking more so because they are not supposed to. Drinking is traditionally important to college life; many activities are focused arou...
The abuse of alcohol and other drugs remains the number one public health problem for colleges and universities across the United States. Alcohol misuse poses a serious threat to the intellectual, psychological and physical development of traditional-age undergraduate college students. College students who engage in alcohol and other drug use have been shown to experience significantly higher rates of motor vehicle fatalities, unsafe sex, and emergency care visits, sexual assaults and poor academic performance.
Alcohol is commonly used by Americans across the United States. (Maurel, Boisseau, Benhamou, Jaffré, 2012). Some of the highest rates of alcohol consumption occur in the college student population, with studies showing that college athletes having a higher drinking rate than there non-athlete peers. Not only do they have a higher frequency of alcohol consumption, but they also have a higher tendency to participate in binge drinking, which is defined as drinking five or more drinks in a row for men and four drinks in a row for women (Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Grossman, Zanakos, 1997).
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.
According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 1,800 college students die from alcohol-related causes every year, while about 800,000 are being assaulted by other students because of drinking. About one in every four college students who binge drink also admit that they have experienced academic problems. Binge drinking is drinking multiple drinks in just a few hours to get drunk. Despite the fact that college drinking has caused many issues, it has not been stopped, yet. In article, “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking,” McMurtrie (2014) explains that this issue has not been resolved yet because many people still see alcohol abuse as general issue instead of seeing it an individual behavior. Because colleges
In 2008, over 80% of United StateS college students have had at least one alcoholic drink in a span of over two weeks (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2009). 40% of these college students binge drink, having four or more drinks. This exceeds the rate of other non-college peers. Research suggests