Nguyen 1
Name: My Nguyen
Collin Hull
English 2010
Issue Exploration
Revised Draft
Date: Dec 5th, 2013
How Do Our Societies Combat Binge Drinking?
A lot of people view drinking as a very large part of their social life experience and as the college experience for young students. Unfortunately, binge drinking brings huge consequences: as of 2012, 80,000 Americans each year are killed and more $220 billion is drained from the economy by excessive drinking, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Drink excessively doe not only risk their body physically and mentally, but also devastate their relationships in family, school, and community. Especially binge drinking brings many catastrophic results for college students who are trying to build a bright future in school.
What is exactly binge drinking? TheNational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholismdefines binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above. It typically occurs when men consume five or more drinks, and when women consume four or more drinks, in about two hours” (NIAAA). So binge drinking simply means drinking heavily in a short period of time.
There are some significant statisticscollected involved with drinking. According to a2005 national survey on drug use and health, approximately 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of twenty-one in the United States is in the form of binge drinks. Recently, the NIAAA also informs that "approximately two of every five college students of all ages—more than 40 percent—have reported engaging in binge drinking at least once during the past 2 weeks"(NIAAA).
Undoubtedly, binge drinking has become a persistentissue that everyone should be aware of. It also poses a major concern, an intriguing phenomenon, and has emerged as one of the unhealthiest aspects of college life on many campuses across all the country for decades. Missing class, poor academic performance, unsafe sex, frequent memory lapses, health problems, car crashes, injury, and even death are some common unfortunate consequences of binge drinking; therefore, binge drinking has raised some considerable debates about what our society can do to combat binge drinking of young people. Some argue, particularly students, which we shouldraise alcohol taxation, but some believe that lowering the legal drinking age, the others suggest banning alcohol on campuses widely.
Raising Alcohol Taxation Can Reduce Binge Drinking
Witnessing many losses of lives and somber public health outcomes resulting from excessive alcohol consumption, many economists suggest the idea of increasing alcohol taxation can be an effective tool to fix a dangerous social matter globally. Many researchers conclude that taxation has indeed been found to be the most cost-effective measure in reducing binge drinking and overall alcohol consumption.
The Law of Demand is one of fundamental laws of economics. Alfred Marshall, the author of the book Principles of Economics, figures out the relationship of quantity demanded of a product is inversely related to its price. Based on economic theory, correlatively, increasing the price of alcohol would expect to lower alcohol consumption. The connection of raising taxes and decreasing consequence of binge drinking is depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 2: A link of Alcohol taxation and the consequence of binge drinking
“Conceptual model for the causal relationship between increased alcohol taxes and decreased excessive alcohol consumption and related harms (oval indicates intervention rectangles with rounded corners indicate mediators or intermediate outcomes; and rectangles indicate outcomes directly related to improved health)”
Source: Elder et al / Am J Prev Med 2010;38(2):217–229
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Journal of Preventive
Medicine. Sep. 21, 2013
David H. Jernigan, Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) and Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has conducted research on the effect of taxation on alcohol, affirms that taxes prevent and reduce drinking and death among young people, as well as among heavy drinkers. Jernigan also says, “When alcohol is cheaper at the corner store than milk, orange juice or sometimes even water, it sends young people the wrong message” (qtd. in Vimont). Jernigan concludes the low price of alcohol can stimulate the consumption, and that is a danger to people. Furthermore, several case studies examine the relationship of alcohol taxation and consumption. In March 2004, the Finnish government tried to lower the alcohol taxation nearly 33% from 44% to protect domestic sales; as a result alcohol consumption levels in Finland increased 50 percent from the previous year (qtd. in Park).
Some proponents agree that paying more alcohol price can save thousands of lives and billions of dollars for nations, such as Alexander C. Wagenaar, professor of Health Outcomes and Policy at UF College of Medicine and lead author of the study confirms that “simply adjusting decades-old tax rates to account for inflation could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in law enforcement and health care costs.” (Wagenaar). And Henry Wechsler, lead author of the study and Director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health said, "Easily obtainable cheap alcohol, especially beer, fuels binge drinking for underage college student” (Wescher). They all believe in a conclusion that as drinkers pay less, they drink more, so cheap price encourages binge drinking. A 2008 report of the Congressional Budget Office estimated that modestly increasing and reforming federal alcohol taxes could generate more than $28 billion in new revenue over five years (CBO). With many advantages for drinkers and communities, many people support the idea that increasing the alcohol taxation can be an effective key to deal with binge drinking.
The Legal Drinking Age Should Be Lower
The twenty-one-year-old minimal legal drinking age (MLDA) has been long-standing controversialissue and considered a case study that has sparked many debates over past several decades in the United States. As of November 2009, presidents and chancellors of 135 colleges and universities signed on to the Amethyst Initiative ( calling for a public debate about lowering the minimum legal drinking age to eighteen years, "It's time to rethink the drinking age... Twenty-one is not working” (Wechsler, et al, 20). They assume that twenty-one is not effective legal drinking age for society to reduce drinking.
The proponents of lowing the minimum legal drinking age from twenty-one disputes that
it has not stopped teen drinking effectively, but instead it has pushed underage binge drinking and other unsafe behavior into private and less controlled environment such as fraternity houses
or house parties. For example, John McCardell, a college professor and president of
Middlebury College in Vermont, argues that “increasing drinking age encourages underage
college student to get drunk at clandestine parties rather than learn to drink responsibly in
public.” He also states, “When a young person reaches driving age, we don’t simply toss them
the keys to a car and say go figure it out” (McCarddell). He argues that lowering the age
will make kids safer and also complains law prevents colleges from teaching student to drink
responsibly earlier than twenty-one because the teachers can only preach abstinence to students.
