Binge Drinking Saturates College Life, Study Says

Nearly half the college students in America are binge drinkers who cause an array of “secondhand” problems on campus ranging from vandalism to rape to fatal accidents, says an extensive new study published today.

The findings, culled from a survey of 17,592 students nationwide, present a picture of U.S. college campuses awash in beer, where a projected 3 million students go on drinking sprees even though most are too young to drink legally. On some campuses, the rate of binge drinking soared to 70% of the student body, and fraternities and sororities had still higher rates.

At a press conference on the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., researcher Henry Wechsler said 50% of male students and 39% of female students are binge drinkers.

Researchers defined “binge” drinking as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more drinks for women. Wechsler said the lower figure was adopted for women because other studies indicate that women experience the same effects of alcohol at lower levels than men.