According to the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, binge drinking is a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 gram percent or above, and typically corresponds to consuming 5 or more drinks for males or 4 or more drinks for females within about a 2 hour period (College pp).

             According to a 1999 Harvard University School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, of the 44 percent of U.S. college students who admitted to binge drinking during the two weeks before the survey, the majority were white, age 23 or younger, residents of a fraternity or sorority (Fact pp). More than 70,000 college students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape, while two-thirds report reckless behavior such as unprotected sex, unplanned sex, or driving while drunk (Binge pp). Alcohol poisoning is a severe and potentially fatal physical reaction to an alcohol overdose, and is the most serious consequence of binge drinking (Binge1 pp).

             The Harvard study also revealed that frequent binge drinkers consume some two-thirds of all the alcohol college students drink, and account for three-fifths of the most serious alcohol related problems on campuses, such as vandalism, becoming injured, trouble with campus police, and driving while drunk, and according to another study of college students, alcohol was involved in 74 percent of sexual assaults (Heckman pp).

             The consequences of binge drinking by college students is not limited to the drinkers themselves, for according to students who attended schools with high rates of heavy drinking experienced a greater number of secondhand effects, such as disruption of sleep or studies, property damage, and verbal, physical, or sexual violence, and moreover, residents of neighborhoods near colleges report higher rates of noise disruptions, property damage, and police visits than neighborhood surrounding schools with lower drinking rates and people who did not live near a college (Lee pp).