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Introduction
Alcohol use among college students has been a topic of intense interest in recent years. Without question, excessive use of alcohol is associated with a wide range of deleterious outcomes among students. It is well known that heavy drinking increases the likelihood of committing a litany of crimes, including vandalism and physical assault, and non-drinkers routinely suffer the consequences of other students' irresponsible drinking (Wechsler et al., 2000).
The more a student drinks the lower their overall GPA is likely to be (White et al., 2002). More than ½ of students in one nationwide survey report having their studying or sleep disrupted by someone else's alcohol use (Wechsler et al., 1995; Wechsler et al., 2000). In addition, as in the larger population, drinking and driving is a problem on many campuses (Wechsler et al., 2003). Traffic crashes claim more lives than anything else among young adults, and alcohol is involved in a significant proportion of these crashes. In the end, alcohol kills more kids than all other drugs combined (NIAAA, 2003).
While the statistics mentioned above are stark, and clearly indicate that alcohol misuse continues to be a problem on college campuses, it is important |
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to recognize that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about college drinking floating unchallenged through the media and from alcohol researchers themselves. It is also critical to recognize that lots and lots of people profit from the pervasive use of alcohol at colleges -- people in the tourism industry (e.g., spring break trips), beverage manufacturers, advertisers, bar owners, grocery store chains, media outlets, and the list goes on. The same TV stations that draw in viewers with stories of alcohol-related tragedies on campuses make money from alcohol advertising. All of these factors make it very difficult to get to the truth, which is that alcohol use on college campuses is certainly a problem, but hardly the epidemic it is made out to be.
The purpose of this section of the site is to provide fact-based information about current issues related to college drinking. This section is still under development and new information will be added regularly. |
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