A key aspect of Herten’s book is that the long-term health effects of excessive drinking often go unpublicized. Photo by Aimee Vasquez- Mustang Daily

Local physician Jeff Herten, M.D., is working to spread national awareness about the grave but often overlooked effects of alcohol consumption. His book, “The Sobering Truth,” outlines the health risks of drinking alcohol from a doctor’s, as well as a former alcoholic’s, perspective.

“I’m a recovering alcoholic,” said Herten. “I feel a calling to try to communicate with young people to steer them away from what are some of the incredible social and health hazards of alcohol consumption.”

Herten, while holding on to his professional life, used to be what he calls a “high-functioning alcoholic.” He said that he managed to hide his growing addiction to alcohol by drinking only at night and in the privacy of his home. Eight years ago, and after several unsuccessful attempts, he overcame his addiction and committed to writing a book about alcohol and its effects.

Herten currently runs a dermatology clinic on Santa Rosa Street, and has lived in San Luis Obispo for over 30 years.

“He’s an esteemed dermatologist from the area,” Dane Howalt, M.D., said.

Howalt is also a local physician and is certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He said that Herten is qualified to write a book on the health effects of alcohol because “Herten’s a board-certified physician, and has taken many years of medical school that have to do with the workings of the human body. Before one becomes a dermatologist, they are trained in the whole field of medicine. He certainly has both the undergrad and graduate training in the biochemistry of how things work.”

A key aspect of Herten’s book is that the long-term health effects of excessive drinking often go unpublicized. These secondary effects include an increased risk for over eight types of cancer, as well as depression, osteoporosis and fetal alcohol syndrome. And, “those effects are usually totally unknown,” he said.

Herten’s goal is to stop alcoholism before it starts by helping young adults make more informed choices. He is putting the information in “The Sobering Truth,” and his currently in-progress documentary, to be implemented in health programs at various universities and high schools across the country.

“Basically, he’s trying to educate youth,” said Jane Broshears, teacher at the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education and editor of “The Sobering Truth.”

Herten is funding the production and distribution of the book, and presented aspects of it to over 30 Cal Poly students Saturday morning. Delta Chi Vice President Matt Slette attended the event.

“My whole impression I guess is I’ve been to a lot of alcohol awareness events,” Slette said. “He wasn’t trying to use scare tactics. He was backing up all his claims with medical facts.”

Some students, however, remained skeptical.

“It seems like when people want to drink, they’re going to anyway. It seems like they don’t take the effects too seriously until something happens to someone they know,” architecture major Erin Osberg said. “They take it with a grain of salt.”

The National Institute of Health states that alcohol problems are highest in the 18-29 age group.

“I thought it was really informative, and it makes you think twice about some of the decisions we as college students make,” senior civil engineer Tanner Bennett said. “We’re in an environment where drinking is perfectly sociably acceptable. It’s the norm. But he’s a doctor, to be able to explain such things in such depth. The guy knew what he was talking about.”

Graphic by Kate McIntyre

Due to recent concerns that this past Week of Welcome (WOW) program was associated with an increase in alcohol consumption, citations and arrests, Vice President of Student Affairs Cornel Morton, who has been at Cal Poly for seven years, said the week before school this year was the worst in terms of alcohol use that he has seen. Morton is part of a committee recently formed to propose changes to WOW and the other orientation programs, some of which include a yearlong message campaign about the effects of alcohol abuse, notifying parents of underage drinking, keeping most returning students from moving on-campus during WOW and shortening WOW to three and a half days.

Morton wants to clarify that WOW is not responsible for the incidents that occurred during the week before school. In fact, WOW educates participants about alcohol abuse, encourages responsible community involvement and promotes drug-free activities, he said.

“WOW is not a bastion for alcohol abuse.”

Director of Student Life & Leadership Ken Barclay agreed, saying that WOW has a community service component, awareness programs and team building that mean a high retention rate of students returning for sophomore year.

“They also provide students with a big support group,” he said. “Many times it lasts throughout their years at Cal Poly.”

He added that they evaluate WOW and the other orientation programs annually, so having to make changes is not new.

Parental notification is another strategy being considered, not only during WOW but for the entire year, Morton said. It is permissible to notify parents when their underage student receives an alcohol violation under the 1998 Higher Education Act. Students will be told that their parents are being mailed a letter. The letter is not a judicial, simply a note of concern, Morton said.

Business junior Greg Hinchman said students should deal with legal consequences of alcohol and drug use on their own.

“Most of these kids are 18, so they (the school) should leave it up to the kid to tell their parent, because they’ll probably have to anyway,” he said.

