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BINGE DRINKING: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IS STILL DANGEROUS RECREATION FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

BY NICOLE SACK
THE SOUTHERN

Sunday, December 19, 2004 7:47 AM CST

Binge drinking remains a dangerous yet popular source of "fun" for college students across the nation.

A Carbondale researcher who has been studying this phenomenon for years continues to struggle with one big question.

Why?

Why would young, intelligent people, who depend on short-term memory to solidify new information and a clear head for cognitive growth, continually damage themselves with alcohol? Besides the inevitable hangover, drinking causes a gamut of problems ranging from poor scholastic performance to death.

For years, the "binge drinker" has topped off the hard-core drinking hierarchy.

A binge drinker is defined as someone who consumes more than five drinks in one sitting during a two-week period. It now appears the binge drinker has been dethroned.

Cheryl Presley, executive director of the Core Institute at Southern Illinois University, has identified a new category of high-risk drinkers: "heavy and frequent."

In a soon-to-be published study, Presley describes this upper tier of college drinkers as consuming an average of 20 alcoholic drinks per week. So in addition to a binge drinking episode, these heavy and frequent drinkers report having three or more other instances of drinking in the same week. While not yet defined as an alcoholic, Presley said, the heavy and frequent drinker is not too far off.

The study took three years to complete. The information was compiled from a sample of 17,800 college students from universities across the nation.

Presley said heavy and frequent drinkers represent between 13 to 18 percent of the students at most four-year institutions. Those who fall in this new category are twice as likely to drink and drive. Sixty-six percent of these heavy and frequent drinkers drive drunk, compared to 33 percent of all drinkers.

In addition, serious suicidal thoughts are twice as frequent among these college students. And those who meet the 20 drinks per week quota are three times more likely to be involved in a sexual assault, either as the aggressor or the victim.

"This really does concern me, it seems to be getting worse. The negative consequences are getting harsher, drinking is more high risk," Presley said. "It's not about going out, getting wasted and having fun. There is a place where fun flips over into danger."

Each year an average of 1,400 college students die from alcohol-related injuries, approximately 500,000 students are injured under the influence of alcohol and 600,000 students are assaulted by another student who has been drinking, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Presley said college students are not being swayed to change drinking behaviors despite new research.

"Here is my question. Do students even think this is a problem?" Presley asked. "Here are a bunch of people in the United states with a lot of brains and a lot of money focusing on preventing this harm. Everyone who is doing the research is saying this is a problem, but do students think this is a problem?"

Ask most students and they will say "No."

Most already know the dangers involved with heavy drinking. For many, college is the time to cultivate memories of a wild, drunken youth -- something to experience and leave behind once a diploma is obtained.

Whether it is a football tailgate, fifty-cent draft night at a bar, house parties, 99-cent beer pitchers with a pizza, coolers of beer, eating Jell-O shots (gelatin made with vodka), drinking Jungle Juice, doing keg stands, shooting beer bongs, sucking body shots or the breakfast favorite of kegs and eggs -- drinking is part of the college experience.

Carbondale is still recovering from the party school image of Halloweens gone haywire and late-night weekend gatherings of drunken students clogging Illinois Avenue.

City Manager Jeff Doherty referred to Carbondale's party past as a "black eye on the city." While the atmosphere has become arguably more tame, there is still plenty of opportunity to wreak havoc. While the drinking age is 21, the bar entry age is 19.

The number of arrests made in Carbondale bars have more than doubled during the past year, according to the city. During the 2003-2004 licensee year, which runs through July 1 to June 30, the Carbondale Police Department made 316 bar-related arrests compared to the 2002-2003 license year that yielded 130 similar violations.

Topping the list of offenses, underage possession was the most common offense followed by illegal entry and possession of a fake ID.

Of course, those who are too young or those without a fake ID continue to drink in dorm rooms, at house parities and under the trees of the Shawnee National Forest.

The city is armed with a Liquor Control Commission and the complementary Liquor Advisory Board to regulate alcohol. Sixteen people help guide the liquor decisions typically made by one person -- the liquor control commissioner -- in other cities throughout the state.

The Carbondale City Council will review and vote on a revamping of the liquor code on Tuesday as they discussed 16 proposed changes to the alcohol laws.

Ken Culton, coordinator of alcohol and drug prevention programs at SIUC, said drinking patterns of students in Carbondale are typical of most universities.

"There is no way that SIU is different. This is a college health problem, not just Carbondale's problem," Culton said.

He said in a typical school year more than 300 SIUC students are treated for drug and alcohol problems at Student Health Programming. Culton said this was consistent with other universities such as University of Texas and University of Illinois at Champaign -- two other schools where he has worked.

But he said there are more students who need counseling, but slip under the radar.

Culton said he was pleased with the new classification of high-risk drinkers.

"This captures the truest essence of what is occurring on campuses," Culton said.

He said while there is immediate damage to those who drink heavily and frequently, there are also impacts on the university system itself.

"It only takes a handful of students who are out of control to negatively affect the surrounding environment," Culton said.

Years of research into the drinking topic has failed to answer one big question for Presley. Why? Why do young people steeped in the educational environment, who have the research at their fingertips, continue to repeated harmful and dangerous to themselves?

"What do you get? You get dead, injured, sexually assaulted, you have somebody punch your lights out or stranded at a bar -- those are the negative consequences. All these heighten risks, for what?" Presley said. "People can drink and stay safe. This is not about prohibitionism, this is about how you can do both."

nicole.sack@thesouthern.com 618-351-5816