Preventing Hazing at Harvard crimson shield

 

Role of Alcohol and Other Drugs

Alcohol and other drugs create many problems when used during recruitment or new member activities. First of all, forcing or pressuring recruits, new members, or new officers to drink or take drugs is a form of hazing in itself. Secondly, alcohol and/or other drug consumption facilitates the use of unacceptable, and often severe hazing practices. Alcohol and other drug consumption can embolden persons who are hazing and put those being hazed in extreme danger.

Alcohol and Hazing

There are two contexts through which alcohol plays a role in hazing1-2:

Indirect: When members or recruits of an organization feel pressured to consume alcohol or when they model their drinking behaviors to match that of persons whom they admire or seek to impress (e.g. alcohol is served at an athletic recruitment event, and high school recruits feel compelled to drink to gain acceptance by their teammates). It is important to note that one experimental study suggests that peer pressure is “the most consistent and potent predictor of the frequency and consumption of alcohol” among first-year students3

Direct: When new members of an organization are forced to consume alcohol or are threatened with punishments for not drinking (e.g. new members are locked in a basement and told to finish a handle of vodka before they are set free).

Obvious dangers from Alcohol and Drugs

Alcohol poisoning is something you may have heard of but perhaps have never seen or experienced. Alcohol is a type of depressant that slows functioning of some bodily processes such as breathing, the gag reflex, or the normal operation of vital organs. Alcohol poisoning occurs when someone consumes so much alcohol (akin to an overdose) that his or her heart and lungs can slow down or even stop functioning. The amount that causes poisoning is different for each person. However, the important thing to remember is that alcohol is an extremely powerful drug, and alcohol consumption can be extremely hazardous if not moderated.4-6 

Symptoms of alcohol poisoning

  1. Person is known to have consumed large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time.
  2. Person is unconscious and cannot be woken.
  3. Person has cold, clammy, unusually pale or bluish skin.
  4. Person is breathing slowly or irregularly.
  5. Person vomits while passed out.

Drug Impairment. Severe impairment from drug ingestion, including overdoses can present in a variety of ways, depending on the kind of drug taken. As with alcohol, the amount of a drug that causes severe impairment is different for each person. For a list of commonly abused drugs, their intoxication effects, and potential health consequences, see: http://www.drugabuse.gov/DrugPages/DrugsofAbuse.html.

Overdose Potential for Certain Drugs5

  1. Belladonna hallucinogens (atropine and scopolamine) can be lethal in the usual amounts people ingest for intoxication; PCP can also be lethal at high doses, causing seizures, coma, or a psychosis-like state that can last for some days.
  2. Opitate overdose can be lethal when breathing slows to the point that it ceases.
  3. Sedatives, such as benzodiazepines, can be lethal when combined with other depressants, including alcohol.
  4. Overdose potential with stimulants is high, and can lead to seizures, sudden cardiac death, stroke, or failure of breathing.
What to do in case of suspected alcohol poisoning or drug overdose
Call HUPD (617-495-1212) or 911 (9-911 from a campus phone).
Bring the person to Harvard University Health Services (HUHS).
Do not leave the person alone.
Do not let the person sleep on their back.
Do not try to get the person to eat.

Group activities that involve direct or indirect pressure to drink or use drugs can increase the risks of alcohol poisoning, drug overdose, or severe intoxication. For instance, most of the time when you are drinking, you are aware of the amount of alcohol your own body can typically handle. So, you can set a limit for what you intend to drink and keep track of the number of drinks you consume. In fact, 86% of Harvard students keep track of how many drinks they consume in a night, according to the 2006 National College Health Assessment (N=2,770)7. Although you may know your own limit and try not to exceed it, others who force or pressure you to drink may not.

Organized drinking or drug use activities often do not account for the fact that alcohol and drugs impact different individuals at different rates and with varying degrees of severity, depending upon several factors, such as body type, gender, mood, heredity, and prior food consumption.5 Thus, coercion or encouragement may push a person past his/her limit and lead to emergencies or even death.

Injuries. Alcohol and other drugs negatively affect physical coordination. Routine tasks, such as walking down stairs, can become dangerous if someone is impaired by alcohol and/or other drugs. When impairment is combined with strenuous or hazardous activities, and impaired judgment (see “risk taking” below), the dangers may grow exponentially. Alcohol-related injuries, in particular, are very common:

  • In 2001, 1 out of 10 college students (that’s 599,000 students across the US!) had an injury due to their own drinking.8
  • At Harvard, 11.7% of students injured themselves as a consequence of their own drinking, based upon the 2006 National College Health Assessment.7
  • A 1998 study conducted among a major conference of national fraternities reveals that alcohol played a role in 95% of falls from high places and 87% of automobile accidents among fraternity members. Furthermore, alcohol use was present during 80% of injuries causing paralysis and nearly 90% of deaths.9

Additionally, alcohol dulls the nervous system so that injuries and other hazards are difficult to detect. As an example, alcohol reduces sensitivity to heat or cold while simultaneously making the human body more susceptible to temperature-related injuries. As a result, an intoxicated student might easily suffer from hypothermia without even being aware.

