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College Students and Alcohol Abuse Why?
While the answers are most likely many, the simplest answer IS that it is simple.
Abusing Alcohol is Easy. When there are so few immediate consequences for excessive drinking, when repeat offenders are not disciplined, when parents are not notified about their children's drinking activities, when students get mixed messages from the college administration about alcohol, when students have seen their parents drinking alcohol in an irresponsible manner, when students are not informed about the long-tern negative consequences of alcohol abuse, when there are few alcohol-free social and recreational activities that are attractive to students, when minors or intoxicated students are served alcoholic beverages by the local drinking establishments, and when the drinking activities in the sororities and fraternities are not monitored---drinking and excessive drinking become so very easy.
What might compel a student to drink alcohol? Without adding peer pressure or influence to the mix, when ignoring that drinking alcohol only temporarily removes a person from his or her problems, when overlooking the idea or perception that drinking alcohol makes it easier to interact with possible dating or sexual partners, when casting aside it being so tolerable to participate in activities that highlight the drinking of alcohol, when the "good feelings" or the "fun" of getting an alcohol high or buzz are not considered, and when the party atmosphere at college is no longer an expectation by students, only then does it become harder to determine what might cause college students to abuse alcohol. For all of the reasons above are factors in driving our college campuses to alcohol abuse.
It needs to begin with more than just education. While making students knowledgeable to the dangers out there, especially in regards to the prevention of drug or alcohol abuse, it is not the only answer to the struggle with these issues at our colleges.
We must employ both proactive and reactive measures. Many proactive and reactive steps have been put in place at many colleges and universities that have lessened the availability, acceptability, and irresponsibility of alcohol use on and off campus. The result is this is a noticeable if not significant decrease in alcohol related issues started by students.
What are some more of these measures? Designating immediate consequences for excessive drinking, punishing repeat alcohol abuse offenders, notifying parents about their children's drinking activities, ending the mixed messages by college administrators about lcohol (for example, removing alcohol advertisements from stadiums and from sports brochures), educating students about the long-term harmful consequences of alcohol abuse, increasing alcohol-free social and recreational activities that are considered desirable to students, having college administrators talk to the owners of local drinking establishments so that minors and/or intoxicated students are not served alcohol, and monitoring the drinking activities in the sororities and fraternities all serve to assist in decreasing the rate of college drinking.
Medical Research and Treatment Are Not Enough. I assert, however, that the above proactive and reactive measures, most of which are NOT education-based, are needed to compliment educational approaches. Why? I am enough of a realist to believe that even if medical research eventually discovers viable ways to escape addiction and if the medical community is able to offer effective treatment to all who need it, there will always be those who, for whatever reason, will choose to disregard medical warnings, ignore their health, and who will discount common sense as they involve themselves in alcohol and/or drug abuse.
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