I think the fact that these show up as "collegehumor" tells a lot about how the current college student generation views getting so drunk that you pass out. It's viewed as funny, not as a serious medical issue.
While I am not opposed to the lowering of the drinking age to 19 (18 year olds are still in highschool much of the time and we don't really need them buying beer/alcohol for their younger buddies there), I don't think that you can equate it to the Suffrage movement. The Suffragettes formed political organizations and lobbied for change. They didn't simply show up at polls, grab ballots and vote. If these young people want to lobby to get the drinking age lowered, then they need to show that they can drink responsibly. High numbers of college drinking deaths isn't going to be seen as a strong argument for lowering the drinking age to most politicans or most people in the community.
The drinking age was 21 while I was in school, and hadn't been that way for very long, but we didn't think it was funny when someone drank until they got drunk or passed out. There was a level of drunkenness that was fun, but we weren't doing 21 shots on our 21st birthday, this century club thing or the power hour thing.
There is something about our culture now that says "It's hilarious and fun to drink until you black out". Back in the day, it was hilarious and fun to drink until you wore a lampshade for a hat, not til you passed out. It seems like the message for so long was "Don't drink and drive" that people think it doesn't matter how drunk they get, as long as there is a designated driver or they don't have to drive anywhere.
Why the change? I don't know. Hopefully more studies will be done. I have no idea what the solution to the problem is. And, my concern about lowering the drinking age is that we will just see the same problems occurring in younger drinkers.
Dee