How much alcohol is considered too much? What happens when you mix alcohol and energy drinks? Do "study drugs" boost your GPA? In our semester finale, we answer your write-in questions!
How much alcohol is considered too much? What happens when you mix alcohol and energy drinks? Do "study drugs" boost your GPA? In our semester finale, we answer your write-in questions!
Marissa: Welcome back to the last call podcast. This is our last episode for the semester, and we thought what better way to wrap it up then to answer some of your student questions. So you wrote in, we're answering. So Sarah's going to get started with the first one, and the question is how much alcohol is considered too much?
Sarah: Yeah, this is a question that I hear all the time and obviously it varies from person to person. So there's different factors that come into play. Someone who doesn't drink every day, 1 or 2 drinks might put them over the edge. Whereas someone else who drinks all the time that same amount would be a safe amount for them.
The NIAAA is the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that drinking in moderation is no more than 1 drink a day for women and no more than 2 drinks a day for men.
So, based on those guidelines, heavy a drinking is defined as the following: so men who consume more than 4 drinks on any day are more than 14 drinks in a week. And then women, um, consuming more than 3 drinks on any day or more than 7 drinks in any week.
Marisa: And also remember with this heavy drinking that doesn't mean you can wait and bank all of your drinks for 1 day, and then have 7 on a Thursday. So, this is spaced apart throughout the entire week. So, what about heavy alcohol use Sarah? What does that look like?
Sarah: Binge drinking 5 more drinks on 1 occasion for 5 or more days in the last month. So, we talked about this a lot in our keeping the balance episode. Um, but it's also important to think about, you know, is your drinking interfering with your normal, everyday activities, normal things that you're supposed to accomplish. And if so, it might be a good sign for you to, to take a break or cut back.
Marissa: You know, I was just kind of doing the math in my head, like 5 or more days in the past month for heavy alcohol use. So if you're binge drinking every weekend on one of the days, and then you do it maybe twice in one week on a Thursday/Saturday, like that's heavy alcohol use. When examining your own alcohol consumption how many of those days in a month are you having more than 4, more than 5 drinks?
Sarah: Alright next question for you, Mariss, do more college students consume alcohol or weed?
Marissa: That's a good question. So the most current data from the American College Health Association shows that alcohol is still more widely used of the two substances, with 62% of students using alcohol in the past 3 months, compared to 25% of students using cannabis in the past 3 months. I'd be curious as more data comes to light on how people use cannabis, when we look at that under that cannabis umbrella, what heavy cannabis use looks like to a person.
All right, so staying within the cannabis thread, Sarah, somebody had asked, why can't you have medical marijuana on campus?
Sarah: Well, this is really interesting and this is actually a very common question. So when people think of medicinal cannabis, they think, why am I not being allowed to take my medicine?
And it's actually really simple - because cannabis is still considered federally illegal. So then any campus who receives federal funding, so all the SUNY schools, and pretty much most colleges - I think the majority of colleges receive federal funding. We have to follow what's called the drug free schools and communities act, which means that we can't condone or allow any use of illicit substances on our campuses.
Marissa: So, a follow up question that came with that: will campuses update their policies to be able to use it on campus now that it's legal, or is that the same thing?
Sarah: It's the same thing. So it's still considered federally illegal. So, unless that status changes anytime soon, the rules aren't going to change.
Marissa: Even though it is viewed as a medical cannabis card, it is not covered under a disability, under the Americans with Disabilities Act because it’s a recommendation from a doctor, rather than a prescription. That makes things really complicated with getting your medicine on campus. So where the law stands right now, you can’t use it on campus, despite having a medical recommendation from your doctor.
Sarah: That’s really interesting Mariss, no medical cannabis is covered by any insurance. So any medicinal cannabis that you're getting yourself paying out of pocket. So that makes a lot of sense.
So, next question for you - can you talk a little bit about how much proof is in different forms of alcohol? Just explain that break it down for us a little bit.
Marissa: Yeah, and I'm going to keep it pretty brief, but a condensed version of how much proof is in different alcohol: the proof is essentially double the alcohol by value number. So, when you see a vodka that's 40% alcohol by volume, it means that it’s 80 proof.
And the scale ranges from 0 to 200. Fun fact, and not that it's easily accessible, but the highest proof that there is 192 proof, which is about 2 proof points higher than Everclear. So, I thought that was interesting.
