Spring Break
You should not drink responsibly, CSU students
Mason Tvert
Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Opinion
April is National Alcohol Awareness Month and is a perfect time for CSU to stop teaching students to "drink responsibly."
You heard me right -- I said CSU should stop encouraging students to drink responsibly. Instead, they should start encouraging them to "party responsibly," even if that means using marijuana instead.Â
After all, there is no logical reason why CSU or any other university should prefer its students use a potentially lethal drug that contributes to unintentional injuries and violent behavior instead of one that has never killed a person in history and is not associated with such problems.
As you are likely aware -- or will surely be made aware of this "Awareness Month" -- alcohol use by college students has reached what many experts consider epidemic levels. It is more widespread, more frequent and being done to a greater degree than at any point in history.
Last year it contributed to about 1,700 student deaths, 600,000 student injuries, 695,000 assaults involving students and 97,000 sexual assaults and date rapes involving students.
In fact, studies have found that alcohol is involved in more than 90 percent of student assaults and three out of every four incidents of sexual abuse.
The use of marijuana, on the other hand, has never been found to contribute to violent crimes, aggressive behavior or serious injuries.
Moreover, there has never been a marijuana overdose death in history, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported zero deaths attributable to marijuana use last year (and the year before, and the year before, etc.).
Suffice it to say, the most severe consequences associated with pot are the penalties for using it, including criminal charges, fines, loss of student financial aid and suspension or expulsion from school.
Although there is a consensus among policymakers that a "culture of alcohol" on campus is to blame, virtually all of them maintain laws and campus policies that fuel that culture by steering people toward drinking with harsher punishments for marijuana.
You heard me right -- I said CSU should stop encouraging students to drink responsibly. Instead, they should start encouraging them to "party responsibly," even if that means using marijuana instead.Â
After all, there is no logical reason why CSU or any other university should prefer its students use a potentially lethal drug that contributes to unintentional injuries and violent behavior instead of one that has never killed a person in history and is not associated with such problems.
As you are likely aware -- or will surely be made aware of this "Awareness Month" -- alcohol use by college students has reached what many experts consider epidemic levels. It is more widespread, more frequent and being done to a greater degree than at any point in history.
Last year it contributed to about 1,700 student deaths, 600,000 student injuries, 695,000 assaults involving students and 97,000 sexual assaults and date rapes involving students.
In fact, studies have found that alcohol is involved in more than 90 percent of student assaults and three out of every four incidents of sexual abuse.
The use of marijuana, on the other hand, has never been found to contribute to violent crimes, aggressive behavior or serious injuries.
Moreover, there has never been a marijuana overdose death in history, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported zero deaths attributable to marijuana use last year (and the year before, and the year before, etc.).
Suffice it to say, the most severe consequences associated with pot are the penalties for using it, including criminal charges, fines, loss of student financial aid and suspension or expulsion from school.
Although there is a consensus among policymakers that a "culture of alcohol" on campus is to blame, virtually all of them maintain laws and campus policies that fuel that culture by steering people toward drinking with harsher punishments for marijuana.
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jimmy
posted 4/06/09 @ 8:07 AM MST
Well said!
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