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ATLANTA - College-age drinkers average nine drinks when they get drunk, government health officials said Tuesday. That surprising statistic is part of a new report highlighting the dangers of binge drinking, which usually means four to five drinks at a time. Overall, about 1 in 6 U.S. adults surveyed said they had binged on alcohol at least once in the previous month, though it was more than 1 in 4 for those ages 18 to 34. And that's likely an underestimate: Alcohol sales figures suggest people are buying a lot more alcohol than they say they are consuming. Health officials...

Binge drinking rates in the U.S. are at a much higher rate than previously thought, according to a report released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found that more than 38 million Americans binge drink four times a month—consuming an average of eight drinks each time. And it’s not just young adults. Although it is more common between the ages of 18-34, those 65 and older reportedly binge drink more often—five to six times a month. The frequency of binge drinking is higher in households with an income of $75,000 or more. But the disturbing...

You can watch the full video at the link, but I'll summarize: Under-age teens have figured out that they can soak Gummi candy (bears, worms, LifeSavers, whatever) in vodka, and then carry the candy into school, sporting events, movies, etc. The knowledge is spreading quickly through social networking like Facebook. Left overnight, the gelatin in the candy can soak up a lot of liquid. Since vodka doesn't have much of an odor, you have to eat the candy or smell it carefully to realize it has been soaked in liquor.

Midnight on St Mary Street in Cardiff and everything is exactly as expected. Half a dozen young women slump in a gutter, men urinate outside a health-food shop and, as hordes stagger between nightclubs, someone lifts up a blow-up doll with a sex toy protruding out of it. The street smells of urine and lager, police struggle to break up a fight outside the Walkabout bar and a paramedic bundles a comatose girl on to a wheelchair. But it's a quiet night for 20-year-old Naomi Jenkins. She has 'only' drunk three shots of peach schnapps, cider and three shots of...

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

Ok here is the list: 1 Drink if barry says: "let me be clear" "Make no mistake" "We need change" "Middle class" "American workers" "jobs" "Uh" "Bipartisanship" - or any derivative thereof "Republicans are blocking" "I" "my" or "my plan" "crisis" 2 Drinks if he says: "wall street instead of main street" 3 Drinks if he admits he was wrong on the economy, then sing your school fightsong backwards. 4 drinks of Bohner cries. (he won't, he has Bambi by filberts)

Radtke: Red State’s Erick Erickson Must ‘Set the Record Straight’ After Making ‘Reprehensible’ Accusations Against Her Conservative blogger Erick Erickson has “propagated a lie” against Virginia Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, she said, insisting that the Red State managing editor must make a “full retraction” and “set the record straight.” “Erick Erickson has created this situation, where he’s called me a drunk and a liar,” Radtke told me in an exclusive interview, “and he has not done a retraction – a prominent, full retraction, admitting what he’s done and setting the record straight in an honorable way.” Radtke’s attorney has threatened...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The woman sentenced less than 24 hours ago for assaulting a Jefferson County Public Schools bus driver wasn't scheduled to report to jail until Friday night, but Chesica White is already there. She was jailed after reporting to the probation office. When a Jefferson Circuit Court judge ordered White to spend 30 days in jail, he also told her she would be subject to random drug testing. Courtroom Video "Ms. White, it was apparent to almost everybody in the courtroom yesterday that you were higher than a kite," Judge McKay Chauvin said in court Friday morning. "So...

Parents who let their kids drink when supervised – because they think it's safer than an outright ban on underage drinking – may want to rethink their approach due to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Co-authored by University of Washington professor Richard Catalano, the study (PDF) found that teens who drank with adult supervision had more drinking-related problems than teens raised with a zero-tolerance attitude. "Kids need parents to be parents and not drinking buddies," Barbara McMorris, the study's lead researcher, said in a statement. McMorris is a senior research associate at the...

