Binge Drinking Continues to Cause Problems Across College Campuses
Binge drinking in college campuses across the U.S. continues to be problematic, according to a recent article in Central Florida Future. Binge drinking is considered 0.08 grams or more of blood alcohol level, as defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Typically, binge drinking can be defined as five drinks or more for men and four drinks or more for women over about a two-hour period. Ninety percent of this type of consumption is committed by those under 21 years old. There are also major health problems associated with binge drinking, including unintentional pregnancies, alcohol poisoning, sexual malfunction and high blood pressure.
It appears that binge drinking is a common trend that won’t disappear due to these episodes of heavy drinking on college campuses. Such episodes have been ongoing for over 30 years and have been a noteworthy factor in campus cases of violence and sexual assault for more than 15 years.
Damage inflicted from binge drinking has to be addressed. The University of Central Florida has made a concentrated effort to educate their students about alcohol. Other college campuses are already treating this issue as a public health crisis.
In order to make progress in resolving this issue there need to be changes in the culture of alcohol on college campuses. The College Drinking Task Force recommends an intervention on three different levels: the community level, the whole student body level and the individual student level.