Not that I'm advocating for anybody to get out and use that, because you're getting pretty close to rocket fuel at that point. It's not enjoyable.
Sarah: No one wants to drink gasoline.
Marissa: So, the next question, Sarah, can you tell me a little bit.. What happens when someone mixes alcohol and energy drinks? Absolutely.
Sarah: So Red Bull and vodka or Yager bombs have always been a really popular drink among college students. And it's really interesting, because most people go out and in their minds, they're thinking “I'm going to go out, I had a rough week. I just want some energy.” That's why I'm gonna drink Red Bull vodka or a Yager bomb. So you're getting an energy drink along with alcohol. So, at first, you might feel great, your energy might be increased… then over time, what's gonna happen is that, um, energy drink is going to mask the effects of the alcohol that you're consuming. So in your mind, you're like, “all right cool. Like, I'm more awake. I feel great.” And then, by the time you're 3 or 4 drinks in, you're a little bit messed up, but you didn't even realize that until you're multiple drinks in.
So, I think that's really important; we always recommend, trying to avoid the energy drinks and alcohol. If you can.
Marissa: Yeah, and a whole episode could be devoted to the risks of combining alcohol and simulants like cocaine in particular. That is everything you just said Sarah, but wicked amplified. Nothing good comes from this. That trickery is also there, but again, amplified.
Sarah: Alright, Maris. So speaking of stimulants, here's the next question for you. If I use study drugs, will it help boost my GPA?
Marissa: No, that's a hard no. So studies find no data to support that using prescription medication, increases GPA, or give students and advantage over their peers. Dr. Amelia aria has done a ton of research on this, and that's the bottom line from her findings. And then also studies aside, let's see some common sense here.
So, aside from the legal and health risks that may be associated with using this type of medication, using Adderall the last 2 weeks of classes is not gonna make up for the past 14 weeks of sporadically attending class, not doing your work… Enjoying some of the more social aspects of college, rather than the academic ones. So you can't just like, pop some pills at the end and think that you're gonna, you know, rally the GPA.
So, for our last question, this wasn't specifically written in from a student, but this is something that I think both of us have encountered quite a bit in our professions. So what happens, Sarah, when a student is sanctioned to meet with an AOD educator?
Sarah: All the meetings that we conduct are personalized based on feedback that is given when students complete some type of a screening. Basically, what happens is students will complete some type of a screening, so we can get a baseline of where their use is that currently, and where it has been at their highest point of use.
We work with students based on where they're at, and we try to help them create reasonable goals. So I think it's really important to know that we don't try and force you into something that you're not ready for.
You know, we try to meet you where you’re at, and then try to help give you information, to help better inform you to make decisions to move forward. So we're never going to sit in a meeting and tell you what to do. We’re more going to help guide you in whatever direction you're kind of looking for, and helping give you facts that are based in education.
And the last, most important thing is, I know you and I both focus on harm reduction. So we can’t speak for every AOD educator out there, but I know that we focus on reducing harm from college student drug and alcohol use. We’re not going to lecture you, we’re not going to shame you from drinking too much. We just want to prevent bad things form happening in the future. We don’t want to see you get transported, we don’t want to see you have to call an ambulance for your friend, we want to see you eat before you drink – all of those important things, so you can have the college student experience, without anything bad happening to you.
Marissa: Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. There’s no cookie cutter approach to this. I make it appoint to tell all students, whether they are referred through the conduct system or a self-referral… where are you at with alcohol, where are you at with weed? Do you want to stop use altogether or do you want to be more mindful about how you’re using it?
And you’re not locked in. It doesn’t have to be the option forever, but if every time you’re drinking, you’re blacking out – or every time you buy a bag of weed that should last you for the week, but it lasts the weekend, maybe taking a pause and examining patterns of use can be helpful, and having and outsider’s point of view. Asking your friends who are using substances the same way you are… you might not get the most honest feedback. So talking to an outsider can be really helpful sometimes.
All right, that brings us to the end of this episode and an end to the episodes for the rest of the semester.
Sarah: If you have any ideas offer future podcasts that you want to hear, or topics that you want us to talk about, please feel free to let us know - we always love hearing from you all.
Marissa: Excellent we'll see in the fall.
Sarah: Bye!