I would challenge the assertion that you have a "pretty good chance killing yourself" from alcohol at a party. ITs still a lightning striking sort of thing. But I understand your point. If alcohol wee eliminated as a factor, those people would not have died.
I just don't know where that logic leads us. Do we ban alcohol from a college setting because 3 or 4 people will die from alcohol poisoning this year?
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Originally posted by IvySpice
I want to counter James' point to a certain extent. There are a lot of ways to look at those statistics that make them look a lot worse.
First of all, people who die of alcohol poisoning are a teeny fraction of those actually killed because they drank too much. Most alcohol-related deaths are caused by vomit asphyxiation, falls, getting hit by a car/train, etc. So although you may have a very small chance of being killed by alcohol poisoning, you have a pretty good chance of killing yourself with alcohol at that party.
Second, the Greek population we're talking about is overwhelmingly 18-24, healthy, white, educated, and middle-class...in other words, a group where death from any external cause is extremely rare. Even a very small number of alcohol-poisoning deaths may represent a meaningful share of overall deaths for this group. [/B]
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