Playing A Losing Game: Pre-gaming Can Turn Dangerous Fast

BY ALYSSA FISHER

You only live once.

This mantra is heard throughout Cooper City High School, but it’s also what Tampa, Fla. resident John Templeton thought during his high school years as he drank with his friends before football games and other events. Like many other students his age, he believed he was invincible, that drinking was the only way to have a good time. It took him waking up handcuffed to a hospital gurney to realize drinking, especially pre-gaming, isn’t fun and games.

Pre-gaming derives from the traditional practice of tailgating, where people drink before sporting events. The alcohol is thought to pump up the excitement of the festivities and increase the overall level of enjoyment by those doing it. However, pre-gaming has expanded from the parking lots of pro stadiums to the parking lots of high school stadiums, where it’s common to find students sitting in their cars swigging alcohol. According to David J. Hanson, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus of Sociology of the State University of New York at Potsdam, there is nothing safe about this.

“Pre-gaming is the wrong approach to drinking,” he said. “It’s inappropriate at any age.”

When one “pre-games”, they are essentially drinking before drinking. Rapid alcohol consumption in a short amount of time drastically increases blood alcohol concentration. Under the influence, judgment is impaired, and in that state anything can happen.

“It’s not wise to go anywhere intoxicated,” Dr. Hanson said.

Pre-gaming before any situation can lead to countless consequences, ranging from simple bad judgment to injuries and even death. While intoxicated, people are more likely to be taken advantage of or do something they regret. The Harvard School of Public Health’s College Alcohol Study reported 29 percent of students who lived in campus housing have been insulted or humiliated, 15 percent have experienced property damage, 9 percent were physically assaulted and 20 percent of females were sexually assaulted.

Dr. Hanson said that teenagers, who are not as used to drinking as adults, are more likely to experience these consequences. In his research, he found that a teens’ level of drinking actually has to do with social norms. He was involved in conducting the largest nationwide study of college students to date to show that reducing misperceptions of peer behavior will in turn significantly reduce high-risk or binge drinking and its negative consequences. The National College Health Assessment Survey was administered between 2000 and 2003 and included more than 76,000 students at 130 colleges and universities.

This survey documented how much students drink and why they do so. Dr. Hanson’s conclusions showed that people drink more because they believe it’s more accepted. They think other people are drinking the same amount, if not more, and expect them to do the same.

One of the colleges tested was Florida State University, a public school housing 37,000 students. A social norms awareness effort was integrated across the FSU campus, from administrative offices to residence halls and student government. The result of this campaign has been a 15% reduction in high-risk drinking among male students and a 5% reduction among female students since 2002.

“If I can prevent at least one person from drinking so much, then it’s working,” Dr. Hanson said.

The Tampa Alcohol Coalition (TAC) has a similar mission: prevent underage drinking and decrease the number of deaths by drunk driving. Co-Chair Ellyn Snelling travels around Florida to speak to youth about the dangers of drinking and support law enforcement. She recently returned from Tallahassee after speaking with the governor about substance abuse prevention and has helped various areas in Florida pass laws on the subject.

“People should not drink under 21,” she said. “In Florida, the age to enter a club is 18, so those underage tend to drink before. But when you’re young, you’re not going to have just one drink.”

According to Snelling, a large number of people under the legal age limit drink, especially in Florida.

“It’s a really big problem,” Snelling said. “In Florida in 2010, 46 percent of high school seniors drank within the last week, compared to 41 percent nationally.”

In her position, Snelling has met people who ruined their lives from drinking, including pre-gaming. She is mainly concerned with eliminating the risk of DUIs, a major ramification of pre-gaming. With impaired judgment, people may think they’re safe to drive or drive with someone who’s intoxicated. Since pre-gaming refers to drinking before an event, some feel they’re okay to drive after a few hours. This is not the case. For instance, a blood alcohol level of 0.15 – anywhere from three to nine drinks based on the sex and weight of the person – will take 10 hours for the alcohol to leave the system. This is more or less constant for each individual.

“A DUI will change your entire life,” Snelling said. “You can lose your career, scholarships or even kill someone.”

It doesn’t take being an alcoholic to get a DUI, just one night of poor judgment. John Templeton, now 28, once thought the same thing many teenagers feel today: It will never happen to me.

His story begins with his first drink sophomore year of high school. He wasn’t a bad kid; he was brought up by a good family in Clearwater, Tampa and lettered in basketball and track and earned good grades. By senior year, he wasn’t just experimenting with friends. He was drinking more, and there were times when he blacked out.

“I just thought: You’re only young once,” Templeton said.

He was accepted to the University of Central Florida and transferred to the University of South Florida at 19. He was thriving in college, but began partying more, even during the week. But it was on November 23, 2002 that everything changed.

That night, Templeton was the designated driver of his group. He picked up his friends – who had pre-gamed before – and took them to a bar. He was given a bracelet, allowing him access to drinks. At 19 years old, he was excited to order whatever he wanted for himself and his friends. Though, no one thought about how they would be getting home.

“All I remember is waking up in St. Joseph’s Hospital handcuffed to a hospital gurney,” Templeton said. “A state trooper told me I was in a car crash that night, but I had no idea.”

The state trooper looked horrified as he told Templeton he had been driving the wrong way on the interstate and had a head-on collision with a Honda Civic. Templeton was in shock; he had never even gotten a speeding ticket.

Nothing prepared him for what he heard next. He had killed an 18-year-old girl named Julie Buchner on impact. Templeton went from a carefree college student to a DUI offender sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“I was screaming that I wanted to die,” he said. “It forever changed my life. I kept thinking of the young girl. I never thought anyone like me was capable of something like that.”

Templeton was so struck with guilt that he had to be placed in the suicide risk unit of the jail. Though, he was fortunate; Julie’s family forgave him and pled to the judge not to send him to jail, something the judge had never seen before. Instead of 15 years, Templeton spent two years in prison, a few more on house arrest and had his license revoked. But the experience was life altering. He couldn’t face his family, and two days after his release, he was on the front page of USF’s newspaper.

“I didn’t know what to do when I was released,” Templeton said. “I just wanted to die.”

Instead, he got involved. While Templeton was incarcerated, his father and brother started Footprints Beachside Recovery to help people with drug and alcohol addictions. Templeton now works with them and has gotten involved with TAC. He knows how difficult life is after experiencing a tragedy of this proportion.

“I wish someone would have gotten through to me,” he said. “I’m left with the reminder every day.”

He only recently got his license back and with a felony charge, getting a job isn’t easy. Even with those hardships, nothing compares to the fact that he is responsible for another’s death. He thinks about Julie every day.

“I always wonder what she could’ve been doing now,” he said. “But no one has a crystal ball. I never thought anything like that would happen. Julie never thought that would happened.”

Templeton has seen many people go down the slippery slope, so to help others avoid their own tragedies, he does presentations in schools and colleges to help prevent underage drinking and DUIs. As he sat in the bleachers during the homecoming game at his old high school, where his sister is currently a senior, the memories came rushing back to him.

“To think, this all started with me drinking before my high school football games,” Templeton said.