I don't think this is anything new. The power hour is new since I turned 21 but it was expected when I turned 21 to get as drunk as possible as soon as it was midnight and then again the next night (or all day). It is sad because I know now that this is not the path to having fun and obviously it can be deadly. It has taken me a long time to learn that maturity doesn't come with turning 21.

I've only been hurl-drunk once in my life. I was drinking socially in my own apartment with my roommates and some of their friends in college, and a girl I might have had a thing for gave me the impression that she'd be impressed if she knew I could put away a half liter of vodka in one night.

So I did. Straight.

Failed to heed dear old Dad's advice vis a vis vodka, though: Always drink it standing up. Because if you drink it sitting down you won't be able to get up. I fell out of a chair.

I didn't pass out, or completely lose my faculties (I still remember the rest of the night) but I did call up Captain Hurk on the porcelain communicator.

I imagine that girl really gave me the horse laugh while I was yukking it up in the head.

After that I never really drank again. A beer here or a rum and coke (light on the rum) there, but that's it. I'll drink for the taste, but getting drunk holds no appeal for me after having done it once.

Are people expected to do so? Not where I come from. Nobody drank in my lovely little sheltered world, and we liked it that way. Typical family problems? Sure. A thick coating of alcohol-related frosting on top of them all? Nope.

As one of those prudish non-drinkers, I wish everyone understood the enjoyment of clear-headed celebration, the fun of remembering where you were and who you were with and what you laughed about--rather than a fog of intoxication. (Yes, there is the nice happy glow that modest-drinking friends have told me about, and no, I do not condemn them.)

As a libertarian and a realist, I know the human desire to alter consciousness chemically is too strong to eradicate, and will backfire if you try. As long as there is pain in life, and a lack of insight about how more of certain enjoyable thing can actually be worse than less of it, there will be sad incidents such as this.

It could also be argued, from a libertarian perspective, that drinking age laws have actually made situations like this worse by turning alcohol into forbidden fruit. I would guess that in countries where alcohol is introduced to kids gradually and in a family setting, there's a lot less mystery about alcohol and a lot less need to view its excessive consumption as a rite of passage.

We talk with our kids all the time about alcohol--what it does, how it works, how your body treats it as a poison. I don't characterize social drinkers as sinners or drunks--I just point out that they act silly and some of them go on to wreck their lives, so maybe it's better to just keep your distance. Unrealistic? Maybe in your world. I know quite a lot of people who've never touched a bit of alcohol, and feel no need to.

People will be people, and the herd will inevitably (and sadly) thin from time to time, no matter how many laws you pass.

I think this is a pretty normal expectation of most who turn 21. Three years ago on my 21st, I was surprised by the 'generosity' of total strangers at the bar who wanted to buy me shots and mixed drinks, simply because it was my 21st. Not to mention, some of my friends who ponied up to the bar and were in constant communication with the bar tender about my next drink.

All that said, I appreciate people wanting to help me celebrate my birthday. But I also deeply appreciated those who were looking out for my better interest that night and kindly cut me off when necessary, and helped me graciously ward off un-needed drinks from generous strangers.

I think a lot of the '21st birthday attitude' of getting completely blitzed is related to peer pressure and social norms. Unfortunately, consuming alchohol with partying friends isn't necessarily the best situation for making safe decisions.

The best way to turn 21 is with at least one responsible and loyal friend by your side looking out for you. While your deciding who will be that kind of friend, you also need to set some boundaries for yourself. Turning 21 isn't just about being able to drink legally, it's also about that responsibility that comes along with drinking.

Lets not forget that there is no newsworthiness about reporting when someone doesn't drink in excess, or not at all on their 21st birthday. There of course is much newsworthiness about reporting regarding someone who potentially drank to the point of death on their 21st birthday. The fact that a person dies in a given year from drinking too much on their 21st should not be suggestive that the practice is happening any more than it always has occurred. This just happens to be a situation where perhaps everything was aligned perfectly for the mixture of a deadly cocktail: inexperience with drinking, too little to eat, possible mixing with other drugs, and too much encouragement-or not enough discouragement by on-lookers. The way to control this in my opinion is by simple smarts. Friends, like those that don't let their friends drive drunk, shouldn't let friends drink themselves to such extents. Can I stop a friend from having another? Probably not in most cases. But I can control my ability to buy them shot after shot or round after round which is exactly what is going on during a 21st birthday. And, the servers have a role as well. We have educated and professional servers in Minnesota who understand when too much is too much. Unfortunately there are some bad apples in the bunch. Nevertheless, these things do happen and may happen again, but that doesn't mean it's a new trend.

