<p>kayf, agreed on the 911 thing. I’ve never known a college that didn’t have amnesty for anyone calling for help for a drunk friend.</p>
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I don’t know the answer to my question but ‘mini’ might -</p>
<p>mini - I don’t know if you have the stats handy but if you do, is it true that the deaths from alcohol poisoning among college students as a percentage of those attending is worse now than it was in the 70s or is that more of a perception? If it’s true, I wonder if it’s related to the drinking age difference or other societal factors.</p>
<p>Regardless, and I’m not advocating one age over the other here, but I don’t see how changing the drinking age to 18 would have any positive impact on the numbers dying from drinking in college. That’s not going to prevent them from making stupid decisions when they’re in the frenzy of drinking party although I can see how it might encourage it more and could exacerbate the problem. Again, just because they know that one or two drinks will make them tipsy and more drinks will make them drunk doesn’t mean that there won’t be times that they’ll do it anyway. I think there are usually more than 1.5 million drunk driving arrests each year with a factor many times beyond that of actual drunk drivers and they likely all know the potential consequences of drinking and driving and yet they do it anyway - and most of these are people over 21 who are legally allowed to drink but don’t stop themselves at the point they should.</p>
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I agree. Do many colleges do this?</p>
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I’m not sure that ‘we’ have created anything - do you mean by having the drinking age at 21 rather than 18? If so, that doesn’t really solve the issue since there are lots of students who start college when they’re 17 or 16. </p>
<p>No - I think parents need to do the best they can to educate their kids in a responsible fashion (educate - not just dictate), college campuses should exercise more control over what’s permitted on campus and at sanctioned frats rather than ignoring it and allowing it to escalate, and ultimately, the college student needs to realize that the ball is in their hands - they have to control what they do and don’t do and that there can be consequences if they make the wrong decision.</p>
<p>Lafalum, really? Because at many schools if the campus police are called to a party, they take names and numbers. So let me be clearer, if the police are called to a party for assistance (as opposed to a noise complaint) they should help whomever needs it and just disperse the rest. IMHO. </p>
<p>Pea, at the same time, many other rules came into effect regarding reducing the limit for drunk driving and enforcement. I support those.</p>
<p>Well maybe the amnesty is just for the person who makes the phone call.</p>
<p>“Older S as a high school student was far more rigid than H and I were when it came to drinking/drugs. He thought that people who broke the law and did such things deserved to be jailed, something that H and I thought was inappropriate and narrow minded.”</p>
<p>"I couldn’t help but laugh at this. Usually the roles are reversed in these situations. "</p>
<p>This role reversal is true for me and my D as well.</p>
<p>After a year at a “hard drinking school”, she is less rigid, but still doesn’t drink.</p>
<p>Her alcohol education class taught her that she would be in charge of identifying and helping with the poisoning of others. I taught her she may have to start with her own family.</p>
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It’s hard to imagine that a student attending NU, especially one who drinks, would have no idea what alcohol poisoning is. </p>
<p>Many colleges have a required alcohol awareness course students are required to take before attending - doesn’t NU? </p>
<p>The problem isn’t usually in the knowledge - it’s in the decision-making process of whether to apply that knowledge appropriately or not. And part of the problem is that after the first drink their decision-making process is impaired.</p>
<p>at my son’s school, most kids are scared of the campus and town police as they are known to breathalyze kids at parties (and walking home to their dorms) and hand out drinking citations (resulting in loss of driver’s license among other things). This can’t be good. You don’t call for help from those you fear. I think we’ve gone overboard here.</p>
<p>Some evidence here that drinking with your kids makes sense…
[Choose</a> Responsibility Blog Blog Archive Parents Protect Against Binge Drinking](<a href=“http://blog.chooseresponsibility.org/2008/12/08/parents-protect-against-binge-drinking/]Choose”>http://blog.chooseresponsibility.org/2008/12/08/parents-protect-against-binge-drinking/)</p>
<p>I will never drink etoh. It is a solvent and I don’t like the way people act, nor am I in need to follow society in drinking. I am not a lemming, nor a fool. So, I simply avoid the junk.</p>
<p>Toneranger, exactly. The police (campus and/or town) go after low-hanging fruit. To what effect. The partying becomes smaller and goes underground. And UCLA dad, the police efforts discourage anyone responsible from trying to help. Wrong wrong wrong. IMHO.</p>
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Maybe at some colleges but I doubt this is true at all colleges when one dials 911 but maybe I’m wrong in my assumption.</p>
<p>Regardless, what’s your solution if you have one? Would it to be to permit alcohol consumption on the part of anyone on the campus including 17 y/o students which is the age of many incoming Freshmen? What about off campus? What about drugs - should that be permitted along the same lines? And short of the knowledge that one might not get into trouble for reporting an intoxicated student, it wouldn’t actually prevent them from getting highly intoxicated in the first place. And even without the fear of police action against the 911 caller, I think there’s another big issue in that often 911 is never called in the first place because their fellow drinkers just decide to let the person ‘sleep it off’ and don’t really think anything bad is going to happen other than a hangover. And remember that they’re often making these decisions while they themselves are impaired.</p>
<p>Or do you have some other solution in mind? </p>
