GUEST COLUMN: "One More Saturday Night"

Another Saturday night. Shortly after 1 a.m. the bathroom door fiercely swings open. The lights are low, the room is filled with smoky mist. Overwhelmed with confusion, you breathe, you think, you listen. Struggling to recognize the owner of the silhouette emerging from the bathroom light, you admire your fake I.D. under the neon hue from above. The random conversations around you blur into that familiar colloquial drone. Music provides you with that isolated moment of escape: "When I think of heaven (deliver me in a black-winged bird), I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers and all other instruments of faith and sex and God in the belly of a black-winged bird. Don't try to feed me, I've been here before and I deserve a little more." But suddenly, your diversion into meaningful lyricism is cutoff. Stumbling from the porcelain pot is your not-so-sober friend. Slowly he or she makes his or her way toward you, only to pass out midway through the trip. Within a split second of time, your whole night has changed. You are forced to act. What should you do? The following general summary should serve as guidelines to help you make decisions about what to do when you think that a friend may have had to much to drink. More basic than anything else: Assist the person to a comfortable place using a calm, firm voice. Once the person is removed from unnecessary or dangerous distractions, check his breathing rate every fifteen minutes. If it is shallow or irregular, and/or he cannot be aroused by shaking or shouting, it is imperative that you get help immediately. In the process of getting help, however, do not leave the person alone. He may vomit and you should be there to make sure they do not swallow or breathe in the vomitus. You can do this by having the person lay down on his side with his knees up. What do you not want to do? Above all, don't try to walk the person around or engage them in any activity that involves muscular coordination. Don't give them cold showers, anything to drink or eat -- except water at their request -- and most of all, don't allow them to drive. In addition, don't try to counsel the person on the spot. Confront their behavior at another time when they are sober. The answer is a plain and simple, second-nature, undebatable, no-contest, capitalized, bold-faced, underlined, italicized YES. YES a thousand times. Don't even think about its opposite two-letter alternative. The University of Pennsylvania Drug and Alcohol Policy states that "in cases of intoxication and/or alcohol poisoning, the primary concern is the health and safety of the individual(s) who are involved. Students are strongly encouraged to call for medical assistance for themselves or for a friend/ acquaintance who is seriously intoxicated. Such efforts to obtain emergency help will NOT in themselves lead to disciplinary charges." In other words, if you are an intoxicated, underage drinker seeking help, you will not first receive that help and then be cited for underage drinking. The institution of punitive measures for underage drinkers who are looking for help is against the University's alcohol policy. This is not to say, however, that you will not be held accountable for any illegal acts committed while under the influence of alcohol. If, for example, you tear down a University sign while drunk, become ill, and then decide to get help, you will be punished for vandalism. But you will not be cited for underage drinking. Why am I telling you all this? Because it is important -- to you and me. It is important to you because alcohol, according to the National Council on Alcoholism, is the most widely used drug in America. Further, as the 1987-88 Gallup Poll states, 92 percent of college students drink. When one considers that approximately three-fourths of the students who comprise that 92 percent are underage drinkers, the statistic becomes more revealing. And last -- as I bombard you with another statistic and suck every ounce of life from this column -- according to Student Health, in 1987, one student was seen every other day in the Emergency Service because of an alcohol or drug-related issue. With these statistics in mind, alcohol and drug-related issues are bound to influence your life at Penn. Even if you choose to abstain from drinking, it's likely that you will be affected in some way by other peoples' drinking. While Penn is, in the abstract, a large institution, in those special cases that are either memorable or regrettable -- depending on the outcome -- it can often be a small community. But I also discuss alcohol and drug-related issues because they are important to me. As a peer educator in DART, the Drug and Alcohol Resource Team, I hope to educate students and staff about these issues to encourage them to make safe and healthy personal decisions. That was why I initially joined DART in my first year at Penn. But after having become a peer educator, I found that my membership in DART took on a greater significance. Peer educators undergo a six-week training program so they are able to conduct provocative small group discussions known as peer education workshops. It is in these workshops over the past four years that I have learned that -- although they do not like to admit it -- most students have a genuine interest in drug and alcohol-related issues. I cannot tell you how frequently I have been asked the same two questions: "How do I know when a friend has a drinking problem?" and "How do I help my friend with his or her drinking problem?" Such questions reflect the large degree to which alcohol and drug-related issues impinge on the lives of Penn students. But more importantly they indicate that Penn students do not consider these issues mere ordinary matters of public life. Instead, they reveal a deeply felt concern for the welfare of others. But aside from me and without getting into the nitty-gritty, as they say, you can use the following parameters to decide if someone you know has a drinking problem. (Keep in mind, however, that not all problem drinkers are alcoholics). Typically, a problem drinker drinks to get drunk. A problem drinker usually tries to solve his or her problems by drinking. Most likely, a problem drinker will experience personality changes when he drinks. This person may, for example, become loud, angry and violent or silent, remote and reclusive. In addition, someone with a drinking problem will drink when they should not -- e.g., before going to class or to work. Lastly, a person's drinking problem usually does not occur in isolation. Most often, it is either a catalyst for, or a by-product of, more visible problems like difficulties with relationships. In this column I hope to have armed you with the basics about alcohol and drug-related issues. Indeed, knowledge is power. But you have to "build it," for it to come. The rest is up to you.

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