<p>"Pregaming" usually has NOTHING to do with going to an actual game. During football, students tailgate outside in the parking lots drinking in plain view. Some drink a few before heading to the tailgates and that is pregaming. But outside of football, pregaming is just the drinking that takes place before leaving for the night.</p>
<p>Although the fact that alcohol is not sold inside stadiums probably does lead to more tailgate drinking amongst college kids these days. But during tailgating, students are usually just hanging out, playing Ladder Golf (another popular drinking game) and talking with their friends. They don't get overly rowdy because police do patrol the lots, especially the student lot. But at my school at least, they won't ask for ID unless you are being obnoxious, look like a high schooler, or do the "stare down"--looking at an officer as he walks towards you and secretly praying that they don't stop you. Officers aren't dumb--they know you're underage because if you weren't you wouldn't be so nervous.</p>
<p>Most students are quite well-informed about alcohol, but the information has a marginal effect on drinking behavior; perhaps a larger impact on drinking and driving. Student alcohol abuse has been a big issue in this country since Colonial times. I perceive that a main reason for it is the hormonal need to connect socially with peers at precisely the same time that those social skills are, for most of us, in an awkward stage. The alcohol buzz is a social lubricant that makes one feel better about social skills, even though the actual performance of those skills may be impaired.</p>
<p>In my experience, tragedies have some impact, but that impact is of brief duration. When you think about it, throughout history, societies have sent young people of about this age out to fight their battles and wars, and one might presume that delusions of indestructability were advantageous to the warriors. We are all the decendants and genetic inheritants of the winners of those wars, so we have probably inherited a genetic predisposition toward risk-taking during this time of life.</p>
<p>Smarter about nutrition and the effects of alcohol? Yes, certainly. I have friends who know exactly how much extra time per drink they'll have to stay at the gym the next day to compensate for the night before - a couple literally to whether they have a miller lite or a coors light. This is guys and girls.</p>
<p>Does that translate to be less drinking? I think it's hard to take context out of the discussion - well into the 80's 18 year olds could buy beer, even if it was just 3.2 beer. There wasn't the stigma about alcohol, it wasn't "forbidden" and you could get a six pack whenever, and be done with it. Nowadays, looking back at my own freshman experience or that of my little brother who is currently a frosh, it's harder to get, it's primarily at parties, and the focus is/was on getting trashed. Once I turned 21 and could buy whenever, there was a lot less focus on having "big" nights out, and more on sharing a beer with a friend at home or going to watch a bar to watch a game and having 2 or 3 over the course of a couple hours. And now that I'm in medical school which means a lot less time to relax, it's reverted back to having a couple days of Bacchanalian excess every 3 weeks, with intercalated stone-cold sobriety.</p>
<p>But I do think that in general kids are more aware of the risks of what they do while drunk, but may be more inclined to drink more. So there's less injury and drunk driving and the like, but more death from actual alcohol poisoning.</p>
<p>Packmom, at Dartmouth they were "Green machines" and at Yale they were lethal but I can't remember what they were named. Grain alcohol in it, that's for sure. (Yalies had a bit more class.....not serving out of a trash can, thank you very much!)</p>
<p>At OSU they were called "Hairy Buffaloes". There was alot of drinking there in the 70s, but my son (soph in college at a different school) says there is a very different focus now. Drinking to pass out is widely done. To be honest, we drank... but not like that.</p>
<p>Way too much drinking at Princeton. But they manage to deny it instead of deal with the problems associated with it. I am sure this goes on elsewhere but I can only speak for Princeton.</p>
<p>Sorry to disappoint you, but there isn't any good binge drinking data prior to 1981 for colleges (high schools go back to 1976). Binge drinking has moderated a little bit in colleges in the past 6 years, which is a function of 1) more African-American, Hispanic, and Asian students, who have substantially lower rates of binge drinking; 2) older student populations - folks on this site don't usually acknowledge it, but the median age for an undergraduate student in the U.S. is 24.5 years of age; and 3) huge growth in for-profit, mostly urban colleges like the University of Phoenix (which is larger than the top 30 LACs combined). Among college-attending 18-22 year olds, there haven't been statistically significant changes, and both binge drinking and heavy drinking (binge 3-4 times in two weeks, or 2 or more drinks nearly every day) are higher among college students than their non-college counterparts (note: this includes lots of military enlistees.)</p>
<p>The point being that to get meaningful comparisons, one has to be able to compare apples and apples (on a college-by-college basis, the data I've seen shows binge and heavy drinking, and incipient alcoholism rising among white students, especially males.) There are plenty of exceptions, where colleges have found effective ways, not to eliminate, but to moderate campus drinking.</p>
<p>Trying to compare by talking to my kids and looking back at my experience in the 70's, I would guess drinking is about the same, but a different "tone" to it. The drinking, at least at my school and among my friends, was much more laid back and some people may have drank all weekend, but it didn't seem to have the frenzy that goes along with some parties now. For instance, we didn't have drinking games--guess it took too much effort. I really don't remember people drinking shots much at all--beer and wine seemed to be the drinks of choice (thinking back maybe beer and wine were legal at 18 and "hard liquor" was 21)</p>
<p>As far as drugs, at least at my kids' schools, it sounds like drugs are the rarity now as opposed to when I was in school--you never entered a party without smelling pot. My kids say that the presence of drugs in their colleges is much, much less than the presence was in their high school. That's good to hear.</p>
