Alcohol Poisoning is a real occurrence taking place on college and university campuses. Some students are drinking heavily and quickly and becoming medical emergencies, or worse – fatalities. Certainly, most students don’t drink to excess and campuses and peer education groups are doing everything they can to educate students to prevent a tragedy from happening. However, when all the educational programs are over, sometimes it all comes down to friendship.

Alcohol poisoning occurs when someone puts a large amount of alcohol into their system. There are a lot of reasons why people drink; to be social, they like the feeling of being impaired, to be less self-conscious, to forget their problems, - we could go on and on. But there is a difference between drinking and drinking way too much.

Alcohol poisoning is an overdose of alcohol. Alcohol poisoning is deadly. The brain begins to shut down involuntary functions that regulate breathing and heart rate sometimes resulting in death. The amount of alcohol that causes alcohol poisoning is different for every person. It is not possible to accurately predict for each person what amount will cause them to overdose.

When we hear of a person who has died as a result of alcohol poisoning, typically one of two things happen.

• The person stopped breathing. The depressant level of the alcohol was so high that the drinker simply stopped breathing and his or her heart stopped beating.

• The person choked on their vomit. The drinker passed out, was laying on their back, threw up and choked on his or her vomit.

To help campuses and communities respond to the tragic issue of alcohol poisoning, The BACCHUS Network™ has created the Alcohol Poisoning Response Kit. Click here to purchase the kit and other alcohol poisoning prevention materials.