NEWPORT NEWS — A Hampton man was acquitted Thursday of killing a man during an early-morning argument at a shot house last summer. Oris Wiggins, 39, of Sunbriar Way, was found not guilty of murder and use of a firearm in a felony in the death of Timothy Terelle Brand, 33. The verdict followed a two-day jury trial in Newport News Circuit Court. Wiggins pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, and was sentenced to five years in prison for that crime. Brand was slain just after 6 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2010 at the shot...

This list of countries that consume the most alcohol per capita in an average year includes beer, wine and spirits. Based on a 2011 report by the World Health Organization surveying citizen over the age of 15.

An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich." The study, which will be released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, is the first nationwide analysis of hexavalent chromium in drinking water to be made public.

HAVERHILL — The former head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority admitted Tuesday that he was driving drunk when he crashed his SUV into two parked cars in August. Matthew Amorello was ordered to give up his driver's license for 45 days and to pay more than $500 in fines. Under his admission to "sufficient facts" to charges of operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, Amorello did not plead guilty, but acknowledged that if the case went to trial, there would be sufficient evidence for a jury to convict. Judge Stephen Abany continued his case without...

When is it OK for a politician to slam a shot to show she's a regular gal? Easy: when she's a Dem. If she's a Republican? Well, that's a shot of entirely different sort. She's a wasted drunk. Just ask Ed Schultz. On his show this evening, the MSNBCer took Carly Fiorina to task for taking a shot of tequila on the campaign trail. Schultz slammed the California Republican senatorial candidate as "drunken" and "wasted." View video here.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism paid $918,856 in tax dollars to fund a five-year study of “Alcohol and Bar Violence” that determined, among other things, that bar fights tend to occur in venues that are relatively dark, dirty, noisy, hot, and crowded and that are frequented by a clientele of younger, less agreeable, less conscientious, more impulsive heavy drinkers. The study also discovered that a woman who gets in a bar fight has consumed on average four times as many drinks as her usual intake. The $918,856 went to researchers at the Research Institute on Addictions at...

A pensioner who has smoked almost 300,000 cigarettes during his lifetime has celebrated his 100th birthday. Arthur Langran, who survived being blown up by a grenade during the Second World War, claims the secret behind his longevity is always doing what everyone tells him not to. The father-of-two started smoking when he was 20 and has smoked at least ten cigarettes every day since then - the equivalent of 292,000. The centenarian, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, also drinks a glass of single malt whisky every night before he goes to bed, another factor he credits for his long...

A 60-year-old Vista man who allegedly attempted to shoot his brother accidentally shot himself instead, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. During an apparent alcohol-fueled argument, Terry Brill pointed a double-barreled, .38 caliber, derringer-type pistol at his brother, 59-year-old Michael Brill, and pulled the trigger, said Sgt. Rob Smith. The gun, pointed at the man's face, failed to discharge. When Terry Brill tried to figure out why the gun misfired, he shot himself in his left hand, Smith said. Deputies who examined the two-shot pistol found that one round had been fired and one unexpended round, Smith said....

[N]ew evidence shows that drinking is bad for your image even if you don't open your mouth. In fact, according to a working paper from the University of Michigan's Scott Rick and the University of Pennsylvania's Maurice Schweitzer, just holding a glass of alcohol makes you look stupid. It does not matter if you're male or female, or whether you drink beer or wine -- if people see you drinking, they think you're dumber than you'd otherwise appear. "It hurts you," Rick tells AOL News. The most damning and universally applicable finding, however, came from the experiment that melded alcohol...

Younger troops have grumbled for years that America trusts them to carry a weapon and fight for freedom overseas, but until age 21 they can't be trusted with a bottle of beer. Now a Georgia lawmaker is looking at changing that. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., introduced legislation recently which would allow servicemembers as young as 18 to enjoy alcoholic drinks at restaurants or clubs on any stateside military base. The bill would not allow anyone under 21 to buy carry-out cases of beer from base stores or allow younger troops to keep beer in their barracks.

Montana has long been tolerant of drivers who drink. Some small town bars still offer cocktails in a to-go cup. Repeat DUI offenders are shuttled in and out of the system before they have a chance to sober up.

