Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Drinking Games

I had lunch yesterday with a Playground regular and had an interesting discussion about an element of college policy. Underage students are not allowed to possess alcohol, those of age are, but even those who may legally purchase and imbibe are not allowed to play drinking games. The rationale is that the games lead to unhealthy binge drinking which is the cause of a number of problems on campuses across the country including alcohol poisoning and in some cases death. The question was whether the college should be able to restrict how one drinks or what one does while drinking and not just the act of drinking itself. Does the prohibition of games keep students from learning the necessary lessons needed to control their own drinking? Is it justified on utilitarian grounds?