College Binge Drinking


According to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, binge drinking is defined as follows:

. . . the Journal has now adopted a policy that requires the term "binge" to be used in a specific way in accepted manuscripts. According to the policy, the term "binge" should only be used to describe an extended period of time (usually two or more days) during which a person repeatedly administers alcohol or another substance to the point of intoxication, and gives up his/her usual activities and obligations in order to use the substance. It is the combination of prolonged use and the giving up of usual activities that forms the core of the definition of a "binge."

Alternative terms for the word "binge" include "heavy drinking"/"heavy use" or "heavy episodic drinking"/"heavy episodic use."

For many years, binge drinking by college students has been recognized as a problem and programs have been implemented to reduce and prevent the occurrence. Ryan E. Smith, writing in the Toledo Blade, reports that:

The idea behind the programs is that most students think their peers drink more than they actually do, and they will drink less when this misimpression is corrected through posters and other efforts.

Digressing slightly, let me see if I got this. Student A thinks Student B drinks more than he actually does. Student A sees a poster that says Student B doesn't drink that much. Therefore, Student A decreases his consumption of alcohol. Everybody up to speed? I don't know if I buy the logic.

Nevertheless, based upon a recently released report by the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, the so-called social norms programs don't work. Over a period of several years of implementation of the taxpayer-funded programs, no decrease in college binge drinking was identified. Your tax dollars at work.

BTW, I always thought that an 'extended period of time during which a person repeatedly administers alcohol and gives up his/her usual activities' was the definition of a fishing trip.