This year, freshmen were on-campus 11 days before classes began. Barclay said they’re looking at how to best deliver the orientation programs next year without having so much time between move-in day and the start of classes.

“I think it’s a long time to be up here before classes begin; I think it’s problematic,” he said.

The three summer orientation programs, Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR), Fall Launch and WOW will be scheduled closer together and all three will address alcohol and abuse.

This September saw the first Fall Launch, a program hosted by University Housing Saturday to Monday to establish a community dynamic, educate students about Cal Poly’s Learning Objectives and on-campus resources and connect students and faculty.

Ninety-eight percent of the freshman class (3,815 students) participated in Fall Launch Class of 2013. Of those, 1,263 took a survey after the program concluded. The results were positive, Associate Director of Housing Carol Schaffer said. The survey said that an overwhelming majority of participants were more familiar with the campus and felt connected to Cal Poly (95 percent) and met people they felt comfortable hanging out with (96 percent) and understood community expectations of making choices that are mature, responsible and respectful (97 percent).

The program was successful in helping students learn community standards and offering drug-free activities that set the standard for the year. It also helped students establish a support structure, Schaffer said.

“The ability to meet with students and have their attention for those first days to build community roommate to roommate, floor to floor and building to building, what I saw by Sunday afternoon was impressive,” she said.

The decrease in community standards violations from 2008 to 2009 indicated a 25 percent decrease; there was also an 83 percent decrease in housing license revocations.

In addition, this year returning students were allowed to move into on-campus housing a week before the start of school, but Morton said that University Housing is considering letting only certain students like orientation leaders, athletes, student volunteers and employees move in that early next year.

WOW already addresses alcohol abuse and consequences, but Andrene Kaiwi-Lenting, assistant director of Student Life & Leadership, said the program is making changes for next fall, including shortening the program from the usual five days to three and a half days next fall.

“WOW is resolving what it can … You will see significant changes, but it won’t be foolproof,” she said.

Psychology sophomore Geneva Licht said WOW shouldn’t be associated with alcohol consumption. It’s normal for freshmen to want to go out when they get to college; people off campus are facilitating the issue of alcohol consumption with a ‘WOWies are welcome’ attitude. The program tries to counteract the issue by keeping students late at night, but it can’t do much more, she said.

“I think the WOW program does all it can,” she said.

Kinesiology junior Chad Crockett added that returning students come back early because they know it’s a big party time, but there isn’t a feasible way to prevent that.

“It’s a large contribution, but it’s out of anybody’s hands, including WOW,” he said.

Kaiwi-Lenting said that WOW already offers freshmen opportunities to have drug-free fun with activities on-campus and in the local community from early in the morning to late at night, but it can’t and won’t babysit participants, she said.

“I don’t think it’s WOW’s responsibility to keep people off the streets, but it is to give them options,” Kaiwi-Lenting said.

Recreation, parks and tourism administration junior and 2009 WOW leader Ryan Swearingen, said he talked about alcohol with his WOWies and advised them not to drink, but knows that students will choose to drink anyway.

“Knowing that some students will still choose to drink alcohol, no matter how much you encourage otherwise, I advised my WOWies that above all, they need to be responsible,” he said. “They need to think about how their choices can affect them, and how they can affect other people as well.”

Swearingen does not like the idea of shortening WOW to three and a half days. Some of the main purposes of WOW are to meet new people, establish friendships and connections, become familiar with the campus and community and become aware of issues students face everyday as a college community. All of these things are critical to student success, he said.

“Shortening WOW in order to limit the opportunities for freshmen to drink/party/get into trouble is a great idea at first glance,” he said. “But before we jump into this, look at other schools. These kinds of problems happen everywhere, whether it is during the weekends before school starts or during the first weeks of classes. Before we decide to shorten WOW, we need to remember how much good WOW does, and look at how shortening WOW could influence that.”

The committee includes representatives from Student Affairs, University Housing, Student Life and Leadership, Campus Dining, University Police Department, San Luis Obispo Police Department and the Health Center. They are meeting weekly with hopes of presenting a plan to President Warren Baker and Provost Robert Koob early November.

Most students want to start a new school year on a positive note, but that wasn’t the case for some students who attended parties during the Week of Welcome, Cal Poly’s orientation program.

The University Police Department (UPD) gave 42 citations and arrested 43 people between move-in day Sept. 12 and Sept. 21. Stock Photo

UPD Chief Bill Watton said almost all of the arrests and citations were for alcohol-related incidences.

Watton also said that UPD increased patrols for the Week of Welcome and the first few weeks of school.

