Princeton Reviews Encourage Illegal and Dangerous Behavior

According to a Portland Press Herald article, the well-known Princeton Review Top Party Schools list for the 2010-2011 academic year has been released-- and this year the University of Georgia ranks in at #1. Despite increasing police force on underage drinkers since 2006, the University of Georgia is up from its #4 spot in last year’s ratings, and school officials are finding it hard to believe that they would acquire this title. The University says they take student alcohol education programs seriously, and they find it very disconcerting and surprising that their efforts aren’t presenting the results they had hoped for.

However, while many are looking at colleges to blame for underage drinking and partying, it’s surprising how little responsibility is being put on the Princeton Review itself for reporting and reinforcing the idea that the purpose of college is heavy drinking.

Why does there need to be a ranking list? Promoting where the best party schools “rage,” and where the “reefer madness” occurs, as described on Princeton’s website, is not only hurtful to the school’s reputation itself, as Georgia feels, but it is also a risky venture. Glorifying and perpetuating the idea of “party schools” as a positive thing only encourages high school kids to look for schools where drinking is heavily prevalent. College drinking puts students at risk of death, injury, assault, academic problems, and more, according to College Drinking Prevention statistics.

So, how are students or colleges truly gaining from the publication of such material? The catchy titles and popularity of the Princeton rankings actually encourage the illegal and dangerous behavior and can attract students to these colleges purely for non-academic reasons.

Creating a sense of shame associated with making it to the top party school position may further help move forward college efforts to reduce and prevent high-risk drinking, and at the same time we should always be pushing for college administrations to curb the drinking activities and tone down the party atmosphere on campuses. But maybe we should also be looking at the instiller of the problem itself—cultural expectations.

Alcohol Metabolism Testing: Harmful or Helpful?

According to a recent New York Times article, the University of California at Berkeley is giving incoming freshmen students a unique way to bond with each other before the first day of school: sending in a DNA sample to be analyzed for an individual’s ability to metabolize alcohol, lactose and folates. The school’s stated intention is to help students think critically about genetic testing, but their choice of alcohol as an “innocuous” gene test topic is questionable.

According to the schools FAQ section for students about the test:

The second gene encodes an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase. This is one of a series of enzymes involved in metabolizing (digesting) alcohol. We will test for a variant of this gene that is associated with flushing (red face) and nausea after drinking alcohol. Since most of you are below the legal age for drinking alcohol, we strongly suggest that you not drink regardless of the results of this gene test.

Despite the school’s disclaimer, giving this kind of test to first-year students, most of whom are 18 or 19 and years away from legally drinking, sends a message that drinking is expected. We’re not the only ones who think so.

There’s also the risk that someone might misunderstand the results, test negative and not think any guidelines pertain to them, therefore assuming they can drink as much as they want.

Other critics say that it is irresponsible to provide any genetic testing outside of a medical setting, because there is no chance for those receiving the results to get feedback or ask questions. Once a student learns whether or not they have a gene that makes their face flush when they have alcohol then what? Who do they go to? Even if there are, as the New York Times article states, follow up “lectures and panels with philosophers, ethicists, biologists and statisticians exploring the benefits and risks of personal genomics,” this does not take the place of individualized counseling.

Alcohol is a critical discussion topic for any freshman orientation. Presenting such a serious topic as a harmless genetics issue, lumped together with lactose and folate, is inappropriate and potentially harmful. What do you think? Should UC Berkeley use genetic testing in this way? Should genetic testing related to alcohol be a part of it?

USDA Guidelines on Alcohol Consumption

via Join Together

A USDA advisory committee has proposed new Dietary Guidelines for Americans including substantial changes about alcohol that concern many public health and addiction experts.

The real-world effect of the proposed new alcohol guidelines would likely be to encourage greater daily drinking, discourage appropriate caution about using alcohol for health benefits, and open the door for the alcohol industry to misrepresent federal alcohol consumption guidelines to consumers. ...The USDA is inviting online public comments about the proposed guidelines, but you must act very soon -- the deadline is Thursday, July 15.

