Bottoms up

The over-consumption of alcohol by teens is a common highlight of high school parties. This can be defined as binge drinking.
According to research conducted by The Recovery Village, 90% of teenage consumption of alcohol is done through binge drinking at parties or other social events due to the overabundance of alcohol and the thrill of a party. While binge drinking is not a daily occurrence for the average high schooler, a good amount of adolescents binge drink quite often, and the numbers only go up with every grade.

The CDC states that “people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States. More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinks, and, on average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers.”

The percentage of binge drinking in teens and young adults is high, but when taking into account overall numbers, there has been a decrease across the years.

“Occasions of heavy drinking among college students remained relatively unchanged from 2016 to 2017”, states the Foundation of Advancing Alcohol Responsibility. “However, they have decreased 24 percent proportionally since 1991 (from 43 percent to 33 percent) and decreased 18 percent over the past decade.”

Much like caffeine, the consumption of alcohol isn’t detrimental to health when used in moderation, but overconsumption has negative effects. These include, but are not limited to struggling with grades, alcohol related diseases, legal prosecution, car crashes and other physical consequences, damage to the liver, abuse of other substances for a bigger high, and even death from alcohol poisoning or other alcohol related fatalities.