AHS Views

The American Medical Association (AMA) has been placing targeted ads in college publications asking them to “Stop the Madness” with regards to taking money from the alcohol beverage industry for ads during college athletics.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) responded to the ad by saying that reports show the age of people watching events such as the NCAA basketball tournament are largely adults, and they are limited to only one commercial per hour.

Is this a true enough statement to ignore the issue, or is it simply a justification for the money these schools get in return, which can range from the thousands to the millions, for alcohol-related sponsors?

The AMA maintains that alcohol ads undermine efforts to prevent campus binge drinking and alcohol-related deaths, accidents and sexual assaults.

“Universities have finally gotten past the `bad apple’ theory — that it’s just a few students,” said Laurie Leiber, spokeswoman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group in California. “They’re trying to get away from an alcohol-saturated environment.”

The new mood comes as public awareness of binge drinking on campuses has heightened in recent years. Colleges have come under fire for largely turning a blind eye to abusive drinking on their campuses, often by underage students.

Statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health report that over 7 million young people under the age of 21 are current binge drinkers, which is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion in the past month.

In addition, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) concluded that 30 percent of Americans aged 18-20 were binge drinkers in the past month. Frequent binge drinkers were eight times more likely than non-binge drinkers to miss a class, fall behind in schoolwork, get hurt or injured, and damage property.

College campuses have been notorious for heavy alcohol consumption, and in recent years several schools made national headlines because of deaths on campus due to alcohol poisoning.

Does it really have to come to a point where kids are dying before colleges take a stand?

Article by Eric

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