I'm a 23-year-old bartender from Mankato, and while I wasn't in town this past weekend, I know I've served plenty of people celebrating their 21st birthday. I never experienced "power hour" when I turned 21. Luckily, it was raining so hard that night, no one wanted to go to the bars. So I lucked out.
But let us not lose sight here: These kids...Amanda, too, I would suspect...are putting themselves in this position. They mark their 21st birthday as a coming of age, and getting deathly drunk is the rite of passage. This tradition has been a constant my four years of college. I don't know why some make it and some don't
I think a realistic expectation is that peers in this situation should be aware of the signs of alcohol poisoning. To leave someone that drunk unattended is begging for trouble. I think college students are aware of the preventative measures — don't drink in excess, drink water, blah blah blah — but they're never taught reaction. Just a thought.
This is sad. All things considered, it would be my wish to never have to serve someone on their 21st birthday. I would hate to have that on my conscience.

Back in the day, we could drink 3.2 beer at bars when we turned 18. By the time we turned 21, drinking was no big deal. We were already shuffling around our apartments in tattered slippers and shabby clothes, shaking our world-weary heads at the crazy ways of the young.

Absolutely this is the case. There have been so many instances where people hear "come on, come on...don't wuss out on me" from their friends that later they can't remember if it was their idea or someone else's.

Just last month, my fiancee's cousin turned 21. Now the idea was that he was going to drink at home so that there was no drinking and driving involved. Of course, some bright bulb decided this was going to be at our house, even though we went to bed, leaving the 21 year old, my fiancee's brother, his girlfriend, and a family friend downstairs.

Within 2 hours, the 21 year old had consumed a Long Island, a couple beers, shots upon shots of who knows what, plus 2/3 a bottle of Rumplemintz, all on an empty stomach. Had my fiancee not gone downstairs to investigate a loud boom and called the paramedics, the 21 year old would not have survived. He was rushed to the ER, where they told him he had a Blood Alcohol level of .40, and that was after puking!

Yes, it can be considered a right of passage to turn 21, but come on people! Don't you still want to make it to 22? Think about it.

I'm 24 and I actually don't drink much at all. However, I'm very aware of the big 2-1. I'm constantly around people who talk about being drunk or how they plan on getting drunk. People have given me a hard time for turning down a shot. They've also given me a hard time for not getting "wasted." I do stick up for myself, but it is hard to be viewed as "not normal" to a lot of people who view drinking heavily as a norm. I do admit that I sometimes have ordered an additional drink because of peer pressure. There's an expectation to drink when 20-somethings are out having a good time. Personally I don't need to be drunk to have a good time, but the pressure to drink does exist.

21 is the infamous age where most people go out and get black-out drunk. It has become a requirement to turning legal. People who have already surpassed that age have stories to tell. Those who are about to turn 21 have plans that consist of party buses and bar hopping until he or she can drink no more. It's almost as if people feel the need to have a good story to tell so they can top other's stories of public drunkeness.

Not remembering your 21st birthday was standard operating procedure in the late 80s when I made it to that age. My impression is that nothing has changed in that regard.

Always so, I say. The only places I've lived where it seemed to not be are those European countries with no effective minimum age. I hate to be the guy who makes the Euro-argument, but there's some truth there. Denmark is at the top of the per-capita booze consumption list, but that's because they drink moderately and consistently. The Brits, however, with their limit at 18, still produce quite a bit of overdrinkers.

I still support setting the US limit at 18--get the initial transgressive "woo hoo I'm a grownup now" boozefest out of the way in high school, and college might be a more moderate place.

I agree with the other posters, that drinking and the necessary "gosh-I'm-21-let's-get-plastered" ritual is unfortunately part of the American fabric and likely is here to stay. But this girl had already had two DUIs before her 21st birthday, which as most people know, means she did a lot more drinking and driving than on those two times. A lot more drinking, period. Somehow that continued until she was dead and nothing stopped her, even legal consequences didn't make being drunk less attractive an option for her.

