This week’s selections of articles from the AE reader were both interesting
and thought provoking. The first article “Drinking to get Drunk,” details the
growing concern of binge drinking on college campuses across the country. I
thought it was very interesting that 23% of students are “frequent binge
drinkers” whereby frequent binge drinking is operationally defined as those who
consumed at least five drinks in a row at one point during any two week period.
This is startling number when thinking of my own drinking habits or even the
social norms of drinking on this campus. I would be confident in claiming that
at Providence College, the percentage of frequent binge drinkers is likely
higher than the national percentage. With the social culture of this campus
being focused on gatherings that include alcohol, it is hard to remove oneself
from a drinking climate. As a student leader on this campus, we are required to
program so many alcohol free activities to promote a “dry” campus. These
efforts go unnoticed and very often are unattended by students because of the
competition of the off campus bar scene. Perhaps if the surrounding community
(ie: local bar establishments/package stores, law enforcement officials,
attorney generals office) becomes more stringent in enforcing underage drinking
regulations, it will become more difficult for underage students on this campus
to drink. Or on the flipside, the result could be just as devastating with a
shift in drinking off campus to on campus, causing more on campus disciplinary
actions. This could be worth it however if it means that students will be
drinking in their dorms and in a fairly safe environment unlike our neighboring
community. Further examination on this campus is necessary and continues
through student congress and Fr. McPhail’s office. Personally, I don’t think
the drinking climate will change until the allure of drinking and being drunk
is discouraged and students develop a mature sense of what is “cool.”
The second article “The Drug that Pretends it Isn’t” is also an article related
to alcohol and the nasty consequences of drinking on our society. The article
opens with the giggle of Jamaica, the trendy spring break hot spot that many
college students flock to. A policy research group called Drug Strategies
produced a report that calls alcohol “America’s most pervasive drug problem,”
which is sadly true. What shocked me was the claim that alcohol-related deaths
outnumber deaths related to drugs four to one; alcohol is a factor in more than
half of all domestic-violence and sexual assault cases. More interesting to me
was the actual cost alcohol abuse has on the economy: $167 billion a
year---that’s ridiculous. I guess this article also opened my eyes up to the
political influence of alcohol on party contributions. With brewing and alcohol
companies channeling chunks of money into campaign contributions, there is
limited weight in supporting government actions/prohibitions. These would be
ineffective political moves based purely economics. It’s interesting how
everything comes down to money in this society.
The last and final article for review was unrelated to alcohol but still
something of extreme importance in this country—cocaine use and abuse. The
article “Resisting Cocaine’s Tragic Lure” is a first hand account of a young
boys experience with the drug. Being someone who has been caught in the craze
of the coke scene on this campus, I can identify with this article. Popular
among many college students on this campus, cocaine is not something to be using
recreationally. While I absolutely loved the euphoric feeling of being “high”
on cocaine, I lost a sense of control in my life and as result, my checkbook
suffered—suffered about $4500 in three months. (In addition to all of the
people I let down and the walls I built) While I don’t really have any regrets
of what I’ve done in my life and the substances I’ve experimented with, I warn
everyone to stay the hell away from coke. I didn’t realize how cocaine can be
so psychologically addictive, creating “learned” emotional memories that
essentially lure drug (cocaine) users to seek out cocaine; seeking out cocaine
on this campus is an easy phone call and then a short walk. With little
challenges to acquire coke, someone can buy a gram for $50 and an eightball for
about $375.
What can be done to reduce the frequency of binge drinking on our campus? Is
harm reduction a safe model to use and implement on this campus? Are their any
task forces in the Providence Community to deter underage drinking? Does our
administration know how severe this problem is or do they just choose to ignore
it like many other controversial and heated issues?