The Problem Of Binge Drinking

The article “Why the Drinking Age Should be Lowered: An Option based upon Research” is about twenty years of research based underage drinking done by Ruth Engs. It talks about the way things were in the past compared to how things are now. The research done for this article shows that binge drinking is mostly found in the age below 21 due to the lack of being taught responsible drinking habits. In this article there are many statistics dealing with drinking at a college level over a long span of

The Harvard School of Public Health has done numerous studies on college binge drinking. These studies are known as the standard for binge drinking data. They define binge drinking

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking is defined as “a pattern of drinking that brings

“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.

Binge drinking is the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time, consuming when teens drink is, “’ to get drunk as possible, as quickly and cheaply as possible.”’ (Listfield). Teens are gaining a standard for hard liquor. “’Hard Liquor is increasingly replacing beer in drinking games. (Listfield) ‘“Kids easily drink seven or eight shots at a time.”’ (qtd by Gabby). Binge drinking is very common in teenagers. Teenagers believe the more you drink, the faster you get drunk and

First of all, binge drinking has been a problem for some time now. It has climbed over the past few years, capturing more attention from the media. A study

What do failing grades, frequent memory lapses, fights, brutal hangovers and unplanned sexual activity all have in common? They are all frequent results of binge drinking by college students. On a typical Friday or Saturday night you can find the average college student out drinking and having fun. Normally partying with friends at a party, bar, or club; most of these college students are underage consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, or as its better known, “binge drinking.”The term binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men and four or more drinks in a row by women, at least once in a two week period. “One” drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or one shot of liquor. Alcohol

Binge drinking is one of the worst social behaviours as it starts at a young age and that is where the obsession starts, as an Australia study shows that 2,00 kids that have a sip of alcohol when they are young due to their parents. This can lead to future binge drinking by the time they are 15 to 16 years old. It has been estimated that 2,643 Australians die due to binge drinking each year. Some of the effects of binge drinking can cause are a loss of control of brain function, less aware of your surroundings as well as loss of your tolerance levels so they drink more and more. This is why binge drinking is an unsafe social behaviour.

(Alcohol and Public Health,2017) study found the following: Binge drinking is a serious but preventable public health problem.

A man or a woman suffers, they have a distinct physical desire to consume alcohol beyond their capacity to control it, regardless of all rules of common sense. The symtoms of being an alcoholic is having rituals and being irritated/annoyed when these rituals are disturbed or commented on. This could be drinks before/during/after meals or after work. Dropping hobbies and activities the person used to enjoy; losing interest in them. A person who abuses alcohol may have many of these signs and symtoms- but they do not have the withdrawal symtoms like an alcoholic does, nor the same degree of compulsion to drink. Then comes along, binge drinking. When a woman consumes over six units and a man consumes more than eight units of alcohol in one sitting. Sipping wine, beer, or spirits three or four times per week increases the risk of binge drinking. Men who drink 22 or more units of alcohol a week have a 20% higher rate of admissions into acute care hospitals than non-drinkers. Healthy young adults who regularly binge drink may have a higher risk of heart disease later in life. "Underage drinking should not be a normal part of growing up. It's a serious and persistent public health problem that puts our young people and our communities in danger. Even though drinking is often glamorized, the truth is that

As a result of the drinking age at twenty-one, many teenagers binge drink in dangerous and unsupervised places. According to the NIAAA, almost 28 percent of eighteen to twenty-four year olds binge drink at least once a month. Binge drinking is a type of heavy episodic drinking with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. Binge drinking is also associated with an increased risk of unplanned ad unprotected sex, unplanned pregnancies, and an increased risk of HIV infection. Many proponents of lowering the drinking age believe that “with higher alcohol age limits, young people in the United States find it harder to get alcohol and so binge-drink whey they do” (Debatepedia) As mentioned before, binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning which can have traumatic consequences. According to the CDC, Each year, excessive drinking and binge drinking cause 80,000 deaths across the country. Furthermore, binge drinking and any other kind of drinking “may have lasting harmful consequences, including greater risk for the development of alcohol dependence” (ICAP)

“Binge drinking means drinking so much within about 2 hours that blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels reach 0.08g/dl.” As the CDC reports “One in six U.S. adults binge drinks about four times a month, consuming about eight drinks per binge” . Alcohol companies continue to make money from U.S adults who are dependent on alcohol for social interaction. The CDC also informs us that “The prevalence of binge drinking among men is twice the prevalence among women” it might be due to the fact the men are influenced by their peers who are more likely to drinking publicly as opposed to women who are more reserved.

Those that participate in binge drinking do it for many different reasons, a bad test grade, roommate arguments, celebration for a job well done, peer pressure, or simply because it is the weekend. No one is saying that it is wrong to go out and have a few drinks but when students go out and just drink to get drunk, actions must be taken to stop such activity. According to the graph on the next page done by the Harvard Public School of Health it is clear that a majority of students drink to simply get wasted. [Colorado State University 1] The number of binge drinkers may not have gone up in 1999 compared to 1997, for every five students two are binge drinkers, or 44%. [Wechsler #2, 1] However, the intensity of drinking has increased, when students are going out they are having more to drink. [Wechsler #2, 2]

Research has supported the observation that young people in America consume alcohol regularly; this prevalence of use increases rapidly during adolescence, as well as a few years afterward (Wagenaar and Wolfson 37). This has come to be a problem among college students. It has been shown through extensive quantitative and qualitative research that those under twenty-one years of age are able to obtain alcohol, which allows them to binge drink. Binge drinking holds many problems for college students: alcohol poisoning, DUIs, traffic accidents, and even fatalities.

Teenage binge drinking (consumption of five or more alcohol drinks in a row) has grown to be a serious problem in the United States. A report in 2009 from the Surgeon General’s office show alcohol consumption by teens start as early as 11 years of age for boys and 13 years of age for girls (Grant & Dawson, 1997). In the youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report (2007), data results showed that over three million teenagers in grades 6 through 12 are alcoholics, and several million teens have serious health issues due to drinking. Further research conducted by the Harvard School of Public health (2006) show a direct correlation of automobile accidents, alcohol poisoning, poor academic performance. violence and