My father was a life-long alcoholic who eventually died of cirrhosis last year. He never got sober, really~ despite many rounds of rehab and intermittent AA attendance. He spoke many times fondly of drinking in his teens and getting drunk at ball games, New Years' parties, passing out at Thanksgiving, the ritual in his day of having a cocktail before dinner, a drink with dinner, an after-dinner drink maybe and a nightcap possibly too. Beers at lunch. Culture. Standard. Accepted. I picked him up from rehab one time and took him out to breakfast where he promptly ordered a gin and tonic. He bitterly said to me, "I JUST want to be able to have a drink with my meal like everyone else!" Even though that meal was breakfast. To him, he was missing out by being sober. Missing out on the American Experience which twisted itself into an addiction but was culturally encouraged. Maybe we need to examine the ritual of the 21st birthday binge-and-barf, and all of the other "drinking required" events that we celebrate. Maybe drunkedness is something that needs to be made less attractive, less "oh it's a part of life, get out there and parTAY!!" to the generations at hand. There's nothing very nostalgic or noble or American or life-like about the dark death of an alcohol overdose or addiction, whether it is at 21 or 69.

Getting wasted on your 21st is absolutley expected. When I turned 21 a few years ago I went to the bar with some friends to enjoy the novelty of my first time in a bar. Sure, I looked forward to drinking some but I tried to make it clear that I had no interest in shots. They make me sick and I'd heard stories like this one before.
To prove that it is expected to drink as much as possible, people refused to listen to me and continued to buy me shots. When I wouldn't drink them, they'd get mad at me and make fun of me. This went on all night, and actually led to a pretty crappy overall experience.
I find it sad that it's so expected to get wasted that no one seems to think or care about the potential consequences. My friend got so wasted on her 21st that she woke up at someone's house and she had no idea where she was.
I wonder what can be done to change this attitude people my age and younger have towards drinking. I don't think lowering the drinking age to 18 will magically help.In European countries lower drinking ages work, but then again, alcohol is presented in a different way . It would take an entire societal mindset change to really make any difference. THe important thing then is to make sure to teach your kids about responsible drinking and like the person above said, how to respond to someone who may have alcohol poisoning. It would be a start, anyway.

It would seem that the young lady had a problem that way.

It's a sad thing, but based on that history, it could probably have happened last weekend, or next weekend, if not on her birthday.

We tell the kids that they are now adults and able to make their own decisions, and then are saddened by those who prove to make one too many wrong ones. And it is a shame. But there isn't much that can be done, short of reinstituting Prohibition. And we all know how well that worked. I'm sure nobody ever killed themselves with alcohol poisoning while that was in effect.

Im getting older now (27), but when msyelf and my friends turned 21 that was the case, you drank everthing they sent at you. A right of passage you could say. Did we have any close calls...yes myself and another friend, a deadly amount of liquor. I think it differs from groups of people, but I still believe that this is a large problem. I have younger brothers and sisters and always warn them of the dangers.

I dont think its anyones right on here to pass judgement on this lady because of what you have read or heard on the news. Because she had a few DUI's yes first thought is she has issues. But we really have no right to pass that kind of judgement on exspecially at this point in time anymore.

Yes, the youth now days doesnt make very wise choices. I'm 23 and i know ppl that are way older then me that act like there 18 when they are out drinking...so dont pass the age thing on here.....

everyone seems to have issues at some time.

The legal age was 18 back in my day. And the laws were laxly enforced. I had a construction job during the summers of my high school years. In those days, when it was your turn to buy the beer after work, the old "I'm only 16" excuse didn't cut it: it was your turn and you were buying.

This made the exact day of turning 18 much less important. I don't have any idea what I did on my 18th birthday. Probably nothing special. It also meant that being "legal" was no big deal, which meant drinking itself wasn't as important, at least not in my circles.

Why can't lawmakers understand that the harder you lean on something like drinking (or smoking or drugs), the more attractive you make it for young people?

I was once first on the scene to a call at a bar where a woman had passed out. She was a woman I knew quite well, laying in a heap on the floor, surrounded by "friends" who were headed for the floor themselves soon. It was her 36th birthday, and her friends had decided that she should celebrate by downing 36 shots during the duration of her birthday. She was a very slender woman, and passed out after six. I wanted to take her friends in on reckless endagerment, but was told that since she willingly drank the stuff, I would be wasting my time.

I dislike DUIs intensely, and am always happy when I get one off the road.

