It Doesn't Work

It looks like there's still plenty of people up at St. John's that believe people won't get plowed if they're reminded not to enough. I've been graduated from St. John's for four years and I can remember that when I was there they were running the "Stop at Buzzed" campaign, so it's not something new, but apparently the Star Tribune thinks that their continuing of this stupid program is newsworthy.

Let me tell you from experience, no one pays any attention to the "Stop at Buzzed" paraphernalia that gets put up all over campus. No one reads the mini-ads in the school paper. No one takes any of the sponsored events seriously (or even goes to them). College kids are going to go drink themselves into retardation no matter how much you preach not to or, if you're "hip", tell them drinking is cool but only if you do it a little.

What they need to do is think about the mentality of a college student. They're poor, over-studied, and want to have a damn good time when they go out. In college some of the biggest bar events were "all-you-can-drink" nights and all of the party houses charged a cover fee to get in and then you drank as much as you could until the kegs were empty. College students are cheap, especially the kids who barely can pay for the private school they're attending. Since they are so cheap, they want to get as much for their money as possible (duh).

So what're kids going to do when they want to get drunk and forget about the stress of the week? They're going to go where they can get their money's worth. In those environments where you've paid to drink as much as you want, what college kids is going to stop after 2 or 3 drinks? Not a damn one. They paid $10 or whatever it cost to get in and they're going to make sure they can get a nice, hefty load of alcohol in their system before the night is through.

No one is going to stop at buzzed. They're going to stop when the bar closes or when the kegs run dry. People involved in these anti-drinking campaigns are wasting their time and college resources, but it's a necessary task in order to keep parents fooled into thinking that, "Oh my little Timmy doesn't drink, but if he does he said he'd be one of those kids who stops at buzzed, like all the cool kids in that group on campus. They're pretty popular. I've seen their posters everywhere!"

Give it up. Stopping at buzzed is a joke. How about you acknowledge the reality of college and then go from there in advising your peers.