College Happenings

Drinking is part of the college experience for many. Avoid the worst of the negatives by drinking safer. Here are three ways you can do that.

1. Maintain control in public spaces. You need to be on point to avoid the assortment of problems that can occur while in the street or at the club or bar, such as mugging, assault, rape, etc. You should be in control physically and mentally when out and about around people you do not know.
2. Be around friends. For serious drinking, as in getting really drunk, choose safe places and safe people. Don’t let your guard be down around people that are not your tight group of friends. Acquaintances can be dangerous, especially with alcohol involved.
3. Know your limit and stick to it. Too much alcohol can kill. Don’t mix drugs with alcohol; you can heighten the effect of one or both substances and overdose. Stomach pumping is not fun.

Smart drinking can be fun on occasion. However, drinking to blot out or avoid problems never works. It just makes everything worse in the long-run. Best to stick to limiting that sort of stuff to when you’re already feeling good.

While we don’t recommend drugs at all, obviously, experimenting smartly can make the difference in how well you come through the experience. Use your brain; make smart choices.

Drugs in powder form can easily be adulterated. The average drug dealer is not about the experience the substance will provide, but the profit it will generate. Powdered drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, may contain other substances that can poison you, even kill you. Are you ready to bet your life on the integrity of the person looking to make a profit great enough to justify his business risks?

Many of the designer pills, Ecstasy, etc., are from powders that are compressed or put into capsules by the sellers. Thus, these too can still be adulterated. The same goes for the type of drugs that come from liquids, with doses absorbed into paper, like LSD. You don’t know what’s in it or how much is there. Kind of hard to make a smart choice of how much to take or if it is safe to take in such circumstances.

Make informed choices. Consider adulteration possibilities. Read up and learn about how much is too much. Know what to do if an emergency should arise. If you must experiment, try to choose the safest options and be in a safe place.