Sunday, September 19, 2004

A Post on Drunk College Students

in which Randy Balko quotes:

"Middlebury College President John M. McCardell, Jr., in yesterday's New York Times:
To lawmakers: the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law. It is astonishing that college students have thus far acquiesced in so egregious an abridgment of the age of majority. Unfortunately, this acquiescence has taken the form of binge drinking. Campuses have become, depending on the enthusiasm of local law enforcement, either arms of the law or
havens from the law."

This seems pretty relevant in light of two apparently alcohol related deaths at CU and CSU. Although the CU case is still pending autopsy.

Then there is this story: Survey of 1,000 males shows having 24 drinks in one sitting is not uncommon.

When I've worked with college students in Spain they have informed me because there is no drinking age, binge drinking is only done by the very young. Binge drinking has a stigma associated with the immature or the pathetic alchoholic. All of this makes me wonder if prohibition related to student drinking is not making the problem worse.

No comments:

Interesting Stuff