...For that matter, I haven't drank a drop of alcohol since then either (for religious reasons, but I suspect that being too drunk to remember what you did the night before is an experience that turns out to be highly overrated anyway.)

I am 25 and had my "power (2) hours" a few years back. What it turns out to be is passing down the "hazing" of turning 21 to the next person who turns 21. Your cousins who were older made you drink a ton on your 21st, then you do it to your buddy when he turns 21 a month after you, and he joins you when you make another pal drink until he pukes on his birthday 3 months later, and so on... But while I feel dumb for doing these things, it comes down to simply doing something else on your 21st and peer pressure if you do go out. And keep in mind, while it may have been a dumb idea to go out in the first place, the more you drink the less aware you are of the consequences of your decisions, which is why a good friend is always a good idea.

I thought I was the only one that picked up on the fact that this kid had not one - but TWO DWI's prior to turning 21. She was prohibited from drinking and it didn't do jack to stop her. Sad she's gone, but you are right - she had a problem and was doomed.

Only thankful that she didn't kill anbody else. Her own death is bad enough - but you cannot legislate personal responsibility! Personal opinion, I don't think the 21 year old drinking age works. I was legal to drink in MN at 19 (and did plenty before that age) and it was 18 in Wisconsin. Plenty of border road trips that year - yet never had a DWI.

I am saddened that a family lost their little girl today. She was much too young to pass.

But lets me honest and realistic for a moment. Young people die, tragically, everyday. Beit car accident, health issues, or stupidity. Unfortunately for this young woman it was clearly stupidity that led to ultimate demise.

While I truly question the need for a newspaper article to quote at length from a Facebook page, or to quote from seom MSU flier as if it were expert testimony, and of course the relevance of her past criminal record-at least in this regard it rings some relevence to the overall question the article posed regarding 21st birthdays.

This gal clearly had a serious drinking problem, and not in the pathetic excuse for a definition of binge drinking 4 beers at once like problem. She was caught driving drunk twice, and while the details are not provided, I would guess it was for far more than the legal limit. Someone in her family should have intervened, it could have help saved her life.

If a person has no self control, they are at risk for a colapse of epic proportions around their 21st birthday. That is the issue, not the fact a 21 year old is not "Experienced" enough with booze, clearly this 21 year old was, to know what its negative affects can be. Its not that she didnt know when to say enough, its that she didnt care and didnt want to.

And please, for you non-drinkers, why even post? You sound like a bunch of momma's boy/girl sallies that really have no idea what this issue is about.

Does anybody celebrate his 18th birthday by smoking a whole pack of cigarettes? Could be a new tradition!

I may be the oldest person to respond but having 21 shots on your 21st birthday was not the norm when I was 21 however, at that time a person could legally drink at the age of 18. The news worthy article would be to study the number of deaths among college/high school students when the drinking age was 18 or 19 vs 21. Has raising the legal drinking age to 21 had a positive effect? I don't think so. On the surface, it appears to be worse.

Did anyone notice the Playboy hat she's wearing in that photo? Who wears those? Straight-laced girls who are responsible about drinking?

Sure.

I am so very disappointed in over half you people that have posted something about Amanda! None of you knew her! I can tell you though that I did! How can you just past judgement onto someone young that you didn't know anything about. All you know is that she went out drinking on her 21st birthday, which is normal for someone to do. She is not the only person out there that got 2 DUI's under that age of 21! There are so many more people out there in the world that is 1000 times worse then that! I wish you people wouldn't be so quick to judge someone when you do not even know the real reason why she died! So I suggest you people get the full story, instead of the media's view point, before you go and pass judgement on someone. You people make me so sick thinking you are perferct! Just to let you know you aren't! No one is so I ask you to stop judging her and what she did!

I'm a relatively ancient 29 now, and it was certainly common practice among my peers.

Though not universal. I personally didn't indulge on the night of the Big 21. I had a party at my house, complete with keg, but I was too busy cleaning up after everyone else to really enjoy myself. My husband (at the time) ended up passed out in the bathroom; one of his friends threw up in the yard. I went to bed sober at a reasonable hour.

That said, I'm no innocent. I never hung with a particularly wild crowd, but there but for the grace of God, you know? I've sure done some binge drinking in my day. The 21 year old in question sounds like a good young woman who had a lapse in judgment - which we've all had. People make mistakes. Most of the time, our mistakes aren't fatal, but every once in a while...

