Sunday, May 17, 2009
'Under 21' encourages discussion of campus drinking
From the newsroom
Carole Tarrant, editor
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Lowering the drinking age below 21 -- it's a third-rail kind of proposal, one so politically charged that no one dare go near it.
But is it?
In the past year, a growing number of university and college presidents, disturbed by the prevalence of binge drinking on campus, have signed the Amethyst Initiative. In doing so, they say, they are not expressing outright support for a drinking age lowered to 18. Instead, as Greg Esposito reports today in our front-page story, they signed the public statement because they want to open a dialogue about underage alcohol abuse and our tools to combat it.
At The Roanoke Times, we are launching a series today, "Under 21," with similar goals. We are neither for nor against a lowered drinking age. However, we feel the issue extends beyond campus boundaries and into the Southwest Virginia communities where college students reside and socialize.
When alcohol abuse gets out of control, it often is not contained on the university grounds. Local police respond. ER staff provide treatment at the nearest hospital. Neighbors clean up the bottles, cans and property damage.
Our region is home to more than 50,000 college students, many at schools with established and even admired rituals that involve drinking.
Given that number, it's a wonder this paper hasn't recently reported a binge drinking death like that suffered by Jason Wren, a University of Kansas student. His vomit-soaked body was discovered by paramedics March 7 in his KU fraternity house.
According to The University Daily Kansan, Wren's death came after a Saturday night of drinking pitchers of margaritas -- acquired using a fake ID. Wren then reportedly drank more than 10 beers, Franzia wine and a long swig of whiskey.
When he passed out in the fraternity house, his friends carried him to bed. "But he woke back up and started to drink again," the paper reported.
Student witnesses told the Daily Kansan that "no one called for help that night because no one thought Jason showed any signs of alcohol poisoning."
Backers of the Amethyst Initiative say alcohol education -- which includes knowing those troubling signs -- must be part of any responsible discussion about the drinking age.
In our upcoming reports, we intend to examine the many approaches to alcohol education at colleges and universities across Virginia. We also aim to describe the ground-level realities of the college drinking scene, one built around Thursday night bar-hopping, Saturday afternoon tailgating and 21st birthday blowouts.
Where do you stand on the issue? I encourage you to go to our message board on roanoke.com to weigh in. Join the discussion, today or later as we explore the issue in monthly installments.
And let's hope we don't ever find ourselves living the "coulda, woulda, shoulda" tragedy experienced at KU this spring.
