<p>I dont know how the universities can police this, but something has to be done. Its sad that students feel they have to get sloppy drunk to have a good time.</p>
<p>A related story from Inside Higher Ed, about freshman deaths and alcohol. </p>
<p><a href=“Freshman deaths show risks of transitioning to college life”>https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/19/freshman-deaths-show-risks-transitioning-college-life</a></p>
<p>It’s a drinking culture that extends beyond the frat house.</p>
<p>In other accounts I read, they said that the people she was with noticed that she seemed to be “in distress” and THEY immediately took her to the hospital. Which puts a slightly different spin on it.</p>
<p>I wonder which is true?</p>
<p>@Consolation if that is true, I’m glad they at least tried to get her help, however, when are these kids going to learn that you dont have to get drunk out of your mind to have a good time?</p>
<p>^^An excellent question. When I was in college–and after-- many of us did plenty of drinking, I admit. But I literally never heard of someone being hospitalized or dying of alcohol poisoning. The only things I can think of that were different were that people smoked a lot of pot–often instead of drinking alcohol-- and the legal drinking age was 18. So the whole “pre-gaming” thing did not happen. And no one ever died from smoking pot.</p>
<p>I don’t think it was as uncommon back in the day as we parents would like to think. I think that in the absence of the internet we just didn’t hear about it as much. I certainly knew kids who had to have their stomachs pumped after drinking to excess.</p>
<p>^^^^^In the film about Gordie Bailey called “Haze,” one of their experts stated that while binge drinking as defined as 4 or 5 drinks in a sitting (as in our day) has stayed stable, binge drinking as defined by 10, 11, 12 drinks or more in a sitting has skyrocketed. I think this kind of thing (deaths and hospitalization from binge drinking) is much more common nowadays, at the same time that drunk driving deaths have probably decreased from our day. If Mini were here, he’d have stats, but I don’t have time to look for them.</p>
<p>I don’t see how people can even physically drink that much, are they using stimulants that perhaps keep them from passing out after half a dozen shots?</p>
<p>While I was around plenty of drinking in college, I never knew anyone that had to have medical intervention. </p>
<p>I did know someone in college that was sent to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. They were drinking Everclear however. Most of the VERY drunk people we saw drinking beer were usually throwing up way before they were in any danger. I wonder if alcohol was all that was involved. Mixing alcohol with other drugs, even legal drugs can be deadly.</p>
<p>The popularity of hard liquor has risen over time. Beer and wine aren’t any safer than liquor when it comes to deaths from accidents, exposure, etc. But they are a lot safer when it comes to death by alcohol poisoning. It is very hard for anyone, especially an inexperienced drinker, to keep down enough beer or wine to reach a fatal BAC.</p>
<p>This has been a terrible week for the Rutgers community. Another student was killed by a bear over the weekend.</p>
<p><a href=“http://6abc.com/news/bear-suspected-of-killing-hiker-in-new-jersey/318884/”>Page Not Found | 6abc.com - 6abc Philadelphia;
<p>Just a terrible situation. </p>
<p>One thing I noticed in the article is that it referred to “cops” launching an investigation. In my day that was a bit of a pejorative term.</p>
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<p>Well, I didn’t. I was in the college class of 1975. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I knew of at least one of S’s HS classmates having to be taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.</p>
<p>These things seem to go in waves. When my sister was in HS–class of 1966–there were several fatal auto crashes at the HS, and another in which the person was paralyzed. When I was in HS–class of 1971–there weren’t any.</p>
<p>I was among the last to go to college when the drinking age was 18…and i too can’t remember anyone going to the hospital for drinking…and I am talking about a heavy drinking campus…i truly think that being able to drink openly resulted in less dorm-room/frat-house chugging…</p>
<p>This has always puzzled me. I have trouble believing it is possible to drink more than my friends and I drank when we were freshmen and sophomores in college. People passed out all the time. People got blackouts and couldn’t remember things. 10+ drinks in an evening was nothing extraordinary. But no one ever went to the hospital for alcohol poisoning (yes for other incredibly stupid things they did to themselves while their capacity was diminished), and I never even heard a rumor of someone dying solely from drinking too much. Which doesn’t mean that anyone thought drinking that much was risk-free – we definitely knew/knew of people who had died from automobile accidents while drunk, or from freezing to death while passed out during winter. Just not from “alcohol poisoning,” or anything like that. I don’t understand why it’s so common now.</p>
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<p>Emphasis mine.</p>
<p>I agree, JHS.</p>
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<p>Can you believe that this happened exactly ten years ago! </p>
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<p>And, I don’t understand that, despite massive efforts by some, we are still trying to come up with answers and explanations about how and why the tragic deaths happen. If some were not THAT determined to stick to excuses, we might have become collectively wiser. </p>
<p>Sadly enough, in the next decade, the numbers will be just as bad. And so will the common denominators and the endless list of excuses not to do the right thing. </p>
<p>I was in college nearly 20 years ago, and people going to the hospital because of intoxication happened regularly. It was reported in the newspaper. It seemed it happened once a week or around that frequency–maybe once every two or three weeks.
The one person who died at my school because of alcohol may have suffocated on their own vomit. I’m not sure what the technical cause of death. Their BAC was skyhigh though.</p>
<p>HS class of 1981 was the last one to go to college in NY with an 18 drinking age. Alcohol of choice was beer. My fraternity (with 32 residents) had a standing order for 4 kegs each week, more on party weekends. Having 10 beers, roughly the incapacitating amount, requires drinking roughly a gallon, about 8 pounds of fluids, and took two hours of concerted effort.</p>
<p>Alcohol of choice now is 1.75L plastic bottles of vodka. It’s cheaper and more portable than beer. Having 10 shots can be done quickly. The one guy who left in an ambulance (due to alcohol) while I was in college did 18 shots in about 30 minutes. His eyes glazed over shortly after and he was in a coma for 3 days. Admittedly, stumbling around with a .2 BAC was very common then and would not get us to call an ambulance the way they do now.</p>
<p>The one guy who I know died mid-80s had a combination of alcohol, LSD, and nitrous oxide. He passed out and suffocated with a plastic bag over his face.</p>