"Binge drinking"

Getting blitzed. . .trashed. . .wasted. . .polluted. . .or just plain drunk: Some call it a rite of passage for youths, but there's nothing right about it. In fact, it's wrong--dead wrong, as the recent alcohol-poisoning deaths at Louisiana State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology proved.

Still, the drinking goes on. Society condones it, the media downplays it, advertising glamorizes it, retailers sell it, peers encourage it. And a long list of events, almost 200 days in all--tailgate parties, homecoming, graduation, New Year's Eve, Greek week, even something as innocuous as pay day--serve as an excuse to roll out the barrel, tap a keg, or pick up a six-pack. Put all these factors together and stir them into the impressionable heads of teenagers and you've got a recipe for mayhem--unprotected sex, rape, drunk driving, violence, injury, death.

- AMA Alliance magazine

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