Shocking news of the day....

[Matt700wlw]

College students drink and do drugs in excessive amounts...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070315/...ubstance_abuse

[rotnoid]

I love the caption, as if we didn't know what he was doing. Tough guy though, "bonging" that much JD.

[Caseyfan21]

After finals like the one I just took, I can see why students would want to drink.

[Matt700wlw]

I love the caption, as if we didn't know what he was doing. Tough guy though, "bonging" that much JD.

Dude's got a pair

[guttle11]

Small sample size.

[Yachtzee]

Having watched a History Channel show on prohibition not too long ago, it sounds like the same kind of thing that happened back in the 20s. When they made the sale of alcohol illegal, people didn't stop drinking. They just started drinking in secret and did so to excess. Instead of that beer or glass of wine after work, they'd go to the speak-easy and drink to excess. The booze they drank was often diluted, sometimes with dangerous substances that caused illness or death.

I think the movement on college campuses to go dry and to demonize alcohol consumption has had that same kind of effect prohibition had. Except instead of alcohol diluted with dangerous substances, they look to invent games, beer bongs or other contraptions that involve getting the maximum amount of alcohol in your system in the shortest time.

[macro]

They trot these articles out every few months, don't they?

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.

Yes, these arrests and risky sexual behavior are a completely new phenomenon. If only we could go back to the more innocent times of the late 60s and early 70s.

The proportion of students using marijuana daily has more than doubled to about 4 percent.

Wow, it has gone from 2% to 4%. Although it is still a small percentage of the students, it sounds so much more dire to say "has more than doubled".

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.

And in a few months, most of these 23% will move into the workplace and accept a new level of responsibility. They'll cut way back on the partying, get to bed on time, show up for work on time, and become productive members of society.

And note the use of the dramatic phrase "that's about triple". Another fact that could be stated from the same data is "Analyzing outside survey data, the Center calculated 77 percent of college students do not meet the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence. That's over triple the number who do."

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.

Yep, those who aren't in college have to report at work at 7:30am rather than sleeping in until that 10:00am sociology class. Nine-hour workdays can really put a cramp on the partying schedule.

"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."

So, college students at a frat party drink differently than the middle-aged married couple having wine with dinner?

"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."

Many things that used to be confined to private settings have been brought out into the open. That doesn't mean that they're happening more often.

"If it keeps going, we're going to destroy our best and brightest."

Does he exaggerate much?

I don't mean to trivialize the substance abuse problems that some face every day. That's not a joking matter. Rather, my jabs are directed at those who try to convince us that this college drinking thing is somehow worse than ever and that a generation is going to be lost if we don't pull those Bud Light commercials from the Final Four broadcasts.

[GAC]

At least they're going to college. 40 years ago we just did drugs, drank, and protested at colleges.

[dougdirt]

Its just a sad situation where people in college these days think that becuase they are in college its their right to party all the time. I cant speak for what it was like 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but today I know quite a few people who feel this way.

[Yachtzee]

Its just a sad situation where people in college these days think that becuase they are in college its their right to party all the time. I cant speak for what it was like 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but today I know quite a few people who feel this way.

They don't have this guy around to tell them that "fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."

[sonny]

They don't have this guy around to tell them that "fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life."

Well, we don't need a buch of Neidermeyers running around do we?

[Crash Davis]

This has been a major problem for a long time. I know it was a problem the first couple of times I was in college

I think the biggest difference now, though, is with female college students. I think it has become much more common for girls to party than it has been in the past. And I think much of that is due to the "internet gossip/celebrity rags/girls gone wild" culture where girls believe it's nothing more than normal behavior. Everyone does it, so why shouldn't they?

I have a brother in his early 20's, and he swears every girl he knows is a party animal and basically a fluzy. He claims he hasn't had a girl friend in years because he doesn't want to date a tramp...which is about all he can find (he hasn't been hanging out on baseball message boards where the classy gals reside). I know the landscape wasn't like that 10 years ago.

I'm blaming lower back tatoos for all of it.

[GAC]

"11 years of college down the drain"

[Johnny Footstool]

I'm blaming lower back tatoos for all of it.

Those ladies won't be so keen on the tattoos when they find out they can't get an epidural because of them.

[macro]

Its just a sad situation where people in college these days think that becuase they are in college its their right to party all the time. I cant speak for what it was like 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but today I know quite a few people who feel this way.

I agree completely, doug. And as much as my post may have appeared, I am in no way an advocate of or tolerant of some of the things that go on. I just don't think it's any worse than it ever has been, and am amused at how they come out with very similar reports every few months, and then the news outlets pounce all over it.