The San Luis Obispo Police Department also issued more than 80 citations from Sept. 10 to Sept. 21, including 49 citations for open containers, 16 for noise violations and 12 for urinating in public. The San Luis Obispo Police Department also arrested more than 25 people for a variety of offenses, including public intoxication, driving under the influence, one case of driving under the influence that resulted in an injury, battery and resisting arrest.

There were also two Cal Poly students arrested for trespassing early Sunday and Monday mornings, according to a press release from the San Luis Obispo Police Department. Both students did not know where they were; the disorientation was the result of alcohol intoxication.

San Luis Obispo police Capt. Ian Parkenson said, despite the tone of the university that the amount of patrolling was about the same as in previous years. He added that while this year’s activity was about the same as in past years it began earlier.

“We noticed problems starting on Saturday this year after the end of the football game,” he said.

The San Luis Obispo Police Department and UPD did not have the total number of arrests and citations for the Week of Welcome last year.
Area hospitals saw an increase in traffic during Week of Welcome festivities. Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center spokesperson Ron Yukelson said that the hospital had seen a “sharp spike” in alcohol-related incidents since Week of Welcome began. It treated one individual who had a blood alcohol content of .38, extremely close to the .39 to .45 percent of recently deceased Cal Poly student Carson Starkey.

Yukelson said the hospital wants to combat the fear and anxiety some students might feel about seeking medical help for friends or loved ones. “It’s very important to bring in friends and loved ones who are severely intoxicated—don’t let them sleep or put them to bed—bring them in,” he said.

Furthermore, Yukelson stressed the hospital’s ‘safe zone’ policy, which protects underage drinkers from police intervention.

“We’re a safe zone, so you don’t need to worry about us calling your parents or the police,” he said.

The office of university president Warren Baker sent a campus-wide e-mail Wednesday informing students of acceptable partying practices, encouraging them to keep gatherings under control by calling campus police if they see illegal behavior.

The e-mail urged students to make “wise and responsible choices” including checking IDs at the door of parties to ensure no underage individuals are drinking alcohol.

Student Affairs also sent out an e-mail on Friday about a student who was kicked out of his dorm just a few hours after moving in when he was caught smoking marijuana.

The total number of residents evicted from the dorms was not provided by the time of publication.

For local students celebrating one final week of summer vacation with alcohol-filled events, police want to send the message that drunken behavior won’t be tolerated. Students should expect an increased police presence and DUI checkpoints both on-campus and around town for the next few weeks.

“Since Saturday, we’re up to 20 arrests for DUI and Drunk in Public,” said University Police Department Chief Bill Watton. “Most issues are with continuing students partying the week before school starts, although a few incidents involve freshmen.” Watton added that his department would work with San Luis Obispo Police Department to crack down on alcohol-related incidents by increasing police department throughout town.

While campus and local police step up patrols, area hospitals area also seeing an increase in traffic  during Cal Poly’s Week of Welcome (WOW)festivities. Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center spokesperson Ron Yukelson said that the hospital had seen a “sharp spike” in alcohol-related incidents since WOW began, even treating one individual who had a blood alcohol content of .38.

Yukelson said the hospital wants to combat the fear and anxiety some students might feel about seeking medical help for friends or loved ones. “It’s very important to bring in friends and loved ones who are severely intoxicated—don’t let them sleep or put them to bed—bring them in,” he said.

Furthermore, Yukelson stressed the hospital’s ‘safe zone’ policy, which protects underage drinkers from police intervention.

“We’re a safe zone, so you don’t need to worry about us calling your parents or the police,” he said.

The office of university president Warren Baker sent a campus-wide email Wednesday informing students of acceptable partying practices, encouraging them to keep gatherings under control by calling campus police if they see illegal behavior.

The e-mail urged students to make “wise and responsible choices” including checking IDs at the door of parties to ensure no underage individuals are drinking alcohol.

Heavy drinkers of beer and spirits face a much higher risk of developing cancer, according to three epidemiologists and cancer researchers from Montreal, whose  results were published in the journal “Cancer Detection and Prevention.”

The researchers found statistically significant relationships between heavy consumption of beer and spirits and six different cancers: esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer.

People who drank the most increased their risk of developing oesophageal cancer sevenfold, colon cancer by 80 percent and lung cancer by 50 percent.

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009, there will be 152, 170 new cancer cases in California, made up of 16,470 esophageal; 21,130 stomachl 106,100 colon; 22,620 liver; 42,470 pancreatic; 219,440 lung and 192,280 prostate cancer cases.

On the bright side, the researchers found that generally, people who drank less were affected less or not at all.
“It is people who drink every day or multiple times a day who are at risk,” Dr. Andrea Benedetti said in a press release.