I don't think it indicates a massive epidemic of alcoholism among our young adults. It's just a personal tragedy.

I turned 18 at the end of 1972. Absolutely no one that I knew, either older or younger, ever heard of a "tradition" of binge drinking (or whatever you call it if you just massively consume alcohol in one setting)when you turned the legal age to drink, whether it was 21 or 18.
I believe that there were two reasons for this.
One was that everybody drank alcohol. Being an alcoholic was something that one tried to hide. The same with drunk driving and other abuses regarding alcohol. So, it simply wasn't such a big deal to either drink or get drunk. People did it. Children did not, but teenagers tried to get away with it. After the first major drunk, at whatever age, one had passed the rite of passage and usually realized that the accompanying stupidities and disgusting bodily betrayals were not so much fun. Temperance then, usually, won out.
The second reason is the same as the first.
Somehow... we simply weren't as stupid as our counterparts appear to be today.
It's difficult to qualify that idea today as we did get drunk; we did drink underage; and we did do stupid things when we were drunk. But, it simply did not have the cachet that it seems to have today.
In the day, anyone drinking enough to do themselves or anyone else, serious damage, was more to be censured than pitied.
Those kind of people were considered losers and unfit to be any kind of cool.
Maybe that's the difference.
We judged people by their behavior. Even stupid, irresponsible teenagers.

that she graduated from a public school, then EVERY SINGLE YEAR she got a class on the fact that alcohol can kill.

If she still had her license, then she had a class that included the fact that ALCOHOL CAN KILL.

I don't care WHAT other folks did-- the simple facts focus on what SHE did. Which is poison herself with a substance she should have known better than to have abused so hard.

You want to scream at folks for being so mean? GO SCREAM AT HER SO-CALLED FRIENDS. They were with her. They probably cheered her on as she drank every drink. They had the same classes.

You want to so some actual good? Go comfort her parents. Heaven knows that they're going to need it, because they'll be asking themselves "what could I have done?" and "is my baby dying my fault?" (Short answer: no. You can't live anyone else's life.)

But stop getting mad at folks who are stating the simple truth-- this young woman had so many chances, and she made choices which caused her death, and those choices extended further back than the night of her death.

I don't remember my 18th or my 21st birthdays. Apparently they were unremarkable occasions.

Probably I was in college and had other things to do.

Then again, nothing was particularly prohibited by age then. You could drink or smoke if you wanted any old time.

I wish you people wouldn't be so quick to judge someone when you do not even know the real reason why she died! So I suggest you people get the full story, instead of the media's view point, before you go and pass judgement on someone.

You could tell that part of the story here.

No amount of legislation (or education) will protect us from our own stupidity. I am truly sorry for the families of those who've lost their lives from alcohol poisoning, but the bottom line is - they should've known better.

This article was actually left on my bed by my mother this morning... My 21st birthday is in a little over a month and she has been pretty vocal about her fears.

I have watched some pretty crazy 21st birthdays at the bar... EVERYONE buys the birthday boy/girl shots, they cheer them on, and even encourage them to throw up.

When it comes down to it, you have to know your limits... If you really waited to drink until your 21st birthday to have any kind of alcohol, you should probably only have a few drinks.

Simple as that.

I am not going to be affraid to turn down shots, and I plan to have a couple sober friends around to make sure I don't go overboard.

I still have about 8 months to go before my 21st birthday. It's come up casually a time or two in conversation with my friends (who are all already over 21) and to us, it isn't really that big of a deal.

I'll already have been in college for almost three years by then, and as most people realize, in college being underage doesn't really limit your ability to get alcohol if you want to. So yes, I'll probably go to a bar or two on my birthday. But I've also seen drunk idiots, learned about classmates getting DUIs, and heard "that stupid thing I did while I was wasted" stories. And those are enough to know that there really isn't that much appeal in getting completely bombed, especially in public.

A significant number of my peers still go out and get drunk on their birthdays, and I realize that that creates a poor view of 21-year-olds as a whole. Those are the only stories you hear about--not those who were responsible with their new legal status, but those who chose to abuse it. But I'd like to speak for the unpublicized group of us who think those drunken "power hour" kids are just plain losers. It's not attractive to be mumbling and stumbling, and birthday or not I refuse to be a part of that.

If it's common for people's friends to encourage that sort of behavior, then there are a lot of 21-year-olds who need to find some new friends.