A Toluca Lake woman was recently kicked off a Delta Airlines flight after reporting that she thought she had smelled alcohol on the captain's breath. Angel said the captain spoke to her and the three other passengers. After he walked away, said Angel, another passenger asked if they had smelled alcohol on the pilot's breath. Angel said she volunteered to talk with the head flight attendant once aboard the plane. "I told her that I didn't know what protocol is, but I believe I smelled alcohol on one of the pilots' breath," said Angel. Angel said the flight attendant immediately...

A New York news channel reported a strange trend last month, even quoting a Weehawken man. The trend: Pouring alcohol into one's eyes. It may hurt at first, but then it can cause a high, they say. The report says: The people who do this, mostly college students judging by the videos, call it "vodka eyeballing." They said the pain gives way to an instant high and then a deeper state of drunkenness. "I know people who would do that," said Zach Darr of Weehawken. "They're young and stupid." Some who have tried it report an instantly deeper state of...

Health ministers agreed on Thursday to try to curb binge drinking and other growing forms of excessive alcohol use through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations.

Even as drunken student antics go, it was, by any stretch of the imagination, a disturbing scene. Surrounded by cheering rugby players, applauded by fellow members of the university netball team, 19-year-old Melissa Fontaine tipped back her head and giggled as fellow drinkers in the Students' Union bar pulled apart her eyelids and allowed them to pour a shot of vodka into her left eye. 'Vodka eyeballing', as it is known in student circles, is the latest drinking craze to sweep through Britain's universities. Those who do it claim that it induces feelings of drunkenness at break-neck speeds, providing...

(P I blog - not a story - Russell Crowe celebrated the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last month by enjoying an all-night drinking session with his wife. The Oscar winner was awarded the 2,404th star in Hollywood on April 12 and his plaque was placed on the sidewalk in front of the Kodak Theater, where the Academy Awards are held. But instead of marking the honor with a lunch, Crowe asked organizers to host a bash for his family - and the "Gladiator" star was still partying with wife Danielle when the sun came...

Statistically speaking, there are more nonsmokers that have cancer than there are smokers who have cancer. So, smokers can be just as absurd as anti-smokers and say that it is safer to smoke. Of course, this is not a real argument, and neither are statistics when it comes to associating smoking to cancer. The fallacy in the argument is one of simple "cause and effect," because you are a smoker is why you have cancer. This is the same as the rhetorical phrase commonly toted by anti-smokers usually used in such a context as "all the years of smoking" finally...

Some women avoid drinking calorie-filled cocktails, wine, and beer because they're worried about packing on the pounds. Now, a new study suggests that women who are moderate drinkers actually tend to gain less weight over time than teetotalers. The risk of becoming overweight or obese falls as alcohol consumption rises, even when factors such as smoking, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity are taken into account, the study found. Women who consumed between 1.5 and 3 drinks daily had a 27 percent and 61 percent lower risk of becoming overweight or obese, respectively, than women who didn't drink at...

Glenn Beck was reading through the recent medical release from Obama’s physical and found the following: “Continue smoking cessation efforts, a daily exercise program, healthy diet, moderation in alcohol intake, periodic dental care, and remain up-to-date with recommended immunizations” I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure there is ever an appropriate time for the President to ever be consuming alcohol in any significant amount while in office. Yes, even if he is on vacation, an emergency can happen at any time and he must be at his best at all times. What this suggests is that he is...

The results of a 90-minute medical exam of President Barack Obama have been released. For the most part, the President is healthy "--has 20-20 vision, weighs 179 lbs in his shoes and clothes, and requires little medication." There are, however, two caveats in the report released to the public. It seems that President Obama still hasn't been able to kick his cigarette habit, despite promising the First Lady he would do so, and indeed, telling the media that he had done so, "but still had an occasional cigarette, without specifying how many." Even more intriguing and perhaps even unsettling is...

