Rite of passage or beginning of the end?

[Jenn! 918]

Report: Binge drinking rises at colleges

By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer Thu Mar 15, 12:23 AM ET

Substance abuse on college campuses is nothing new, but it is taking a more extreme and dangerous form, with higher rates of frequent binge drinking and prescription drug abuse, and more negative consequences for students such as arrests and risky sexual behavior.

That's the portrait painted by a new, comprehensive report tying together a range of recent research on college substance abuse, supplemented with some of its own new survey data.

The report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, argues substance abuse isn't an inevitable rite of passage for young adults. Rather, it argues a particular culture of excessive consumption has flourished on college campuses, and calls on educators to take bolder stands against students and alumni to combat it.

"If they make this a priority they can do something about it," said Joseph Califano, chairman and president of the center, who among other steps called on colleges and the NCAA to stop allowing alcohol advertising during high-profile events like the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The report, being released Thursday, relies largely on research that has already appeared in various forms, but assembles it to emphasize findings particular to college students.

Among the highlights:

• The proportion of students who drink (about 68 percent) and binge drink (40 percent) has changed little since 1993. But there have been substantial increases in the number of students who binge drink frequently (take five drinks at a time, three or more times in two weeks), who drink 10 or more times a month, and who get drunk three or more times in a month.

• Though still used by far fewer students than alcohol, hundreds of thousands more students are abusing prescription drugs including Ritalin, Adderall and OxyContin than during the early 1990s. The proportion of students using marijuana daily has more than doubled to about 4 percent.

• Analyzing outside survey data, the Center calculated 23 percent of college students meet the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence. That's about triple the proportion in the general population.

Young adults in general have higher abuse rates, so a higher rate for college students is to be expected. But other research indicates that college students drink more than high school peers who don't go to college, said Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health, who published similar findings in 2002.

Both researchers involved in the report and outside experts say they have seen troubling changes in how students drink in recent years.

"The percentage of kids who drink and binge drink is essentially the same between 1993 and 2005, but the intensity of the drinking has dramatically changed," Califano said. "There's an intensity to the consumption we see here that we don't see in the general population."

At the University of Kentucky, longtime administrator Victor Hazard says he too has noticed a change, with more students drinking simply to get drunk.

"To the extent there is such a thing as a social drinker, it was more of a meet-and-greet type of environment in the earlier years when I was here," said Hazard, Kentucky's associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

Now, he said, students are "drinking to become intoxicated as fast as they possibly can."

Carol Falkowski, director of research communications for the Hazelden Foundation, an addiction treatment and research group, said too many students are getting the message that excessive drinking is OK.

"It's getting more intense," she said. "Drinking games that were happening in private parties or houses or bonfires 10 years ago are now happening in public venues. That to me reflects a sort of larger acceptance of extreme drinking."

College administrators often say they know campus substance abuse is a problem but say there is little they can do.

But the report's authors say it's a question of commitment.

"Things do work, it's just having the will and time and money to implement them," said Roger Vaughan, a Columbia biostatistician involved in the report. "People need to step up and realize this is not a rite of passage, this is not something we should tolerate. If it keeps going, we're going to destroy our best and brightest."

Source

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Or maybe just BAU (business-as-usual)?

[almaty 19]

true..i think it has been popular for a long time

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

At least here it's just the colleges. In Europe, the entire continent seems to be drowning:

A CONTINENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Nobody drinks more than the Europeans. The Irish, Brits and Finnish in particular like to get plastered in excessive boozing marathons. A new EU study has found worrying continental drinking habits and warns of the consequences beyond the next morning's hangover.

Europeans from Cyprus to Ireland indulge in a rather intoxicating continental pastime: drinking. The champions of excessive or binge drinking are the Irish, Brits, Finns and Danes, according to a European Union survey on alcohol consumption released on Wednesday.

...

Germany is currently discussing the dangers of binge drinking and ways to prevent out-of-control alcohol consumption following the much-publicized case of a 16-year-old student in Berlin who drank himself into coma by consuming 52 shots of tequila in one sitting.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

All good fun.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

At least here it's just the colleges. In Europe, the entire continent seems to be drowning:

A CONTINENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Nobody drinks more than the Europeans. The Irish, Brits and Finnish in particular like to get plastered in excessive boozing marathons. A new EU study has found worrying continental drinking habits and warns of the consequences beyond the next morning's hangover.

Europeans from Cyprus to Ireland indulge in a rather intoxicating continental pastime: drinking. The champions of excessive or binge drinking are the Irish, Brits, Finns and Danes, according to a European Union survey on alcohol consumption released on Wednesday.

...

Germany is currently discussing the dangers of binge drinking and ways to prevent out-of-control alcohol consumption following the much-publicized case of a 16-year-old student in Berlin who drank himself into coma by consuming 52 shots of tequila in one sitting.

Not sure of the truth on the bolded--as "country liquor" is UBIQUITOUS in India (Dominique Lapierre estimates that "bad" CL takes more lives each year than malaria and TB combined).

[Mags 112]

Binge drinking is a HUGE problem in the UK. HUGE. Place is full of p!ss-heads....

[Alex+R 0]

Once you're in a culture of binge drinking, it seems so completely normal. My school had a lot of binge drinking, and two years out of graduation, it's just starting to seem weird to me that someone would drink that much. I never really did it, but pretty much everyone else did. Can't imagine Madison without binge drinking.

[mawilson 2,133]

Can't imagine Madison without binge drinking.

UWisconsin?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Once you're in a culture of binge drinking, it seems so completely normal. My school had a lot of binge drinking, and two years out of graduation, it's just starting to seem weird to me that someone would drink that much. I never really did it, but pretty much everyone else did. Can't imagine Madison without binge drinking.

How far is Madison from Milwaukee (that city EXISTS only because of drinking).

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

somehow I can't imagine college without binge drinking

for some reason I fell less worried about the binge drinking than the abuse of prescription drugs

[Alex+R 0]

Once you're in a culture of binge drinking, it seems so completely normal. My school had a lot of binge drinking, and two years out of graduation, it's just starting to seem weird to me that someone would drink that much. I never really did it, but pretty much everyone else did. Can't imagine Madison without binge drinking.

How far is Madison from Milwaukee (that city EXISTS only because of drinking).

An hour. The whole state loves the beer.

[almaty 19]

Once you're in a culture of binge drinking, it seems so completely normal. My school had a lot of binge drinking, and two years out of graduation, it's just starting to seem weird to me that someone would drink that much. I never really did it, but pretty much everyone else did. Can't imagine Madison without binge drinking.

How far is Madison from Milwaukee (that city EXISTS only because of drinking).

An hour. The whole state loves the beer.

Madtown...been there many times in my youth..still don't remember nothing

[Reba 2]

I did all my binge drinking in high school.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Binge drinking is a HUGE problem in the UK. HUGE. Place is full of p!ss-heads....

It doesn't help that the police don't seem to enforce the laws that are supposedly in place to stop underage people from drinking. It's worse than smoking over there - but like smoking the habit starts early.