With campus alcohol-related deaths and poisonings at record levels, the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism finds binge drinking among collegians has, likewise, increased. Said Ralph Hingston, director of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, "The fact that we're not making progress is very concerning."
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 18- to 24-year-old bingers average nearly 10 drinks per binge and four binges per month. Also, it reports binge drinking causes nearly 55 percent of alcohol-attributable U.S. deaths. Nearly 500,000 collegians are injured annually when binge drinking.
A Washington University School of Medicine study finds binge drinking among 18- to 20-year-old non-student males has declined by 30 percent since 1979, while it remains unchanged among male students.
Collegiate rates are rising, in part, because of the dramatic increase in binge drinking among females. According to their study, 40 percent of college-age females report binge drinking, and the former alcohol "gender gap" has been virtually eliminated.
Since 1999, reports the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth, the alcohol industry has transformed its marketing to target females, with girls much more likely than boys to be exposed to alcohol advertising. Studies now find girls from ages 12 to 17 drink more than boys.
"One of the most remarkable changes in the last 50 years is that young women have become more like young men, and alcohol use is one of the more negative examples," University of Texas professor Scott Walters said. But binge drinking women, he notes, face unique gender health and physical "disadvantages."
Separate studies by Penn State and Wake Forest Universities find the earlier teens are introduced to alcohol use, the greater the likelihood they will binge drink in college. Teens prohibited from drinking by parents are significantly less likely to drink heavily in college, the studies find.
A study reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds teen bingers are significantly more likely to become heavy drinkers as adults. Marc Galanter of New York University School of Medicine, noted, "Heavier drinking at this age is a predictor of later alcoholism and is likely a major causative factor."
David Katz of Yale University School of Medicine said, "Options for bad judgment available to a college student are determined by society, and ours is decidedly ambivalent about alcohol." Warning that society must take college binge drinking seriously, he added, "Our society must both render and convey a clearer verdict opposing this casual form of alcohol abuse."
To reverse this trend, Hingston recommends, "Colleges and communities need to work together, because neither can do it alone."
What verdict will UNC and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro render regarding this casual form of alcohol abuse?
Ronald E. Bogle is a retired Superior Court judge and works with the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers.
