At the risk of sounding a killjoy, I totally support a suggestion by the UK’s accident and emergency doctors who want to end boozy Happy Hours for student freshers’ weeks which kicks off shortly.
The alcohol consumption levels are worse for students who want to join a university sports team and find themselves virtually forced to participate in humiliating initiation rituals. I also hope those Facebook pics of what these inebriated teams do on their uni sports trips abroad do not get discovered by future employers. I was a worried mum, and justifiably I think, when my eldest son headed for Spain on such a trip.
During a recent university open day, my younger son was given a guided tour of the area by one of its student. This included being told which pubs served beer at £1 a pint as they would be getting hammered their first week there. He made it sound like he was doing them a favour by sharing this information. And by way of offering reassurance, he added, “Don’t worry, two final year students will be there to make sure nobody is left lying face down on the pavement all night.” I suppose that does demonstrate some measure of concern, acknowledging the inevitability of what will happen.
I’m not against students going out drinking and having fun. But to deliberately drink to excess with the aim of getting as plastered as possible, and to do so night after night, is dangerous and stupid. I think universities, police, publicans and emergency doctors should get together and deal with this responsibly. Unfortunately for some freshers, it can prove fatal.
I personally don’t see what anyone can do Ellee.. But I do totally agree that they should not be virtually forced to participate in humiliating initiation rituals. The publicans should not be allowed to sell beer at £1 a pint but then they have to make the money, or shut down . Yes you are right everyone should work together . It is just the same in the Forces.. they join up, they meet for drinks and it goes on , .. only those who stay in do not participate, and those who go out learn the hard way unless they are in control of themselves.
Anne, with students there is a lot of peer pressure to get legless. If the Happy Hour was scrapped, it would make a huge difference to the volumes of alcohol which was drunk.
I certainly did similar things at that age, although I learned quickly that overindulgence to the point of, um, becoming “unwell” was just as disgusting to do as it was to watch. It didn’t stop me, though, from drinking quite a bit on a regular basis — and, most frightening of all to my now-well middle-aged self, sometimes getting behind the wheel after a night out to drive home. “Putting the car on automatic pilot,” I called it. I wasn’t entirely stupid; I would generally give myself some (probably inadequate) time to sober up before venturing onto the roadways and I chose roadways with low speed limits and lots of red lights, just to make sure I’d stay awake and as alert as possible. And, on cold nights, with the windows down, I managed to keep alert. I’d sing along with the radio.
Just writing this makes me cringe at the recollection — especially now with five kids, three of whom are of legal drinking age (21 now in the States — which causes its own set of problems, believe me) with a fourth to reach her 21st birthday next week.
I’m positive my kids don’t drink and drive like I did at their age: Our laws are extremely harsh, even Draconian, even where no one has been harmed. I’ve pointed out to my children, more times than I care to recall, that I didn’t make these changes (although a lot of people who were out drinking with me did). I’m not the hypocrite here. My point to my kids was that the rules changed and they must adapt and conform or suffer truly onerous consequences. But, even though I think my kids are pretty level-headed in these matters, I worry constantly.
I completely agree that kids should not be pressured to drink excessively — as in fraternity initiations, for example. That way lies alcohol poisoning and, sometimes, even death. But, with that stipulation, kids should be able to experiment and learn for themselves. (One of the things that putting the drinking age up to 21 in the States has done is to force college kids off campus for these rites of passage. It was 18 in many states — 19 in Illinois for beer and wine — when I was a lad. College kids could walk home. It was, in part, a reaction to high school kids drinking in nearby Wisconsin on phony IDs and getting killed on the way home that helped fuel the push to a higher drinking age. I remember when the law was passed here; one legislator said the law wasn’t aged at college kids, who would, he was sure, drink anyway, but at these high school kids. Hypocrisy right from the start — and, in the following 30 years, there’ve been too many in law enforcement who weren’t in on the gag. Thus, the scary phenomenon of college kids driving off campus to drink. If that’s not something you have to worry about, you should be grateful.)
Ellee I do understand but it is not just with students or universities, it is rife throughout the UK. We have a massive drink problem in this country. Also even if there was no Happy Hour, there is always the supermarkets .. cheap cheap booze!!! Not a good situation to be in. How do you think it can be approached.. either way someone will find the money to buy the booze.