There's a new book out. I haven't read it yet:
Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You, by Barrett Seaman
ISBN: 0-471-49119-5 (Hardcover)
It has gotten mixed reviews at Amazon. I was particularly impressed by Peter Lorenzi's review.
But the dangers of binge drinking are out there. Seaman reports that
Seaman wrote in the Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005 issue of Time Magazine:
Pregaming is probably unfamiliar to people who went to college before the 1990s. But it is now a common practice among 18-, 19- and 20-year-old students who cannot legally buy or consume alcohol. It usually involves sitting in a dorm room or an off-campus apartment and drinking as much hard liquor as possible before heading out for the evening's parties. While reporting for my book Binge, I witnessed the hospitalization of several students for acute alcohol poisoning. ... Such hospitalizations are routine on campuses across the nation. By the Thanksgiving break of the year I visited Harvard, the university's health center had admitted nearly 70 students for alcohol poisoning.
When students are hospitalized--or worse yet, die from alcohol poisoning, which happens about 300 times each year--college presidents tend to react by declaring their campuses dry or shutting down fraternity houses. But tighter enforcement of the minimum drinking age of 21 is not the solution. It's part of the problem.
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