Experts say alcoholism rising among young people
By CHRIS NEWKUMET
' Collegian Staff Writer
Jeff had just taken an 'important mid-term exam. He knew
he had not done well. The long hours of study and anxiety
didn't seem worth- it. To ease his depression he turned to a I
bottle' of Jack , Daniel's Bourbon Whiskey. He drank three
quarters of it.
"Nothing better than Jack," he remarked later. "If I had;
•done well I would have been up already and it would have been I
more of a celebration. I guess it was just a form of relief."
According to experts on alcohol abuse, Jeff is drinking for
the wrong reason and could be getting himself into a!
behivioral pattern that someday, if it hasn't already, could'
lead to a serious drinking problem.
Jeff is not alone. Experts say that'alcoholism, the nation's'
number three disease, is on the rise, especially among young
people.
Dr. Robert Wirag, health education director of Health
Services, says students are unconsciously developing
behavioral patterns concerning alcohol that can lead to
abuse. "An undergrad who blows a test and then goes out and
gets bombed is getting himself into a behavioral pattern
unconsciously. Later on in life as problems come, un4
consciously he escapes as he did as an undergrad."
• Wirag says the reasons people drink are very important in
Bete': mining whether they are developing a drinking problem.
"If a person ig drinking to solve a problem, this 'is abusive
drinking," he says.
Adcording to Norman Brown, director of On Drugs, Inc., a
drug counseling and treatment center in State College, the
Centre Region also is experiencing an upward trend in alcohol
abuse. •
Statistics coll6cted by On Drugs for a four-month period
.finding this September show twice the number of calls and
emergencies, potential or actual, related to alcohol this year,
compared to the same period last year. Brown says the
Bellefonte counseling service shows the same type of in
crease.
Peer program seeks
volunteer educators
• By KIM SMITH information' on eon
fr„ Collegian Staff Writer traceptives, procedures, and
o' Today is the last day to education skills.
apply for volunteer training Peer educators,will receive
in the Peer Contraceptive two hours of academic credit
Education Program (PCEP) next term for the first time,
for this year. Kinney said.
PCEP volunteers are •
trained during Winter Term, PCEP volunteers are
band commit themselves to be educators, not counselors,
peer educators for one term Kinney said. While some of
or longer, depending on their the peei educators have
qualifications, Terri Kinney, counselor training, others do
PCEP student director said. not. Peer educators can be
The training encompasses used for information bases,
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"The Centre Region is located in a rural area and rural
areas traditionally have a higher rate of alcoholism compared
with the rest, of the nation," Brown explains. "And the
University, being located in the region, adds to the spectrum
of the problem with its own characteristics, which are dif
ferent from those of rural areas."
Brown sees the characteristics of a university town - as being
conducive to abusive drinking.
State College lacks alternatives for social interaction that
do not center on or include alcohol. The noisy, crowded at
mosphere of most bars and parties in State College are not
appropriate for moderate drinking, he says. These situations
do not lend themselves to sitting and communicating with
other people. The focus is on the drinking as an end in itself and
the alternatives for people to get away from pressures are just
not present in State College, Brown says.
The college scene is an extremely transient one, according
to Brown, where many different types of people are thrown
together for a short time. The building of relationships with
other people is not easy for some students in this situation. The
lack of alternatives for social interaction that do not include
alcohol only compounds the problem, as it makes it difficult
for people to meet other people without being subjected, in
some way to alcohol.
Another contributing factor to the higher incident rate of
alcohol abuse in the area was the recent marijuana drought
along the east coast this past summer. When kids can't get
marijuana, they turn to alcohol; Brown says.
According to Wiiag, alcohol is part of the social spirit
among young people today at the University.
"To college ,students living away from home for the first
time, drinking is a symbol of social freedom. There has been a
shifting of emphasis among the youth from the use• of other
drugs as socially accepted vehicles, to alcohol, which is more
accepted by the rest of society," he says.
It's not hard to see how young people -have realized the
acceptability of alcohol over other drugs, according to
William Eck, health education professor and board member
she said, and can usually Women sometimes resent
refer persons with questions having to attend the program,
to the proper source. Kinney said, but it gives them
PCEP began in 1974 after reliable information on
the state passed a law alternate forms .of birth
allowing physicians to control:
, prescribe contraceptives for Generally, programs are
' minors without parental run by a male and a female
consent. counselor, because birth
Ritenour Health Center control is the respongibility of
received so ' many ' women both partners, not just the
requesting contraceptives, woman, Kinney said.
that gynecologists spent more The program is divided into
time ' counseling them than three parts: an explanation of
treating women with medical the doctor's examination, a
problems, Kinney said. . discussion of the pros and
The PCEP program . vitas cons of different birth control
begun so that peers with methods with a demon
reliable training could stration of their proper use,
educate each other using the and making a doctor's ap
same information that the pointment for the women who
physicians would use.. attend the program.
