Cat’s cuppa Joe: Open drinking
A year ago, at a Halloween party, I remember clearly watching a close friend drink like I’d never seen before. As much as it may be hard to believe, I’m a huge proponent of Utah State University Student Health’s guidelines for safe drinking, which outlines that you should never have more than four beers, two glasses of wine, or four shots in a single day. So, as hard as it may be to believe, I was really concerned when he began pouring the 6th shot of the night.
When asked why he was drinking so much, he gave a simple answer, “I live in the towers.” Okay, sure. Not the best place to live, but why drink so much? Is it really that bad? He explained, “I bought this bottle of vodka and I can’t take it home. I need to make sure I drink it all before I go home.” It was shocking, but after moving onto campus a few months later, I can say that this is common.
People who live on campus still drink on campus, but more frightening still is how unhealthy and dangerous off-campus drinking can be. Not only do these students have to walk or worse drive back up to their dorms, but they also end up drinking more on average. My time living off campus was nice. My roommates would come home and have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner, watch Netflix and go to bed — you know, what normal people do — but living on campus, my roommates would come home smashed, not drunk. The amount of vomit the Greaves Hall Facilities crew must have cleaned up spring semester is chilling to consider.
It doesn’t need to be like this. I ran a restaurant before coming to college and can tell you from first hand experience, well-regulated alcohol distribution in the light of day is safe and secure. When a person came into our restaurant, we had a policy. The wine and beer drank by each individual customer was measured, tracked and kept to a safe level. I’m proud to say that under my watch, no customer drank more than four drinks in a single night and that they made it home safely.
“There are not enough restaurants and nightlife to keep the visitors occupied outside of the convention, because they can’t get a drink,” said Scott Beck, CEO of Visit Utah “We call it nightlife, but we’re not talking about nightlife in terms of strip clubs and gaming; we’re talking about nightlife like Gracie’s or nightlife like The Bayou—places where visitors can network or socialize with their friends and peers. But our liquor laws create a sense, and in some cases a reality, that you can’t do that in Utah. And we lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in delegate spending because of that perception.”
Liquor in Utah is a huge deal, make no mistake about it. At least a half dozen chain restaurants refuse to build in Utah, and several businesses started here have migrated out of the state due to the difficulty of licensing. The Olympic committee was so frustrated with our laws in 2002 that it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the games in Utah again, nor the 100 million dollars in revenue generated that year.
“People from out of state ask for a ‘real’ glass of wine and I can’t give them one … I can only give them 5 oz per glass,” said-Dave Cannell, restaurateur.
The issue is this, a large portion of the state is against having liquor anywhere. A Utah Policy poll in 2014 showed that 31 percent of Utahns didn’t want liquor in sight of non-drinkers at any time, but this “out of sight, out of mind” Pontius Pilate attitude decreases safety overall by removing control from the people who are concerned and moving distribution and consumption into the least reputable place. Our homes.
Pushing alcohol into liquor stores and homes doesn’t make us safe; it merely gives the illusion of safety. In reality, our inability to watch and monitor drinking both on campus and off does nothing to help the individuals who chose to drink and instead removes all ability to actually keep people safe.
— Catherine St.Claire is a Radio show host who’s enjoying her semester off by judicious appreciation of boat drinks.
@Cat_StClaire
Catherine@aggiemail.usu.edu