Consequences: Drinking Without Thinking

By Laura Frazier Living Editor frazier13@up.edu

Her eyes slowly opened. She blinked a few times, but it didn't help.

Eight a.m. and she was still drunk in a room she didn't recognize.

She had 10 telling pink highlighter tally marks on her arm, one for each shot of vodka she had taken the night before.

She had pre-gamed on campus before the party, playing king's cup for an hour with her friends and killing a Colt 45. She knocked back three shots in a row and headed to a house party.

She was already wasted but took advantage of the unattended alcohol and shot glasses on the counter. Her best friend did too. You have to keep going, right?

When Portland Police showed up, it only made sense to wrap the arm of the cute boy from her Spanish class around her and sneak out the back.

She didn't protest when he suggested they go to his house.

She was glad he was still sleeping when she crept out the next morning.

Scenes like this are all too familiar for college students who binge drink. UP is no exception.

Based on UP's 2010 Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, which the Health Center administers every other year, 22 percent of UP students frequently engage in high-risk binge drinking.

According to Health Center Counselor Kristina Houck, the national average is 20 percent.

Houck said most students think the percentage is higher.

"It is frequent high-risk drinkers who tend to be more visible and can distort the perception that ‘everyone drinks,' when, in truth, there is a significant number of students who choose not to drink at all," Houck said.

Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks in two hours for men, and four or more drinks in two hours for women.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, binge drinking leads to an increase in unintended injuries, violence and risky sexual behaviors. It can also lead to severe cases of alcohol poisoning.

According to senior Bryant Judge, people also make poor social decisions when they are drunk.

"It's saying and doing things you wouldn't normally do," Judge said.

He would know.

A night of drinking got Judge and two of his friends arrested his freshman year.

"I just remember the police driving onto the premises of the park and arresting us," Judge said. "We were in a tussle with other people, and they had called the cops on us."

Judge was locked in a cell with other intoxicated people, including transients. He was also given different pants because his had drawstrings.

"They took the drawstrings off my shorts because they didn't want me to hang myself," he said. "They do that to everyone."

By then, Judge considered himself to be in serious trouble.

"At that point, I had given up," Judge said. "I was sure I had something on my record. It was pretty awful."

However, Judge was not given a minor in possession (MIP) citation. He was released with his friends five hours later.

According to the UP survey, 18 percent of students reported they didn't consume alcohol in the year prior to the survey and 16 percent reported infrequently engaging in high-risk drinking. Forty-four percent drank moderately, consuming three to four drinks in a sitting.

For senior Heather Butterwegge, drinking was a way to be social her freshman year.

"Coming into college I was so ready to party," Butterwegge said. "I was so ready to get dressed up and go out. You want to network, you want to meet people outside of your major and outside of your class, and you want to expand."

Butterwegge thinks drinking makes it easier to approach people.

"For whatever reason, it's so much easier to talk to anybody when you have a few in you," Butterwegge said. "Sometimes you just can't talk to that one intimidating girl or that one intimidating guy. But then you have a drink and you can."

Sometimes students don't know how much alcohol they can handle.

Senior Drew McLauchlan witnessed how binge drinking can lead to hospitalization: When he was a Corrado Hall Resident Assistant, one of his residents was hospitalized following last year's Dance of the Decades.

McLauchlan said from 15 to 20 people came back from the dance severely intoxicated.

"I had to make sure either they had to go to the hospital or I had to assign someone else to make sure they could sleep on their side," McLauchlan said. "It definitely wasn't a fun night, that's for sure."

Judge said drinking games significantly contributed to his drunkenness the night he was arrested.

"Drinking games tend to really let you go too far," Judge said.

According to Director of Student Activities Jeromy Koffler, drinking games are synonymous with binge drinking.

"Drinking games scare me as a college administrator," Koffler said. "There is no other purpose than to try and get people plastered."

According to Butterwegge, drinking games are popular because they are socially interactive.

"It's a group activity," Butterwegge said. "People are always down to play a game. "

But drinking games can get out of hand, according to Butterwegge.

"You want to show you can keep up. It gets people going and excited in general," Butterwegge said. "But people consume more than they think they are. Games can be pretty dangerous when you don't know when to stop."

Students often drink too much alcohol without realizing it.

"If you are at a keg party and pour it into a 16 ounce cup, that's more than one standard drink," Houck said. "At that point, when individuals drink more than five in one sitting, that's when negative consequences occur."

For Judge, his drinking habits changed as he got older.

"Binge drinking has enough repercussions to slow down how much you are drinking over time," he said. "The goal is not to pass out. It's to be on the same level as everyone else."

But sometimes drinking is hard to avoid, Judge said.

"It's kind of hard to escape in the college atmosphere," Judge said. "I want to take a break, but then a friend has a party. They're generally fun nights, but you just have a couple nights that ruin that experience for you."