SDSU fails field sobriety test
As a freshman, I’m painfully aware of the pressures on students to drink without moderation. One of the first questions I was asked when I moved into the residence halls of San Diego State was, “Do you drink?”
It seems like every weekend, beginning on Thursday, the whole student body sets out to get as drunk as possible either at parties, before parties or both. Plus, our close proximity to Mexico provides a convenient way for underage club-hoppers to sidestep the law and get wasted.
After I picked up a copy of The Daily Aztec’s Restaurant and Bar Guide on Oct. 6, I was astonished. The front page article, “How to build the perfect sports bar,” was something I never expected to see featured in a college newspaper. There was even an off-the-cuff reference to underage drinking in a Tempo column titled, “Sports do not hit the spot.”
In the City section, however, there was an article regarding the 156 arrests police made for mostly alcohol-related crimes (“Police make 156 arrests in crackdown,” Oct. 6). Coincidence? I think not.
I might be tempted to join in the debauchery if it weren’t for the post-binge displays I see: Vomit in the elevator and the stagger-walk, assuming the person isn’t so smashed they can’t walk at all without the support of two, relatively sober friends.
Once, while working as a security monitor at my residence hall’s front desk, I held the door open for the paramedics as they wheeled out a resident suffering from alcohol poisoning. The poor girl was clearly in pain; she was crying, coughing and spitting - it wasn’t pretty or pleasant. Motivation not to drink-check.
Getting drunk regularly is a symptom of ignorance. There’s no justifiable reason to do it, but there are a plethora of reasons not to. Over-consumpption of alcohol causes enormous damage to your body, including your heart and liver, and can cause blood clots, according to Newsweek magazine. Alcohol affects all parts of the brain, thus impacting the heart rate, motor coordination and speech, as well as destroying brain cells. This means the use of alcohol could effect your grade point average and, if you’re an athlete, your game.
Alcohol can encourage aggression by disrupting normal brain mechanisms that restrain impulsive behavior, according to www.madd.org, which means you’re more likely to get in a fight and get hurt. In addition, alcohol intoxication affects young people more than adults and makes an impact on our ability to learn, remember, plan and make complex judgments, which is what college is all about. These are basic skills for the rest of our lives.
Drinking patterns in the United States suggest almost all young people use alcohol before turning 21, and that those who do tend to drink much more heavily than adults, according to the Institute of Medicine. More than two-fifths of all college students are binge drinkers, according to www.madd.org/stats.
I’m no stranger to the drinking trends on campus, but I’m amazed and disgusted at SDSU’s endorsement of it.
Our supposed academic institution, where more than one-third of the attendees are not of legal drinking age, according to SDSU Analytic Studies and Institutional Research, proudly boasts Louie’s pub in Aztec Center. I’ve been handed flyers for discount drinks at local bars while walking from class to class, not to mention the The Daily Aztec’s past Restaurant and Bar Guide. All imply that drinking - underage or not - is a pastime for all. Consumption is a vast marketing scheme for businesses to get customers, and SDSU willingly sacrifices its students on the altar of economy, in the quest for the almighty dollar.
College students smoke a lot, too. I wonder if SDSU would allow cigarette companies to pursue its students this fiercely. Maybe, if the dollar amount was substantial enough, but I doubt it, since smoking is such a hot-button issue, the resulting public outcry would damage our fine institution’s reputation. Drinking, however, is permitted without a peep of protest.
Contrary to popular belief, drinking alcohol illegally is not a sign of maturity; it’s quite the opposite. It showcases lack of self-control. When you look at the facts and make the decision not to pollute your body with toxins - and have the determination to stand up for your convictions - that is what makes you an adult.
Read the original article online here.
