It breaks my heart when it happens–and it makes me mad, because it’s such a waste. I’m talking about college students dying of alcohol poisoning due to binge drinking sprees. Here’s the latest of these pointless alcohol deaths, the victim being a 21-year-old Minnesota State University student who was celebrating at his cousin’s 21st birthday party. His name was Peter Sand, and he was from a small town called Zumbrota.
Imagine what this student’s parents must be going through. Imagine how his cousins feels, and how his cousin will feel for the rest of his life on his birthday. And for what?
I don’t like to preach to students–but kids, please be smart! There’s a big difference between drinking for fun and drinking so much that your life is in danger. I don’t understand why people feel the need to drink so much that they get violently ill or worse. There’s a point at which more drinks aren’t going to make your night out more fun.
Here’s something you should know: the danger signs of alcohol poisoning.
- Slow or irregular breathing
- Low body temperature
- Seizures
- Blue-tinged skin or pale skin
- Vomiting
- Seizures
- Confusing or stupor
- Passing out
If you see someone who exhibits these signs, get help. Don’t worry about overreacting. It sounds like Peter Sand was exhibiting some of these behaviors before he died–and if someone had “overreacted,” they may have saved him.

August 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
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April 17th, 2009 at 10:15 am
[...] or ridicule,” and in the case of these students it can take the form of childish pranks to drinking games, of which eight percent of students say they drank to the point of passing out. It’s all a [...]
April 25th, 2009 at 1:04 am
[...] students are working to develop an advertising message which will effectively reduce the rate of binge drinking for both men and women between the ages of 18 and 24. Each of the 142 competing teams has compiled [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 8:21 am
[...] Drinking-related deaths among students age 18-24 has increased from 1,440 a year in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, according to the U.S. national Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The percentage of college students who say they have participated in binge drinking within the past month has also increased, from 42 percent to 45 percent. [...]
November 20th, 2009 at 1:03 am
[...] The first factor is how quickly you drink. If you chug your beer or take a shot of hard liquor, the alcohol will be absorbed more quickly into your bloodstream and make you feel more intoxicated more quickly. However, the opposite is also true. If you sip a strong rum drink over the course of an hour, you are much less likely to feel as buzzed as soon. You are still drinking one standard drink, but since you are spacing it out, your body has more time to absorb the liquor and you will not feel as intoxicated. [...]
January 16th, 2010 at 1:03 am
[...] Abuse Coalition to create a “Social Norming” campaign. This campaign will show students that drinking to excess is not a realistic part of the college experience and that not everyone parties every single day; [...]