People understand that eighteen is the age of adulthood in the United States. Eighteen is the age that has the right to make their own decisions and has to bear their consequences of their own actions. Eighteen is allowed to vote, get married, and enlist in military which includes risking one’s life. Therefore, a lot of people question why eighteen is not mature enough to have a beer responsibly.
Some people believe that the legal drinking age has not been effective atpreventing underage drinking. For example,Michelle Minton, a fellow in consumer policy studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, claims in The Wall Street Journal:
Despite drinking ages far lower than twenty-one, European countries have fewer teenage alcohol-related problems than America. The often cited decrease in traffic fatalities since the nationwide introduction of MLDA 21 can be attributed to higher safety standards, law enforcement, and airbags and safety belts rather than to the increase in the legal drinking age. Furthermore, since American teenagers learn to drive many years before they are allowed to drink, they often overestimate their driving ability and have less understanding of how alcohol affects their ability to drive, actually leading to more traffic fatalities. Overall, MLDA 21 has done more harm than good. (Minton)
Minton indicates that the twenty-one-minimum drinking age has not only done zero good, it may actually have done harm. She calls upon all Americans that “an individual legally enjoys nearly all other rights of adulthood upon turning 18.... It is time to reduce the drinking age for all Americans” (Minton). Again, she affirms that eighteen is the legal age to make all decisions and eighteen is the legal age to drink.
College Should Ban Alcohol on Campuses
In order to provide the pure environments for all students, many colleges and universities suggest the enforcement of alcohol policies on campuses, particularly a complete ban on alcohol use regardless of age is an important goal.
Due to peer pressure or academic stress, drinking is a way for college students to have fun. Unfortunately, many students are out of control drinking, and the college environment can exacerbate many serious problems that are related to binge drinking. Drinking and college go together like “love and marriage.”Some predictions can be made with absolute certainty such as the tides will shift, the sun will rise, and young students will drink to excess.
Nowadays, drinking on campus has become more dangerous than ever, not only for the problem drinker, but also for the person who does not drink.Hearing several unimaginably tragic deaths of freshman, and young students suffering from severe alcohol poisoning reported on newspapers and television everyday has raised a difficult question for colleges and university on how to eliminate alcohol and make campuses healthier and safer.The consequences of heavy drinkingcollegecampuses have been widely recognized as a national disease, depicted in figure 3 below:
Again, Professor Wagenaar points out the environmental factors, such as availability ofalcohol, “serve as a major determinant of how much young people will drink and the negative outcomes of their drinking” (Wagenaar). He avows that higher drinking rates amongcollegestudents can be directly linked to the availability of and ease of access to alcohol, and as drinking rates increase, the dangerous effects to drinker also increase.Furthermore, Hollins University President Nancy Gray said, "It's part of our effort to make campuses attractive and comfortable if a student wants to live substance-free and with others who are committed to a healthy lifestyle,”(qtd. in Bardin). She clarifies how colleges can deal with the challenges of underage and excessive drinking among students by using banning alcohol in colleges as a tool to help students make safer choices about alcohol.Safety is one of the important factors that students and parents need to address as they want to enter in colleges. And President Nelson of the University of Minnesota agrees that colleges should focus on sources ofalcoholin neighborhoods near campus. He adds, “Colleges that dobanalcoholhave less drinking and drinking problems among their students. At sporting events wherealcoholis less available — including in the stadium and tailgating — students are less likely to binge drink” (Nelson). He has adopted the alcohol policy to his school to eliminate the rate of binge drinking.
Conclusion
The exact solutions for the question “How do our societies combat with binge drinking?” have been disputed. However, there are several suggestions to diminish binge drinking and its consequences such as lowering the legal minimum drinking age, increasing alcohol taxation, or banning alcohol use on campuses widely. Hopefully, many new solutions for binge drinking are discovered to help our life’s environment healthier, safer, and more comfortable.
Works Cited
Bardin S. "Alcohol-Free Dorms: Substance-Free Living Spaces at Schools
such.."Roanoke Times & World-News (Roanoke, VA): n.p. Jul 26 2009.SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 21 Sep. 2013
Clapp, John. 2011. Preventing alcohol use on campus. Web.21 Sep. 2013
Marshall, Alfred. Principles of economics. 8th ed. London:Macmillan
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.NIAAA council approves definition of binge drinking. NIAAA Newsletter2004; No. 3, p. 3.Web.20 Sep.2013
Vimont, Celia.Alcohol Taxes Can Reduce Young People’s Drinking.Nov 16.2012.Web. Sep 2 1.2013
Wagenaar H. Effects of Alcohol Tax and Price Policies on Morbidity and Mortality: A Systematic Review.American Journal of Public Health, 2010; DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.186007.
Wechsler H, Seibring M, Liu IC, Ahl M. Colleges respond to student binge drinking: reducing student demand or limiting access. J Am Coll Health. 2004; 52(4):159
“Women, Girls, and Alcohol,” Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, July 2011. Web. 20 Sep. 2013
Images Cited
Figure1:Denize. 2005. New York Times Magazine. Photo selected by SIR research.
Figure2: Elder. 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Sep. 21, 2013
Figure 3: National Institution on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, CQ Researchers. Web. Sep 24,2013.