©1975 Arby's Inc
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bint r4l4 :A
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•
of the National Council on Alcoholism
"Think of the difference in parents' reactions if they caught
their child drinking as opposed to their reaction if they caught
him smoking marijuana. The youngster knows that his
parents would be less upset if he were caught drinking. They
might even'laugh it off.'
Wirag also credits an educational process for the shift of
preference among young people. "Young people have become
more intelligent. They don't trust the pusher anymore. They
are less likely to subject themselves to possible physical harm
from a drtig that is something other than, what they were told
it was by the pusher."
According to statistics . gathered by On Drugs, which is in
volved with drug analysis, half of the drugs sold on the street
today are not what they are supposed to be.
The availability of alcohol also is a major factor in the
trend, Eck says.
"Ellen today at Penn State with the increased surveillance
( a new, stricter policy concerning the use of alcohol in dor-
Fourth threat yields no culprit
Classes closed for bomb scare
A bomb threat to the
Human Development
Building yesterday morning
caused some classes to be
cancelled between 10 a.m. and
noon, according to University
Campus Security Officer Neil
Grey.
He . said the bomb threat
was the fourth scare in three
weeks, and in every case the
threat was for approximate'y
the same period of time.
The motive is not known at
this time, Grey said.
One , Human Development
professor of a class. which
meets every . Thursday from
10 a.m. to noon said he thinks
someone must have a grudge
against someone in the
department.
He and his students can
celled class four times this
term, he said, and his
students are becoming angry.
They have lost nearly ten per
cent of their claig time, he
added.
Signs were posted on every
entrance to the classroom
The Daily Collegian Wednesday, November 3, 1976-
mitories), alcohol is still easier and cheaper to get," Eck says.
- -Dien for students not of legal age, obtaining alcohol doesn't
seem to be a problem. Of those under-age drinkers asked, all
said that they could easily get one of their legal-aged friends to
purchase alcohol, or they could wait in front of a liquor store
or beer distributor and could easily persuade people entering
the stores to purchase alcoholic beverages for them.
The feelings that students have concerning themselves and
their futures also affects the problem.
The pressures felt by young people today, especially college
students, have contributed to the rise in the rate of abuse,
according to Lianne Scherr, State College. psychotherapist.
"The use of alcohol by college students today reflects the kind
of concern that they are feeling about their futures. In 1965 no
one worried about finding a job. The economic situation was
different. Now they have to find something. They are worried
about it. This brings on internal tensions best relieved by
alcohol."
According to Wirag, the lack of education on the effects of
alcohol is part of the problem. "We should accept the fact that
alcohol is here to stay. We should be educating our young
people to drink responsibly, if they are going to drink. People
just don't realize what alcohol can do to you."
Wirag recalled an incident this past summer when a Penn
State undergraduate guzzled a half-gallon bottle of Southern
Comfort Whiskey on a bet. He was rushed to the Mountainview
unit of Centre Community Hospital and was put on a machine
to clean the alcohol out of his blood. Ritenour Health Center
officials confjrmed that he was minutes away from death when
he reached the hospital. He was lucky; he spent only a week in
a coma. He had never thought of alcohol as a poison, Wirag
said.
Eck says that society must be made aware of alcohol as a
drug and as a problem, if the situation is to improve. Getting
people to understand alcohol and its use has been the biggest
obstacle in his work with the National Council on Alcoholism.
"We've spent 15 years just trying to convince people that
alcoholism is a disease."
building notifying persons .of
the threat and its duration,
Dean Ford of the Human
Development Department
said. It has been the option of
the students and professors
whether to have class or not.
"We take the position that
there is no Penalty for any
student who decides not to
attend class at that time,"
Ford said.
In 1969 or 1970 there were
nine or ten bomb threats a
day, according to Grey. He
said they apprehended a
female_ responsible for those
threats, and it appeared that
her motive was simply to be
disruptive.
He said he feels confident
that the University police will
apprehend someone in this
case. They have ways of
tracking down the anonymous
caller, he added.
The penalty for making a
bomb threat is five years in
prison or $lO,OOO fine, ac
cording to the Pennsylvania
Crime Code.