Big Taboo: College-Aged Drinking

Drinking is one of those experiences that people want to try. They want to know if they’d like alcohol or not. By the time young adults enter college, they enjoy the freedom to act without any parent telling them otherwise. And college is also the place where a young adult will seek their first drink, as their gateway to adulthood, leading some to addiction and abuse. According to College Drink Prevention, “31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking.”[1] Emphasizing alcohol as a taboo or a sin can have the opposite effect on this age group, causing it to be more appealing or a part of someone’s identity.

The drinking taboo for college-aged drinkers causes them have to take their habit “underground.” By taking consumption behind the scenes, the environment is not only unsafe, but contributes to binge drinking, alcohol abuse, or peer pressure drinking because of the heightened excitement and using each time as if it may be their last. Will Wilkinson of Forbes and Charlie Covey of Youth Facts suggest that, “lowering MLDA 21 to 18 would make alcohol less of a taboo for adults newly entering college and the workforce, take away the thrill that many young people get from breaking the law, and make alcohol consumption a more normalized activity done in moderation.”[2][3] The ideas of controlling behavior and moderating consumption are suggested for taking away the thrill and cutting down on alcohol abuse.

Many colleges don’t accept drinking on their campuses because of the extreme consequences of intoxication, like vandalism, drunk driving and academic problems. They treat the issue as if 100 percent of drinkers will cause problems and will be destructive. Another reality that institutions face is liability. They are at risk, when injuries and/or deaths occur on their property or under their activities like parties or sporting events. Financial damages, loss of accreditation, colleges’ reputation as the “drinking” schools all cause the hard line approach.

Obviously, restricting alcohol has not taken away the problem. According to Dr. Henry Wechsler, “About 5 percent of 4-year college students are involved with the police or campus security as a result of their drinking”[4] and head of the NIAAA, Ralph W. Hingson says, “110,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are arrested for an alcohol-related violation such as public drunkenness or driving under the influence.”[5]  



A real life approach is to consider the college aged drinkers as adults, not transitioning teens to adulthood. They are faced with instant freedom, academic stress, first time experiences with serious relationships, possibly working and studying burdens, financial realities and fitting in with a larger more diverse population. These factors don’t care that they are underaged by society’s standards. So picking on one taboo like alcohol consumption is micro-managing a behavior.

United States colleges and universities, with obvious exceptions of church-related institutions, should take a progressive approach to the issue. After all, it is an environment for learning, educating and instructing. There is room for adding proper alcohol consumption and moderation to the social curriculum. 

---

[1] Knight JR, Wechsler H, Kuo M, Seibring M, Weitzman ER, Schuckit M. Alcohol abuse and dependence among U.S. college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 2002, in press

[2] Will Wilkinson, "Bottoms Up!," Forbes, Sep. 29, 2008

[3] Charlie Covey, "Drinking Age Requires Necessary and Proper Action," www.youthfacts.org, Nov. 11, 2007

[4] Wechsler H, Moeykens B, Davenport A, Castillo S, Hansen J. The adverse impact of heavy episodic drinkers on other college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 56(6):628-634, 1995.

[5] Hingson RW, Heeren T, Zakocs RC, Kopstein A, Wechsler H. Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 63(2):136-144, 2002.