It’s time to end hard-drinking tradition

David W. Kuhns Sr./Northwest Guardian

Hard drinking is an old Army tradition, but it is one we should be happy to lose.

The holiday season is a time for parties, which often means a time to enjoy alcohol. There is nothing wrong with that. But there is plenty wrong with drinking with the intent to get drunk.

There were plenty of times earlier in my life where I went over the edge. I can’t look back on any of them with any sense of pride — and many of them bring out feelings more akin to shame.

I recall one night when I was a student at the University of Oregon. A few hours of hard drinking at a club in downtown Eugene left me unable to drive home. I left my car and started to walk. I didn’t make it back to the campus. I awoke at dawn lying on the grass next to a stream. I was surrounded by ducks and geese, my clothes liberally spotted with their droppings. While Husky fans might think that image of an Oregon Duck is a funny one, to me the symbolism is anything but humorous.

Over drinking — drinking to intoxication — too often leads to tragedy. We focus on driving while intoxicated and we should — an estimated 40 percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol related. But that isn’t the limit of the problem. The Coast Guard reports that 60 percent of boating fatalities are alcohol related too. No one can even guess how many other accidental deaths are related to drinking. And then there are the injuries ... The magnitude of the problem is staggering.

The National Institutes of Health sponsored a study in 2005 that found heavy drinkers were 66 percent more likely to be spouse abusers. Heavy drinkers are also more likely to hurt themselves — suicide attempts are often associated with drinking.

Having a glass of wine, a beer, or a seasonal cocktail is fine. It’s relaxing; it’s part of our social rituals; it tastes good. But you need to leave it at that.

When your goal is to belt down as much as you can, as fast as you can, you have crossed a line. When your sipping starts shifting to chugging, you aren’t a social drinker, you are a drug abuser.

Alcohol is a poison.

In a study published in 2006, the University of New Mexico reported that 50 American college students die from alcohol poisoning every year. Young Soldiers aren’t immune to the effects of binge drinking, either. A blood alcohol level of .40 percent is usually a fatal dose. But deaths occur at lower levels. For smaller individuals — say a man or woman weighing 120 to 130 pounds — nine or 10 drinks could do the trick.

You can’t just stop drinking when you feel drunk, either.

Your body oxidizes alcohol at a rate of about one ounce — one drink — per hour. If your belly is full of drinks you already poured down, you could reach your maximum intoxication an hour or two after you stop drinking.

The next time your buddies suggest you head out to get drunk, try to get a picture in your mind of what that really means.

There is nothing glamorous, nothing manly, nothing Soldierly about drunks. They are just pathetic. And that is an image — a tradition — we can do without in any season.