Binge Drinking

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh just one more ____ can’t hurt?” How many of us have been guilty of this statement? This can be with anything, nothing in particular. But then take a step back to when you said this to yourself and that ‘just one more’ turned into 3-5 more than what we had planned?

In this case “Oh just one more drink can’t hurt”, is a statement that is said a little too often. More than not, that one more drink will turn into 3 or 5 more. Let us first ask ourselves, how many/much have you already consumed tonight?

Binge drinking is a problem that not a lot of people give credit to or think that it even happens that often. But let me reassure you with a few stats that the Center for Disease Control has come out with; More than 38 million US adults binge drink (that is not including all the underage drinkers), Binge Drinkers do so about 4 times a month, and the largest number of drinks per binge is on average about 8. Drinking too much, binging, causes about 80,000 deaths in the United States each year and recently accumulated, costed the economy about $223.5 billion.

Binge Drinking means that men have 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time and for women 4 or more.  You may then look at all the stats and say that this doesn’t apply to you or it is not within my age group but the age group with the most binge drinkers are 18-34-year old’s. That is us, the students of Salt Lake Community College. So when you go to that party tomorrow or next weekend, know your limit and think before you drink.

-By Brittany Parry