Many of you have probably known someone here at DePauw who has experienced alcohol poisoning over the first few weekends of the school year, and if you don’t know someone, you no doubt have heard about the situation. There have been at least 13 students hospitalized already and it doesn’t look like this trend is going to stop anytime soon. With all this happening, you’d think reasonable people would want to stop drinking, right?
The side effects of drinking alcohol are numerous and scary. When you drink alcohol, you lose control of yourself: mentally and physically. Alcohol causes impaired judgement and a decrease in coordination and perception. You may also experience blackouts or memory lapses. I have no doubt that everyone here has been taught about these dangers and have seen them first hand, yet the majority of the student body continues to drink (legally or not). Why?
I confess, I am bewildered. I cannot possibly comprehend why anyone would want to drink alcohol. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would anyone want to throw up, pass out, slur their words, or not be able to walk straight? Why would someone want to lose control of their decisions and actions? We all make mistakes and do stupid things sober, are people who drink not scared that drunk mistakes would be worse?
Does it not scare people to not know what they are doing? I mean, most people would be terrified to let their best friend take their phone for a night, and isn’t that essentially what’s happening when you get drunk? You don’t control what you say, what you post on social media, or what you do on your phone. When you get your phone back the next morning your friend could have started a fight with your girlfriend, posted an embarrassing picture on your Instagram that has 1,000 likes, and deleted all your photos (or worse, left you some new ones). I for one would not want that to happen to me, and alcohol takes control of something that has the potential for much more damage than a phone; you.
On top of all these relatively short-term side effects that could have lifetime consequences, there are also the long-term risks of ingesting alcohol. It affects your brain, liver, pancreas, and heart, and puts you at risk for several different types of cancer. Is this all really worth “getting turnt” and not remembering it?
Alcohol adds unnecessary risk to the lives of DePauw’s students, and people everywhere. It takes the decision-making control away from an individual, and it causes long term damage to many parts of your body. For those reasons, I think that drinking is stupid, and that there are no possible benefits that could outweigh all the negatives.
I would encourage all of you to think twice before going to “pregame” on Friday night.