<p>This isn’t a simple issue and I don’t have any simple solutions to offer but I just don’t think simply making alcohol/drug consumption legal for any age will solve the issue and would probably make it worse since there are actually some students who will avoid the drinking/drugging due to its being illegal and the fact that they might get in trouble for it.</p>
<p>If my child is in a place where his choice is to be arrested for underage drinking or save the life of a friend who was binge drinking and may have alcohol poisoning, I hope they’ll choose to save the friend’s life.</p>
<p>They may have lifelong regret either way…but I will be sure to teach them which choice I hope they’ll make.</p>
<p>When did we start talking about drugs? Drugs are illegal. Period. For all ages. Alcohol, we as a country have assigned an arbitrary age barrior that puts a huge percentage of our young adults in dorms where some kids are legal and some kids are illegal. Very different subjects. Very different situations. There were some 17 year olds in colleges back when the drinking age was 18. It would be interesting if someone could dig up any statistics on kids killing themselves with alcohol prior to the age change. It would also be interesting to know how many kids kill themselves drinking between the ages of 18-20 something in other countries.</p>
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I view the situation between alcohol and drug use/misuse to be very similar subjects and similar situations occur in college where a student can get into serious trouble with these substances. Yes, these drugs may be illegal but they seem to be highly available to that population group just like alcohol’s illegal for a significant part of that age group but also seems highly available and part of what’s being discussed is whether alcohol should be legalized for that particular age group and whether that would actually solve any problems or perhaps might make it worse.</p>
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I don’t know how accurate the info is but Wiki has some stats of binge drinking rates in a number of countries. </p>
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</p>
<p>[Binge</a> drinking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge_drinking]Binge”>Binge drinking - Wikipedia)
[Legal</a> drinking age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age]Legal”>Legal drinking age - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>'m sorry, but husband and I allowed our daughter to sip some wine during the summer before she got to college to let her understand the feeling one gets from drinking. We did want her to go to college with the idea that while we don’t approve of underage drinking, we are not foolish to think that it would never happen. That was a year ago. She now does not like to drink,smoke or be around those who do. I think it is a parent’s responsibility to address all the issues that our children may encounter especially when they are going to be on their own and have to make some serious decisions. It is eay to forget that they are still children and we assume that they will always make the right decision. I just do what works fo our family.</p>
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I don’t see any reason to be sorry. I’m glad for your D’s responsible behavior in this regard. It sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders.</p>
<p>My point is that I don’t really think allowing the kid to drink at home or experience some tipsy-ness will help with the actual problem of binge drinking at college. I don’t see how one is related to the other. I’m sure there are probably some people who have never had a drink and end up dying on their very first drinking experience but I doubt that’s true for most of them. I think most of them know full well what it’s like to drink a drink or two or more and how it affects them but end up at some point over-indulging anyway and succumbing to alcohol poisoning - often making their decisions to do so in order to be a part of the social environment of the college drinking scene. Many have been to the edge many times before going just a bit too far and dying rather than waking up with a hangover.</p>
<p>My points are that allowing them to drink at home before college isn’t going to prevent this and neither is lowering the drinking age. </p>
<p>Addressing the main issue of the individual making an informed and responsible decision of whether to drink or drink to excess is the only place the issue can be ultimately addressed and doing something to try to change the ‘college drinking’ culture in this country would help.</p>
<p>ucladad: did you read the study I posted in post #48? Are you disputing the findings?</p>
<p>In any case, there are lots of issues here. One, driven by the story posted by the OP is that no one called the police when this poor kid was in trouble. Why? I think it makes sense to examine our policies to ensure that increasing the drinking age isn’t having unintended consequences. Cops ■■■■■■■■ around campuses handing out citations create fear. Kids go underground and hesitate to call for help. </p>
<p>Yes, in an ideal world, kids would choose to call no matter what the consequences. Bottom line is that most kids probably are not quite sure if a call makes sense…maybe the kid will be OK and sleep it off. Many will hesitate unless they feel safe…it is what it is. </p>
<p>You know, I’m not even fighting for increasing the drinking age here. I know that the statistics on highway deaths are pretty compelling. I’m fighting for some common sense in enforcing the law. Stop handing out citations and redirect resources to nabbing the drunk drivers. Have a medical amnesty policy and educate the students about it. Something is REALLY wrong here…</p>
<p>I don’t know what prevents binge drinking either – I didnt see a lot when I was in Israel, even though they have a young drinking age either. My main point is that handling it as a criminal matter and not a medical/social/phsc issue is not helping. Peace.</p>
<p>milkandsugar, so, let me get this right…You gave your daughter alcohol, encouraged her to drink, and made her break the law. Amazing modeling of having no respect for societal laws. You, technically, are an accessory to a crime. Why don’t you buy some pot, cocaine, and meth to boot, and do it up right. Your reasoning is as cloudy and disgusting as your immoral, outlawish behavior. Amazing how stupid parents are today!</p>