...Read our blog post and Dr. Tim Naimi's excellent commentary, then follow the links to submit your comments to the USDA. We've linked to some helpful talking points from Marin Institute in the blog post.

What do you think about the USDA alcohol consumption guidelines?

“Magic drink” just an illusion

Fox News reports that a French product, Outox, is claiming to reduce reduce drunkenness and hangovers. It sounds like a miracle for over-imbibers of the legal drinking age. Could this product really work?

A study by the Institute for Legal Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria, has found that that it doesn’t. The research shows that Outox might delay absorption of alcohol by the body, but cannot change the rate at which the body processes alcohol.

In other words, any alcohol that you put in your body stays in your body—regardless of any magic drink that you might wish could help.

To safely enjoy alcohol, and prevent over-intoxication and subsequent hangovers, adults over 21 should follow these tips offered by Party Smarter:

Plan - Where are you going? Who are you going with? How are you getting home?

Prepare - Eat, drink water, and make sure you take just enough money to have a good time. Leave the credit cards at home!

Pace – Limit how much you drink in a night.

In the news: "Icing" trend

We’ve seen a few articles recently, from both Time magazine and the New York Times, about a new trend called “icing”. Essentially, it’s a drinking game that involves men (“bros”) surprising other bros by handing them an alcopop – the person then has to go down on one knee and chug the entire drink at once. If the dude already has a bottle with him, the guy originating the “icing” must drink both bottles. As the Time article mentions, if you refuse to play, you’ll lose credibility with your friends. The author of the Time article talks about this ironically, but it’s not hard to see that some people could take it seriously.

There’s been some question as to whether this is a new marketing technique by Diageo (the parent company), although they have denied it. Even if it wasn’t dreamed up by the advertising execs themselves, those who join thinking it’s all in fun end up being used to virally market a product. And there are several other issues - as 21 Reasons staffer Jen says, “…the sexism of humiliating a guy by making him drink a “girly” drink on his knees, the binging-DUI-open container aspect…”

Essentially, although it sounded like a bogus trend to us at first, it appears that the game has gained a following, and parents and those who work with teens should be aware that it promotes unhealthy drinking: the alcopop must be chugged immediately, regardless of the situation that the “ice-ee” finds himself in—and the game could require two or more drinks in a row. For an average-sized male, that could put them dangerously close to exceeding the legal driving BAC.

Not only that, but the game has ties to pop culture icons in addition to the college party scene, making it potentially more appealing to teens.

UPDATE: As of last weekend, Ad Age is reporting that the Bros Icing Bros website has been taken down, mostly likely due to a push by Diageo. Although Diageo’s statement said that the game “does not comply with our marketing code”, they didn’t mention much about the potential that the game has to increase unhealthy drinking. And while it’s great that they’re distancing themselves from this trend, it seems like they might be more concerned with copyright infringement and the fact that the game “disparages” the alcopop rather than the dangerous drinking behavior the game promotes.

Teen Party Pitfalls

Two doctors from New Hampshire are facing charges from a party they hosted for their teenage daughter.

They thought they were doing the right thing by being present at the party and making it clear that alcohol and drugs would not be tolerated. They had their daughter say this explicitly in the invitation and claim to have made several announcements during the party—which they chaperoned—that there would be no drinking or drug use.

But later in the evening, while they were playing ping pong in the basement with some of the kids, the police showed up and found a backyard strewn with beer cans.

"It's a really terrible thing. We feel really horrible. Obviously, we're responsible. We're the adults there. But we didn't procure the alcohol. We didn't condone it and we, three different times, said 'Zero tolerance,'" Boyd said.
He said his daughter is "mortified," because she was trying to do something nice for her friends. He said he and his wife have replayed events over and over in their minds and their big mistake was saying yes to the party in the first place.
Weare police said there were so many people under 21 at the party that they had to call in officers from four other towns to help.

