I always knew the change from our ‘dry campus’ to, well, any English campus would be interesting. While St. Olaf may know how to have fun one day of the year with Lutefest, Lancaster University knows how to party with Extravs. Short for Extravaganza, each college (groupings of residence areas) throws a number of all-day, usually fancy-dress (http://www.hercampus.com/school/stolaf/ole-abroad-lucy-fancy-dress) outdoor parties. And these parties fill up one whole week at the end of exams. Also, if I haven’t already mentioned this, each college has its own pub, and there are nine colleges on campus. That’s right, there are are nine pubs on my campus alone – for at least 15 more you can head into town.
It’s also perfectly normal for clubs or sports teams of all sorts to meet for drinks in on-campus pubs during the day. I really do mean any club, from the Rugby team to the Christian Union. Even professors regularly head in for a pint after classes. In one memorable lecture I attended, the guest speaker invited the whole class to join her for a round (and further discussion) in the nearest pub once she was done.
Clearly, drinking is a large part of the culture in England. In comparison to the U.S., the lower drinking age of 18, to legally purchase or drink alcohol, certainly makes a big difference. While in Minnesota or anywhere else in America, you are “only” 18, “only” 19, or “only” 20, in England you’re 18! You’re 19! You’re 20! Then when in the U.S., you’re finally 21(!), in England big-whoop; the British have three years on you.
If you’re American and unlucky enough to turn 21 while in England, you will experience a letdown. I’m “only” 19 but since January at least five of my new friends have turned 21. As one friend who most recently celebrated her twenty-first said: had she been back home in America, she would have gotten excited to go out to a bar and legally order a drink. Instead, she didn’t even feel like bothering – it didn’t sound as fun to go and order that drink when a group of 18 year-olds would likely be sitting at the bar right next to her.
The real question here turns out to be the same one debated over since 1984, when the U.S. government raised the drinking age to 21. Can those 18 year-olds English kids at the bar handle their alcohol as well as my 21 year-old American friend? With this freedom, are they less likely to binge drink? Less likely to engage in drunk driving, or “drink driving” as they call it in England? If you are free to start drinking at an earlier age, are you more or less likely to become dependent on or develop an addiction to alcohol? From what I’ve seen so far at Lancaster, alcohol causes just as many problems, if not more, than on our Malt-O-Meal scented Hill.
However, it is certainly unfair to judge by observation alone. Let’s turn to some official data.
According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( http://www.cdc.gov/ ) 11% of all alcohol consumed in the U.S. is by people aged 12 to 20 years old. Of that 11%, more than 90% is consumed in the form of binge drinking – the most excessive and dangerous way to down alcohol. In addition, in 2008 there were 190,000 emergency room visits from people under-21 for injuries and other conditions due to alcohol consumption.
While statistics for under-age drinking is understandably vacant from UK websites, as reported by the UK’s Drinkaware http://www.drinkaware.co.uk , alcohol is responsible for at least 33,000 deaths in the UK each year and more than one in 25 adults are dependent on alcohol. Almost one third of men (31%) and one in five women (20%) drink more than the advised weekly limits of alcohol. Furthermore, 40% of all patients admitted to A&E (Accident and Emergency departments) suffer from alcohol-related injuries or illnesses, many of which result from binge drinking. In addition, the UK has one of the highest binge drinking rates in Europe.
While perhaps fewer English teens drive cars than American teens – due to the UK’s more efficient and widespread public transportation system – drunk driving in American and ‘drink driving’ in the UK have equally frightening statistics. (Noteworthy is that the U.S. and UK share the same legal limit for BAC (Blood Alcohol Content): .08 in the U.S. and .08 in the U.K.) As noted by Drinkaware, in the UK 8,620 road accidents in 2008 were caused by drink driving. As a result, 2,020 people in those accidents were killed or seriously injured. Drinkaware also states that 6% of car crashes and 17% of all deaths on the road occur when someone has been drinking over the legal limit. In comparison, figures from http://www.centurycouncil.org/ state that in the 2009 in the U.S., 32% of all traffic deaths were caused by drunk drivers. Thus every 50 minutes in the U.S. someone was killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash.
All in all, my point with these sobering (truly) statistics is just to show that in the end, alcohol causes problems no matter what continent it is consumed on or how old its consumers may be. While there is nothing wrong with having a pint – I even recommend it if you ever visit a real English pub – remember above all to think before you drink. And balance your one pint out with some fish and chips and mushy peas.
*Lucy Casale ’13 is studying at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England for second semester.