Teen drinkers play to lose with booze

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

Only two red plastic cups are left standing on this late night in October, one at each end of the long kitchen table. Nathan, a senior, dips a ping-pong ball into the cup of water to his right as his opponents throw out drunken insults and the crowd of teenagers around the table eggs him on. As he draws up the ball and closes one eye to aim, the pressure is on.

Nathan is playing "beer pong," an intense and popular drinking game designed to make the losing team - and often the winning team - become highly intoxicated. Beer pong is one of many drinking games that offer high-school students like Nathan a competitive atmosphere while also fostering excessive alcohol consumption.

It is a common misconception that most drinking games occur during the college years. In fact, a study by Paul Douglas, professor of English at Towson State University, suggests that drinking games may be more prevalent with high-school students than with college students. Douglas's study shows that 58 percent of high-school students play drinking games more than once a month, and this trend does not differ much within Blair. According to an informal Silver Chips survey of 100 Blair students taken on Oct. 19, 55 percent of Blazers play drinking games at least once a month. Nathan admits that he often plays more than once a week.

While these statistics are "somewhat alarming" to David Hanson, a professor emeritus at the State University College of New York at Potsdam and an alcohol researcher for over thirty years, he says that they are reflective of the growing culture of underage drinking in today's society. According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), alcohol is the number-one drug of choice among adolescents, with 29 percent of youth ages 12 through 20 considering themselves "users" of alcohol and 20 percent considering themselves "binge drinkers."

Though teen drinking may seem less harmful as a game, drinking games can actually be more dangerous than drinking without a game, says Hanson. Students like Nathan may understand some of the risks they face by participating in drinking games, but in the end, they choose to play.

Why games?

With a swift flick of his wrist, Nathan sends his ping-pong ball soaring through the air. It splashes precisely into his opponents' beer-filled cup. As the crowd of slightly intoxicated teenagers erupts in cheers for Nathan and his teammate, a grin spreads across Nathan's face, and he accepts hugs and handshakes from friends with pride. But the moment of glory can only last for so long: It's time to set up for the next game.

Nathan says he "loves" games like beer pong because of the accepting atmosphere they create. "When you play drinking games, everything is really fun and chill," says Nathan. "It's way easier to meet new people and get along in general if you're playing a game than if you're just sitting in the corner sipping a brew."

Many drinking games fulfill the short-sighted desires of teens for entertainment, competition and a "momentary sense of belonging," according to Hanson. Some games are based on luck, using cards or dice, while others require some physical skill, like beer pong and flip-cup. And then there are games like beer-bonging, in which beer is poured into a funnel directed at the mouth. Beer-bonging serves its players one sole purpose: to get drunk.

Chug, chug, chug!

While becoming intoxicated appeals to many students like Suzie, a junior who "just like[s] to get crunk," many dangers exist in the kind of drinking that games encourage, says Hanson.

Drinking games create the competitive atmosphere that causes teens to binge drink, or to drink excessively in a short period of time. "The problem with drinking games is they virtually force people to drink too much, too quickly," says Hanson.

Suzie's clearest memory of binge drinking is of the party where she first played beer pong. "[My friend] and I won our first two rounds of pong the first time I ever played. We should have gone on to the third round, but I was way too wasted by then to even throw the ball in the right direction," she says. "Plus, I was laughing and dancing all over the place, kind of making a fool of myself."

Teens like Suzie, who binge drink in games, suffer from poor judgment, which often leads to drunk driving, sexual assault, violence and vandalism, according to the NIAAA.

Binge drinking can also lead to vomiting and alcohol poisoning. According to the Research and Development Health Corporation, drinking games are closely associated with, and contribute to, increasing rates of underage alcohol poisoning.

Nathan has gotten sick and passed out from bingeing in drinking games more than once. He remembers one night when he played a long game of quarters, in which players bounce a quarter into a shot glass of hard liquor and, if successful, choose someone in the circle to drink. After the game, Nathan threw up intermittently for about 20 minutes until he passed out at his friend's house for the next two hours.

Frequent, excessive drinking starting at a young age makes "developing an addiction to alcohol at some point in life very likely," says Hanson. Severe damage can also be done to the body, including the heart and the brain.

Teens understand some of the risks they face by participating in drinking games, says Suzie, but they don't care enough to stop playing.

Nathan is at the end of his third round. His eyesight is slightly blurred by now, and he holds on to the edge of the table to steady himself while one of his opponents readies to take his shot. In mid-aim, he suddenly drops his ping-pong ball and runs over to the open back door, leans his head out and vomits. He wipes his mouth with a paper towel someone throws to him and shakily makes his way back to the table. The game goes on.