One of the big news stories in Iowa this week also gained some nationwide attention - a drunk girl was arrested at the University of Iowa football game. Doesn't sound like much, does it? How was it different than the other 100 or so arrests (typical number for every Iowa home football game), most of them also alcohol related?
Two things: 1) Her blood alcohol content was 0.341%, and 2) she bragged about it on Twitter and it went viral. I'm not sure which of those two things is more stupid, but let's explore the first thing.
Until now, I hadn't really paid attention to how drunk one could get without dying of alcohol poisoning. So I did a little Google research, and got a bunch of facts(?) from Wikipedia.
Turns out a .341% blood alcohol content isn't even Twitter-worthy. There are many documented cases (which is to say, people were arrested) in the U.S. of over .5%, and some over .7%. In fact, this drunk Iowa girl was only halfway to the state record of .627% which was apparently set just a year ago.
And don't even get me started on the international scale, where there are numerous incidents of folks whose blood alcohol was tested to be OVER 1%! More impressively, some of them were still conscious!
[Yes, I know, this is from Wiki and might be a total fabrication - but you should still look at the entry on blood alcohol content.]
What lesson(s) can be learned here? I mean, besides not bragging about being stupid, especially when it's about something that isn't as epic as it first sounds.
How about this for a lesson - a civilized society should not accept and glorify alcohol substance abuse, while at the same time attaching a stigma to (and incarcerate) those who would casually smoke marijuana. Tell me which substance is more likely to make people do stupid and dangerous things.....
I'm waiting.
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