Alcohol on College Campus

A growing number of students on college campuses are taking their life in their own hands each time they consume large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time. This popular method of drinking, called binge drinking, is a social stigma passed down from past generations. Students consider binge drinking a recreational way of life that is reninforced with alcoholic berverage "hangouts" located near college campuses. The fraternity and sorority houses are known for their wild parties. The peer-pressured initiations of thise elite groups of students are binge drinking oriented. Students do not realize the fun they perceive to have during these binge drinking bashes lead to alcohol dependency, serious health problems and ultimately death. For these reasons, college campuses should work towards an lcohol-free campus.

Students attend college to learn, however, the mental capacity and the ability to learn is inhibited with excessive drinking. High doses of alcohol damage the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex areas of the brain which are still developing in college-aged students. The hippocampus is the area of the brain used for learning and memory. In one study, "Dr. Michael De Bellis at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brains of 14-21-year-olds who abused alcohol to the brains of those who did not. The longer a person had had a drining problem, the smaller his hippocampus - by about ten percent." For decades scientists believed that the number of new nerve cells in the brain are generated in adulthood. The stdies show that high doses of alcohol lead to disruption in the growth of new brain cells.

When college students get drunk, their ability to make sound judgments is diminished. Alcohol acts as a sedative to the central nervous system. By depressing the control centers of the brain it reduces your inhibitions. It affects the thoughts, emotions, and sound judgments of a person. A person becomes invincible in their own eyes. They tend to act impulsively. This impulsiveness can lead to grave consequences as an unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Eventually, the effects of drinking spill over into the classroom attendance. Hangovers and the inability to stay focused on school work causes attendance and academic performance to deteriorate. The risk of dropping out of school all together is high.

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