alcohol education: Students prepared

I remember getting off the Buff Bus and seeing ambulances parked outside in the driveway, carting a drunken kid away to the hospital. It was only 4 o'clock in the afternoon. As the night went on, the ambulances kept on coming. The sirens wailed on through the night. I must have heard about 20 different incidents from my dorm room. Every day was the same for the first week-and-a-half of school. Students were partying their lives away, excited to be away from their parents for the first time. The beginning of my sophomore year was no different; the incoming students went wild just like the year before.

This is a universal problem with first-year college students. I just happened to experience at the University of Colorado. There was such a large group of kids so focused on drugs, drinking and partying -- and it wasn't just partying, it was getting so inebriated that they had no idea what they were doing to their bodies or what they were ingesting.
College, and the freedom that comes with it, can be a pretty overwhelming experience. I believe that there should be a mandatory course taken during the first semester of freshman year to help prepare kids and help them to make more informed decisions on drugs, alcohol and partying.
It scares me to know that so many uneducated kids are fixated on drinking and taking drugs until they black out. By uneducated kids, I don't mean that in a general sense -- they are obviously in college and have made it through high school. Some kids have come from high schools where health class, or some sort of alcohol/drug/sex class, isn't very important to their overall education. Some schools might feel that by teaching students about drinking and drugs that they are advocating it. I believe that no matter what, young adults should be educated about the drugs that are out there so that they can make an educated decision before ingesting everything and anything they can get their hands on.
This semester, I am currently enrolled in a class called Drugs in U.S. Society (SOCY-2034). It is a non-bias, non-judgmental, strictly educational course that focuses on the basics of drugs (side effects and chemical make-up), and examines the sociological reasons behind why some people choose to use drugs, and what kinds of experiences and problems arise from the drug use in our society.
I believe that this course should be part of the necessary curriculum at CU-Boulder, like writing and rhetoric.
Not only is it an interesting and engaging course, but it helps kids understand drug use and what is and isn't safe for them.

Source : http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2009/apr/29/cu-needs-more-drug-alcohol-education/