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans defines moderation as ” the consumption of up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.”

 There are other problems associated with heavy alcohol consumption.

“Students who drink excessively have higher rates of injuries, assaults, academic problems, arrests, vandalism, and other health and social problems, compared with their non-drinking counterparts,” according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

How often do you drink and have you noticed any impact on your relationships, academic or athletic performance? Do you consider the health consequences when drinking?

Summer is on the horizon and to celebrate the ordeal, students have been planning trips to kick it off just right.

Inevitably, crowds of older students, especially those who have recently turned 21, are going to think that it’s a great idea to head to Las Vegas — and what college student wouldn’t? The place is nicknamed Sin City for a reason, as it is infamous for encouraging promiscuous, scandalous and shameful activities. With slogans like, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” and “Desperate times call for desperate fun,” even the television advertisements promote the town’s sleaziness.

Right now, nobody wants you to go to Vegas more than the city itself. With the recent economic downturn, Sin City is suffering. According to an article at The Press Enterprise’s Web site titled “Las Vegas Casinos attempting to withstand struggling economy,” the largest casino corporations in the world are either losing money or not making very much. Harrah’s lost $415.1 million in 2008 after earning $667.2 million in 2007. MGM-Mirage earned $292.7 million in 2008, a 59 percent drop from the $712.21 million it made in 2007.

I have personally been to Las Vegas twice since I turned 21. I’ll admit that it is easy to have a good time in Vegas and the city undoubtedly lives up to the ridiculous, over-the-top hype it receives. However, if you are a college student planning on heading to the desert soon, I urge you to reconsider your plans and here are five reasons why:

5) It is extremely expensive: Whatever amount of money you are planning to bring to Vegas is not enough. Unless you have a few thousand dollars to blow over a few days, it is hard to really enjoy yourself. Vegas is like an enormous adult amusement park in that your money transforms into “fun tickets.” The only problem is that restaurants and drinks at bars are obscenely overpriced. You are also perpetually surrounded by gambling, which usually sucks your money away instead of blowing it in your face. Shows like Cirque Du Soleil are entertaining but pricey, at around $80 dollars for a ticket.

4) Everybody is older than you: While there is a younger crowd, the majority of the people you will see are probably in their late 20s or older. It is hard for 21-year-olds to fit in at most casinos and employees will not not take you seriously. People who look even moderately young get their IDs checked constantly, especially at high-end casinos. It gets annoying.

3) It’s crowded and hard to get around: Even in a recession, Vegas is very crowded. Driving from one end of the strip to the other takes at least 30 minutes because of all the stoplights and pedestrian traffic. Walking is usually the best option. While the strip is an entertaining place to be, trying to get from place to place can be a hassle. Pedestrians are forced into taking roundabout routes over large overpasses just to cross the street. While these structures are necessary because of all the traffic, they are scarcely dispersed. On weekends, table games at casinos are always packed and it takes a while to get a table at even a decent restaurant.

2) Vegas is shady: I can’t believe families go on vacations to Vegas. Every street is lined with annoying people who whistle at you and offer advertisements for the endless amount of escort services that are available. People are legally allowed to carry alcoholic beverages on the streets, a concept that some would object to. The club scene may seem cool, but many of the people who hang out at them are old, drunk and/or drugged out. Most people on the strip are tourists and guys especially feel the need to put on a charade and play the baller and douchebag parts even if they aren’t one, making confrontations highly probable. The city is high on materialism and low on morals.

1) You can lose your life savings: It’s easy to joke about losing all your money in Vegas, and some people expect to. However, one weekend of fun is not worth it. Gambling is extremely hard to walk away from, especially when you are winning. A night at the casinos can quickly burn a hole in your pocket. Some people do not realize they are gambling addicts until it’s too late. Losing a lot of money plus hangover equals you and your conscience feeling like crap on the trip back home.

For those who insist on going to Las Vegas (I can’t really blame you), I have some tips you should consider. First, do not stay longer than two nights. By then you will be burnt out and and so will your finances. Do not bother booking an expensive luxury suite. You will probably be out and about most of the time, so an affordable room at a lower-end casino works just fine.

When you go out at night, bring only the amount of cash you are willing to lose. This way you will feel like a winner if you have any money at the end of the night but won’t lose sleep if you lose it all. Do not under any circumstance get a cash advance, as it collects interest daily

If you get really drunk, try as hard as you can not to gamble recklessly because you will be more impulsive (and stupid) than normal. Also, keep in mind that Nevada has much stricter laws against marijuana possession than California so watch out.

Chris Jagger is a journalism senior and a Mustang Daily reporter.