The Associated Press reported this week that alcohol overdose deaths among college students are on the rise.

An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year rose from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005.

Nevertheless, most colleges continue to impose greater penalties for student marijuana use than for student alcohol use.  In doing so, they push students toward using alcohol instead of marijuana and make alcohol use seem more acceptable despite the fact that marijuana use has never led to an overdose death in history (or any death for that matter).

SAFER was actually created in response to the growing trend of alcohol overdose deaths on college campuses, particularly those of Samantha Spady at Colorado State University and Lynn "Gordie" Bailey at the University of Colorado. We worked with students at both of those schools to pass student referenda calling on the universities to no longer punish students more for making the safer choice.

Since then, students at colleges around the country have approved similar SAFER measures. Unfortunately, administrators at just about all of those schools refuse to listen to the students and maintain policies that make alcohol use seem more acceptable than marijuana use despite it being FAR more harmful (and even deadly!).

Of course they are trying all sorts of things: 

Schools and communities have responded in a variety of ways, including programs to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of extreme drinking; designating professors to help students avoid overdoing it; and passing laws to discourage binge drinking.