Unexpected, Hidden, or Subtle Harms

Aside from the immediate physical danger that alcohol and/or other drug consumption can create, alcohol and other drugs can put group members or teammates at risk in other ways that are easy to overlook:

You cannot predict how someone will respond to alcohol or other drugs. Hazing can carry the risk of hidden harms – and activities that include alcohol or drugs are no exception. Officers and organizers of hazing activities might be unaware of aspects of a recruit’s or new member’s background or personal goals. They may not know the role alcohol or other drugs have played in that person’s life. Alcoholism or drug addiction might run in his or her family and may have led to prior incidents of abuse. Introducing alcohol or other drugs by encouraging consumption may open old wounds or create new ones for such students.

Risk-Taking. When there is a rapid accumulation of alcohol or other drugs in the brain, some of our abilities to think clearly or make informed decisions may be challenged.5 Thus, when intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, the members and officers who are organizing and leading hazing activities may not realize the risks for those who are being hazed.

Alcohol or other drug consumption also compromises the judgment of new or potential members, who may agree to participate in an activity that they might normally avoid.

Regrettable Actions. By impairing judgment and by reducing inhibitions, alcohol and other drugs have a way of leading people to take actions they later regret.10 In fact, nearly 31% of Harvard students who drink reported that they did something that they later regretted after drinking alcohol, according to the 2006 National College Health Assessment.7

In the context of hazing, when those who haze are drunk or otherwise impaired, they may do things to others that they later regret. Alcohol and/or other drugs may make it seem like certain hazing activities are not dangerous, when in fact, they can lead to disaster. Those who haze may later feel guilt or remorse for the ways that they treated others.10

Potential Liability

The drinking age in the state of Massachusetts is 21. Many recruits and new members of an organization are under the legal drinking age, so providing alcohol at activities is against the law, regardless of the whether students are pressured or coerced to drink.

It is also illegal, under both state and federal law, to manufacture, distribute or possess a variety of controlled substances, and very significant criminal penalties apply to this behavior. These laws and penalties are summarized in other materials provided by the College, but you should be aware, for example, that under federal law, conviction for distribution of a controlled substance to persons under 21, or distribution or possession with intent to distribute in or near a college carries with it a mandatory prison term (with mandatory life imprisonment for a third conviction). Federal law also provides for greatly heightened prison sentences for manufacture and distribution of certain drugs if death or serious bodily injury results from their use.

Also, students should familiarize themselves with Harvard College policies regarding the use of alcohol and/or other drugs at events held by student groups or teams as set forth in the Harvard College Handbook for Students.

Social host liability policy

Where serious harm, or the potential for serious harm, has come to any persons as a result of consumption of alcohol or drugs at an event held, sponsored, organized or supported by a student group or athletic team, whether or not such group or team is officially recognized by the College (either on campus or off campus), and the individual or individuals directly responsible are not identified, the host or hosts of the event will be held personally responsible. If the hosts are also not identified, the officers of the organization or team may be held personally responsible. In considering such cases, the Administrative Board will apply the College’s amnesty policy (described below), and also may consider as mitigating factors with respect to possible disciplinary action the efforts made by the hosts or officers to prevent the harmful or potentially harmful situation, as well as their cooperating with the College’s investigation of the situation.

What this Means for You

The bottom line is that if a student group or team promotes an activity that involves dangerous drinking, or the use of other dangerous drugs, student leaders in that group may be individually sanctioned by the College.

Importantly, however, the College does not want students to fail to seek medical care for those who are intoxicated or drug-impaired because they fear disciplinary repercussions. To make clear that the health and safety of students is paramount, the College recently has formalized its long-standing amnesty policy on this issue, also now set forth in the Harvard College Handbook for Students.

Harvard College’s Medical Amnesty Policy
Students may bring an intoxicated or drug-impaired friend to University Health Services or to a hospital, or seek assistance from College residential life staff or HUPD, and by doing this, neither they nor the friend will face disciplinary action from the College for having used or provided alcohol or drugs.

For additional information about alcohol or to access Harvard’s alcohol-related treatment or support services, please explore the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services website.

Additionally, please feel free to contact a Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisor (DAPA) with any questions you may have.

Sources:

1 Borsari, B. E. and Carey, K B. (1999). Understanding fraternity drinking: Five recurring themes in the literature, 1980–1998. Journal of American College Health, 48(1), 30-37.

2 Finkel, M.A. (2002). Traumatic injuries caused by hazing practices. AJEM, 20(3), 228-233.

3. Sherry, P. and Stolberg, V. (1987). Factors affecting alcohol use by college students. J Coll. Stud. Personnel, 28, 353.

4 The Bachus Network. (n.d.) Alcohol poisoning. Retrieved from http://www.bacchusgamma.org.

5 Kuhn, C., Swartzwelder, S., and Wilson, W. (2003). Buzzed: the straight facts about the most used and abused drugs from alcohol to ecstasy. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

6 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2005, September 23). Facts about alcohol poisoning. Retrieved from http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov.

7 American College Health Association.. (2006). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment. Harvard University Unpublished Results. Baltimore: American College Health Association.

8 Hingson, R., Heeren, T., Winter, M., Wechsler, H. Magnitude of Alcohol-Related Mortality and Morbidity Among U.S. College Students Ages 18-24: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health, vol. 26, 259-79; 2005.

9 Nuwer H. (1999). Wrongs of passage: Fraternities, sororities, hazing and binge drinking. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

10. Marchell, T. (2006, April 6). Hazing: A revealing look at hidden rites. Presentation given at Harvard University.