'Drunk' Airline Pilot Avoids Jail Sentence Alison Chung, Sky News Online An American pilot who tried to fly a passenger jet from Heathrow while three times the alcohol limit has been given a 10-month jail sentence suspended for two years... Captain Erwin Vermont Washington, 51, was charged after a concerned colleague who smelled alcohol on his breath reported him to police. He was readying his United Airlines Boeing 767 for a flight to Chicago and its departure was "imminent" when officers arrived at Terminal One.

At any major event, there's ALWAYS a way to make a drinking game out of it. And so. . . . How to get hammered by the second standing ovation of tonight's SOTU speech: Requirements: TV Set, tuned to the State of the Union Speech. Drinking vessel of your choice. Adult Beverage of your choice. Copious Quantities thereof. . . Rules: 1. At the mention of "I", "me", or "my", sip your beverage. 2. At the mention of any of these phrases, you chug the Adult Beverage of your choice and refill: * "let me be clear" * "make no...

St. Paul may soon pass a social host ordinance that punishes adults who knowingly allow parties, where minors are drinking. That includes adults who aren't even there, including landlords. "They bear some of the responsibility to ensure it doesn't continue," said St. Paul Council Member Russ Stark.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Penn State University said the body of a missing student has been found at the bottom of a stairwell about 75 yards from where he was last seen alive. The university said tonight that 18-year-old freshman Joseph Dado, of Latrobe, was found dead at about 6 p.m. at the Hosler Building. University police said it looks like Mr. Dado fell about 15 feet to the concrete below.

Drinking a bottle of wine or five pints of beer in an evening instead of over the course of a week gives you a big waist, British researchers say. They found the pattern of drinking rather than the total amount of alcohol consumed has a greater effect on waist size. In women the effect was even more pronounced... The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, was presented at the European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona. The team studied almost 30,000 men and women in Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic ...

The passing of Ted Kennedy has tormented me all this long day. It started with drinking whiskey for breakfast. ... Let Teddy not be remembered as a great man, for he wasn’t. Laud him not for being bipartisan, for he did so only to incrementally advance his autocratic nightmares. And let him not bask in the glow of his older brothers who had some notion of right, whereas Teddy knew only expediency. We should remember Ted Kennedy for those elements of his character that defined him best. For accusing a Supreme Court nominee of ...

Saturday, July 18th, was the fortieth anniversary of the day that Mary Jo Kopechne drowned at Chappaquiddick (an island part of Edgartown,Massachusetts) in a car driven off a bridge by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.). And, still, questions linger. What did Kennedy do that night? Was he intoxicated? Why wasn’t he prosecuted? The one question still pondered by political observers on all sides: did what is known universally known as “the Chappadquiddick incident” keep Kennedy from being elected President? Clearly, it did. For younger readers who know Kennedy -- now 77 and battling cancer -- primarily as the premier voice...

Link only, per FR copyright rules

If it weren’t for the National Enquirer’s outstanding work on the John Edwards “Baby Mama” story, this new story would easy to laugh off. But nobody’s laughing. Especially Barack Obama. ...

Passers-by were shocked to see rowdy bikini-clad students struggling to stand up and vomiting at midday on a Sunday afternoon. This year for the first time in 80 years the garden party, organised by the Wyverns, an all-male Magdalene College drinking society, had to be held in a new location after officials banned students from holding the event on university land.

Koreans Drink 110 bottles of Beer and 74 Bottles of Soju Annually A survey has found that Korean adults drink an average of 110 bottles of beer and 74 bottles of soju annually. The survey also reveled that the export of Korean alcoholic beverages rose 23 percent from last year. The National Tax Service announced that the total consumption of alcoholic beverages in Korea amounted to 3.39 million kiloliters last year, up 3.2 percent from 3.29 kiloliters in 2007. In terms of the type of beverage consumed, soju and beer consumption increased 4.3 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively. When converted...

<p>Police arrested a 28-year-old Petah Tikvah man for drunk driving late Friday night after he was caught driving erratically on the highway while having sexual intercourse with a female passenger.</p>

For the past 20 years, the U.S. has maintained a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21 (MLDA21), with little public debate about the wisdom of this policy. Recently, however, more than 100 college and university presidents signed the Amethyst Initiative, a public statement calling for "an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age." SNIP Our research compares traffic fatality rates in states before and after they changed their MLDA from 18 to 21. In contrast to all earlier work, however, we examined separately the impact in states that adopted an MLDA21 on their own...

