From the Inside Flap
College binge drinking is more of an issue than ever. In recent years the alcohol industry has stepped up its efforts to convince students, school administrators, and health officials that the problem isn't really so bad. Yet the fact is that at least two out of every five U.S. college students regularly binge drink, resulting each year in approximately fourteen hundred student deaths, a distressing number of assaults and rapes, a shameful amount of vandalism, and countless cases of academic suicide.
In Dying to Drink, Harvard researcher Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., and science writer Bernice Wuethrich take stock of the problem. Citing surprising statistics from his series of College Alcohol Studies (CAS), the most recent of which was conducted in 2001, Dr. Wechsler warns that drinking on campus is taking a bigger toll than most of us realize. And it's not just the students themselves who pay: One estimate puts the cost of underage drinking at around $53 billion a year, including $18 billion associated with traffic crashes that threaten the general public--about 57 percent of frequent binge drinkers and 40 percent of occasional binge drinkers admit getting behind the wheel after drinking. Is this a price we're willing to pay for a teenager's drunken "fun"?
Perhaps more chilling even than the cold facts and figures are the personal confessions gathered from Dr. Wechsler's survey and Wuethrich's independent interviews. A frat brother who regularly drinks until he blacks out recounts how, if not why, he does it; a non-binge drinker tells about the secondhand effects of alcohol that he's suffered at the hands of inebriated roommates; and on- and off-campus partygoers describe the sometimes dangerous conditions encountered in college environments where heavy drinking is encouraged, especially at fraternity houses, sporting events, and university bars.
But Dying to Drink doesn't just aim to scare--the authors care about solving the problem. Along with a Resources section that points readers to the best organizations to team up with, the final fourth of the book lists specific ways that we all can take action against the binge drinking menace that hobbles higher education in this country.
From the Back Cover
The fact that so many U.S. college students binge drink today indicates a failure not only of our best and brightest but also of higher education, local law enforcement, and to some extent our own attitudes. At the same time it represents booming economic success for the alcohol industry, which, like Big Tobacco, has been targeting young adults as part of its marketing master plan for years. And Big Alcohol is still on the offensive.
Underage drinking and binge drinking are not harmless rites of passage. Rather than serving as some kind of bridge to adulthood, these illicit activities exact a senseless and severe price in blood and brain cells each semester. The proof is in the firsthand student accounts of out-of-control house parties and bar blasts, the testimonies of concerned health care professionals, and the tragic news stories related in this landmark book.
Only with our beer goggles off can a concerted effort involving schools, parents, community leaders, and concerned students successfully confront the real losses caused by binge drinking on our college campuses. It's time to clear the alcohol haze.
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