This perfectly illustrates the need for strict supervision and adult attention to young peoples’ parties. Because, under Maine law, the parent in question could still be charged—and liable for injuries and damages if anyone gets hurt—even if they weren’t aware that kids were drinking at the party.

We have some suggestions below for hosting safe teen parties. It sounds like the NH parents followed some of these rules, but that they missed some important cues about their guests’ behavior. (More tips here).

Make it a great party by planning for everything…

• If you are expecting more than 10 teens per adult, ask for volunteer chaperones.

• Decide on a guest list. Give your teen a maximum number to invite and set an age limit for guests. Make sure to keep a copy of the guest list for your records.

• Send invitations! Have your teen inform his/her guest that the party is by invitation only.

• Set a party time, inclusive of a start and end time.

• Inform parents/guardians about the party and explain your expectations of partygoers. No alcohol!

• Have parents or responsible adults drop off and pick up teens. If teens drive to the party, plan to hold all keys to eliminate the temptation of leaving and returning to the party.

• Stay at the party. Your presence is important. Walk through the party area frequently. Have additional adult supervision on-site during the party.

• Ask all uninvited guests to leave immediately. If necessary, call the police to escort unwanted guests out.

• If you suspect a teen guest is intoxicated, contact his or her parents/guardians immediately.

• Have guests remain in the party location; do not allow teens to go back and forth to a parking lot or their car.

• Hold the party in an area you can monitor party guests from inside and outside.

• Watch for strange behavior. Pay attention if a guest frequents the bathroom after getting a drink. This could indicate the use of illegal substances or alcohol.

From Parental Guide to Hosting Responsible Teen Parties Virginia Department of ABC Education Section.

Who's saying what: one study, three articles

While a lot of what we do here at 21 Reasons involves sharing prevention resources with parents, businesses, law enforcement, and our other community partners, we also like to link to news articles, especially through our website and our Delicious links.

We’ve noticed that when a major story breaks – for instance, if new research is published – it’s common for multiple news outlets to pick up the story. Whether you’re a fan of Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC, and so on, chances are you’ll hear or read the story eventually.

But what if you’re not getting the whole story? We got a reminder recently that all news is not created equal.

The source article was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, entitled “Relationship between alcohol intake, health and social status and cardiovascular risk factors in the urban Paris-Ile-De-France Cohort: is the cardioprotective action of alcohol a myth?”

At least three major news outlets picked up the story, but they had very different takes on what the results actually meant (click for larger image):

There are more interesting differences in the three articles. First, the Telegraph article begins with a picture, whose caption reads, “Drinking modest amounts of alcohol does not necessarily make you healthier, [researchers] claim.” This is pretty much the exact opposite of what the title suggests. If you dig a little more, you’ll read that both light AND moderate drinkers are healthier – the amount of alcohol consumed in these groups is UP TO ½ a bottle of “weak” wine a day.

Compare that to the Fox News article, which clearly promotes drinking. There is no mention of several quotes by the authors that explain that there is no direct link between alcohol and health in this study. The only part that comes close is this vague sentence: “Importantly, the findings showed moderate alcohol consumption is a powerful general indicator of optimal social status, and this could be a key reason for improved health…”

Finally, we have the MSNBC article. Their subtitle clearly states that drinking doesn’t lead to better health, and the second paragraph explains in depth. This article is also the only one of the three that mentions the negative consequences of drinking.

So what’s the point? We’re not here to slam news agencies for bad reporting – none of them wrote anything that was actually false in the articles mentioned above. What is important is that we recognize that news articles might not be able to explain the whole study in one column. Maybe this means we read all the news coverage we can find about a certain study. Maybe it means we hunt down the original journal article. What we shouldn’t do, though, is start drinking three mixed drinks a day because a news headline mentioned that vodka can get rid of wrinkles … you get the idea.