Having a supportive social network enhances the health benefits of having a few drinks, new research from Japan suggests. The study of Japanese men years found that moderate to light alcohol consumption, coupled with high levels of social support, were linked to lower rates of heart disease and stroke. “But remember,” Dr Hiroyasu Iso from Osaka University noted in a statement, “this beneficial effect of social support is confined to light-to-moderate drinking. Heavy drinking is risky irrespective of social support level.” In a report in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers note that light to moderate drinking...

SALEM — It's hard to imagine a less likely place for three college students to do some underage drinking than the parking lot of a police station. But that's exactly what three Salem State College students were caught doing early Saturday morning. Now they'll spend the next six months on unsupervised probation, after admitting they were sharing a bottle of rum right outside the Salem police headquarters on Margin Street. "You guys picked a great place to drink," Judge Richard Mori told them in Salem District Court yesterday. It all started when Thomas McCarthy, 18, of 115 Weatherly Drive; Wayne...

CBS News Coverage of the Presidential Address to the Joint Session of Congress9:00pm - 10:00pm President Obama outlines challenges facing the nation and lays out his priorities for meeting them in an address delivered in the House chamber before…

The Inauguration Day 2009 Drinking Game Drink Every Time Someone Says: “Historic” “Monumental” “Kennedy” “Lincoln” “Change” (as a noun) “Most anticipated inauguration in history” The name of a celebrity who thinks their opinion matters. Drink Every Time: Joe Biden’s hairplugs are awkwardly noticeable. You see Oprah crying. W glances at his watch. You see a mediocre looking chick with political aspirations in the crowd. Chris Matthews appears to get a boner. You see Obama’s face on a t-shirt. A white guy pretends to know the words to a Black Eyed Peas song. Keith Olbermann comes off as a smug, pretentious...

Drew University, like many colleges, is working harder to deter underage drinking, but that didn't stop students younger than 21 from drinking heavily at campus parties Labor Day weekend. "The parties are in dorms, on top of buildings, wherever people find an ample place where they're not going to be bothered," said 18-year-old Dean Shtainhorn of Millburn, who admitted to experimenting with alcohol. The Madison campus is not unlike colleges across the country dealing with the problem of underage alcohol consumption and binge drinking. That is why Drew University president Robert Weisbuch said he joined the Amethyst Initiative, a national...

Pilot Accused Of Drinking, Replaced On Port Columbus Flight Wednesday, January 7, 2009 5:52 PM Print Story E-mail Story COLUMBUS, Ohio — 10TV News learned on Wednesday that a Southwest Airlines pilot has been placed on paid leave after being accused of drinking before getting on a flight at Port Columbus International Airport. According to a Port Columbus Police report, a passenger approached the pilot on Tuesday afternoon, saying he "smelled and looked drunk," 10TV's Andy Hirsch reported. The pilot then went to a restroom and called off sick, the report said. The pilot told police that he was not...

Drinking a pint of beer or two measures of gin or vodka on a nightly basis can also have the same effect. The warning appears to conflict with other studies which suggest moderate alcohol intake can help combat heart disease. Although the link has not been definitively explained, it is thought the alcohol damages a person's DNA, making them susceptible to the risk of cancer. Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with more than 36,500 people diagnosed each year and 16,000 deaths. More than 3,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with liver cancer each...

THE suspected museum thief who was impaled by a sharp spike on the top of a security fence in his rectum for two hours earlier this month says he did not feel any pain because he was drunk. He denied trying to break into the museum, but claimed he had been in the museum grounds to sleep off a drinking session. Speaking from the Cambridge West home he shares with his parents and siblings, Siyanda Pasiwe, 32, said he had been drinking somewhere in town that evening. But because it was late and he was drunk, he decided to go...