<p>Whenever binge/heavy drinking by HS or college students is discussed by parents, the concerns usaully tend to focus on drunk driving, alcohol poisoning, and other immediate safety issues. These are certainly important and valid concerns, but I also worry about the long-term effects and possible greater incidences of developing alcoholism in this generation as a result of all the binge drinking and habitual heavy consumption. We know of at least two high school students who have already gone to rehab! I usually do not hear parents discussing this implication very often, so maybe I am overly concerned by this, but I have seen problems with alcohol abuse in both my husband's family and my own extended family, so I have tried to make my kids aware of the genetic component of this. I have also had several friends during the years who have struggled with alcoholic spouses, so I worry that students today may be developing dangerous habits which may be setting them up for much longer term problems in the future affecting their health, relationships, etc...</p>
<p>I think the dangers of drinking and driving are well recognized, but the dangers of binge-drinking are seen as exaggerated. Some parents will allow under-aged kids to drink in their home as long as the parents take the car keys so they can't drive. Then these "kind" parents are surprised when things get out of hand, their house gets trashed, and they get arrested for providing alcohol to minors. HELLOOO? Drunk driving is only one of the dangers of excessive drinking, but people don't realize it. College kids, like all adolescents, think they are invincible.</p>
<p>I think drinking was a real issue back when I was in school in the late 70's - early 80's and I don't think the situation has improved much. Went to school on a track scholarship - not much room for drinking (beyond an occasional beer or two) at 80 miles a week and keeping the grades up. No All American level runner doesn't run twice a day 5 times a week - so with running at 7 in the morning and drinking was virtually impossible. One would think that my fellow students would have had some understanding of the situation (I was poor and wouldn't have attended anything but a community college but for an athletic scholarship), but frankly, I was treated as a social outcast for not drinking. Although put off- I am not sure I really cared - unlike most of my student colleagues, I had complete freedom - no parents to account to - grades were my own - lots of athletic sponsored travel here and there - money was scarce but whatever I had was sourced by me - and, frankly, I was a rather tough and crusty kid without the alcohol - so drinking did not hold any allure for me. But I was surprised at what a social discriminator drinking was (that and pot - which was also unthinkable for me because of the drug tests at big events), and how important it was to most people. I did have a few non-athletic friends when I was accepted my final year into a select honors program - they seemed to understand that the world didn't begin and end with drinking and social status. This school was not a shabby academically place either - it is in the USNWR top 10 today. Note that while clearly teens think they are invincible, and this contributes to the problem, the notion that one must drink, and do so heavily, is a key element of many a social scene in college.</p>
<p>Drinking, binge drinking, heavy drinking, alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents, alcohol-related accidents, and reported youth sexual assaults among youth all fell significantly after the drinking age was raised. They have gone up since then, but the shape of the college population has changed so much since then, that it is (as I noted) difficult to compare apples with apples.</p>
<p>I can personally say this about my experience thus far at school:</p>
<p>At least at my school drinking is not seen as that big of a deal. The security guards in my dorm see me drunk/drinking all of the time (out of beer cans, I don't even try to disguise what I'm doing), the campus police rarely go to on-campus parties to check on alcohol situations, and the campus health center keeps all alcohol related incidents completely private from the institution. Their mentality is that the students work hard enough to deserve relaxing with a "healthy" night of drinking every so often, and if they want to relax with a beer when their 19 after studying for 8 hours straight so be it.</p>
<p>Marijuana is also more or less tolerated at my school, although they will get you in trouble for that if you're caught.</p>
<p>I find this actually makes things safer. I'm able to drink safely near my own room instead of attempting to stumble to an off-campus party. I also drink more with my friends, so we all know each other's limits and know when to stop someone from drinking anymore. But perhaps that's just my opinion.</p>
<p>Sklog_w: neither you or your school are alone in adopting these attitudes but it is these attitudes that some of us are really struggling to understand especially given the knowledge and information that is currently known about alcohol and its effects on individuals.</p>
<p>"we all know each other's limits and know when to stop"</p>
<p>I think that this may be one of the biggest myths about drinking, in general, but especially among teens and young adults - who for whatever reason are at a point in their life where they do engage in riskier behaviors and tend to believe that they are invincible and that nothing bad will ever happen to them. </p>
<p>I am curious as to how young people "know" their limits? The reality is that due to differences in brain development, etc., the "limits" of young people are very different from older adults. For instance, seeing the effects on motor control and balance is one way to know our limits, but from what I have learned and read, teens and young adults are not affected by alcohol in this area as quickly as older adults and therefore their blood alcohol count will be much higher (ie over the legal limit) before they start to "feel" the same effects that older adults will typically feel at a much lower BAC. Likewise, they do not start to feel sleepy until they have reached a higher BAC than is typically seen among older adults. </p>
<p>At the same time, they are more susceptible to effects on memory and cognitive thinking processes at a lower BAC. This means that by the time they begin to recognize their "limits" they are already too impaired to make good judgment calls (eg, stop each other), and they have already put themselves at a much higher risk for alcohol poisoning (and there really is no "safe" place for alcohol poisoning, other than, say, the nearest ER). </p>
<p>To me, an environment that can encourage binge drinking is very dangerous. It's not all about drinking and driving. </p>
<p>As F. Scott Fitzgerald said: "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."</p>