The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 21, 2000, Page 8, Image 8
EtCetera
When to Say When
College students often see drinking as a rite of passage to turning 21
by Keita Alston
Senior Writer
It’s time to celebrate the most important day of your life: your birthday. It’s your
time to hang out with your best friends, party and have fun. And, of course, a 21st
birthday party cannot be complete without one more thing... beer.
Most of the college scene is associated with drinking. Mothers Against Drunk
Driving estimates that one in three students goes out to drink just to get drunk. In ad
dition, college students spend S5.5 billion on alcohol each year, more than they spend
on soft drinks, tea, milk, juice, coffee, or schoolbooks combined. Those statistics show
that drinking is popular with college students and that most college students would
prefer a glass of beer to anything else.
For whatever reason, many college students see their 21st birthday as a time to
drink.
“I think it’s the simple fact that you can legally go out and do it [drink] in pub
lic. You don’t have to hide or sneak around anymore,” political science senior Josh
Kimsey said.
Kimsey also said tradition plays a part in drinking. “I think tradition definitely
does [play a role]. I think getting drunk is overblown. People tell stories that get
blown out of proportion.”
He also said that people told him he did some crazy things at his 21 st birthday par
ty. “I remembered everything that happened, and most of the stories they tell me are
just made up.”
Another reason it’s a big deal to get drunk at 21 is that it’s the legal age to buy and
drink alcohol. Some people think that 21 is too long of a wait to buy beer. They want
the drinking age lowered to 18.
“They should lower it [the drinking age] to 18 because kids are going to drink
regardless,” public relations sophomore Danielle Siau said. “It’s even more of a thrill
because it’s illegal. If you lower it, they may not want to drink because half the fun
has been taken away.”
A drink is equivalent to one 12-oz. beer, one shot of 100 proof liquor, or one 4
5 oz. glass of wine. An average beer is about 5 percent alcohol. Malt liquors are high
er in alcohol content than the average beer.
In a mixed drink, the amount of alcohol varies. Rum has a wide range of proofs.
A proof is an alcoholic strength equal to twice the alcohol present. A beer that’s 5
percent alcohol is 10 proof.
Wine and wine coolers vary in alcohol content also, but normally one wine cool
er or one 4-5-oz. glass of wine is equal to the amount of alcohol in one 12 oz. beer.
A person’s blood alcohol content, or percentage of alcohol in the bloodstream,
is dependent on weight and the amount of alcohol consumed over time. The faster ;
a person drinks, the higher the MC will be. The liver can handle only about one i
drink per hour. Tire rest of the alcohol builds up in your bloodstream. I
USC assistant professor Brad H. Smith said when we drink, alcohol’s effects peak i
in the brain between 30 and 90 minutes. He also said people can usually drink more
alcohol as fast as they can get rid of it. <
“Be careful as to how much alcohol you drink because once you drink enough, 1
it tends to slow down the body,” Smith said.
Smith said when this happens, the reaction time tends to slow down, and speech
and vision become impaired.
Smith said factors such as water content, fat content, gender and race contribute
to how much alcohol a person can tolerate. Studies have shown that many effects of
alcohol are more noticeable while the blood alcohol content is rising than later when
it’s falling. Smith believes there is a state dependent learning (also known as dissoci
ation) with alcohol in which people can’t transfer information acquired while under
the influence of a drug to the nondrug state and vice versa.
The Office of Alcohol & Drug Programs offers many prevention and education
services for students. The office promotes highly visible and creative prevention pro
grams in which the focus is interaction and fun rather than alcohol and other drug use.
Rick Gant, director of Student & Parent Involvement Programs at USC, said that
the programs are an effective way of teaching first-semester students the dangers
and legal consequences of drinking.
“The programs are a great way for students to relieve stress in a healthy way,”
Gant said. He said they’re a great opportunity for students to come to terms with
their alcohol and drug use and find ways to control it.
The office has won many regional and national awards for the past three years for
their programs.
The consequences of drinking alcohol can last longer than a few hours at a par
ty. Binge drinking can adversely affect academic performance. The Harvard School
of Public Health College Alcohol Study found out that half of binge drinkers missed
at least one class, and a third fell behind in school work. They are also most likely to
have lower grades than non-bingers.
According to political science freshman Precious Brown, drinkers should be com
fortable with their drinking environment. “When drinking in an unsafe environment,
you open yourself to all types of danger.” She said she believes that an individual is
at a higher risk when drinking alcohol than when not drinking.
Car accidents or alcohol-related deaths are some of the risks associated with drink
ing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that more than
20 percent of all alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 1998 involved drivers at blood
ilcohol concentrations below 0.10. In South Carolina, a person is considered intox
cated with a BAC of 0.10. About 2 billion miles were driven at a BAC between
1.08 and 0.099. About 41,000 people were injured and more than 1,000 were killed
n crashes at this BAC level.
Brown said people should “drink conservatively and maturely” because in the
rnd, it is better to be safe and know the facts about drinking than to be sorry and be
:ome another statistic.
Levels of intoxication
The effects of blood alcohol content can vary from person to
person, depending on weight and tolerance levels. Here are
some examples of what might happen.
• 0.02 to 0.04: Mood is intensified, slight memory and
judgement impairment
• 0.05 to 0.06: Warm, relaxing feeling, emotions and mood
become exaggerated, slight balance and speech distur
bance
• 0.07 to 0.13: Speech noticeably impaired, significant
loss of reaction time, feeling of mild depression or
nervousness, short-term memory loss, judgement is serious
ly impaired
• 0.08 to 0.10: Legal intoxication, depending on particular
state laws (In South Carolina, 0.10 is considered legally
intoxicated.)
• 0.14 to 0.17: All physical and mental abilities are
impaired, balance disturbance resulting in standing and
walking difficulty
• 0.18 to 0.30: General confusion and haziness, all cogni
tive abilities disrupted
• 0.40 and above: Alcohol-induced coma, possible death
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