Deadly Drinking?

Jenna Foellmi, 20, joined 83 individuals who have died from alcohol poisoning from 1999 until now, when she passed away on Dec. 14 after a night of heavy drinking; she had just finished taking her last final that day:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-drinking-deaths,0,5494021.story?page=2

This is unfortunate on several levels; first, I think that these is evidence that despite the fact that the legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21, individuals who are underage are still finding ways to drink. For this reason, I believe that the legal drinking age should be reduced to 18, the way it is in Europe. I believe that if this was done, alcohol would not be as tantalizing to teenagers, thus reducing the level of binge-drinking and various accidents that occur while under the influence -- drunk driving being the most prominent amongst them. There is a reason why Great Britain and Germany do not have the high level of drunk-driving accidents that occur with underage drinkers the way the U.S. does, and I think that our legal drinking age is the main problem.

Secondly, note how in the article, Jenna embarked upon a night of heavy drinking after finishing her last final of the semester. I believe that she sought alcohol as a means to (1) celebrate and (2) blow off some steam and relieve stress. I believe that there is a big problem with American youth in regards to looking to alcohol and narcotics as a source of stress relief whild in college -- I witnessed it first-hand during the past four years. There is a problem when people are taking aderol in order to get through finals week or write a 20-page paper. We either have to ask our educators to re-evaluate the amount of work they give us (again, overworking students seems to be another American trend) or we need to further educate our youth so that they use other methods to reduce stress. The latter would suggest things like "get at least eight hours of sleep" and "eat three square meals a day", but that would mean that college students would actually be afforded the time to do so, and speaking as a recent Denison graduate, that is a little easier said than done. Nothing says little to no sleep like two midterms in one day.

Anyway, that's my take on the situation. Of course, there are other variables that one should consider in a situation such as this -- peer pressure, greek life culture, the psycological mindset of being immortal that comes with being an adolescent/young adult -- but for the most part, this is my take on the issue as it stands today. What is yours?