EXCEL Academy of Texas, a fully accredited co-educational boarding school for teens, combines college preparatory academics with a strong culture of recovery from substance abuse to serve troubled and underachieving teenagers. Located one hour north of Houston, EXCEL Academy is situated on 35 acres in a rural, ranch style setting and follows a traditional 12-step philosophy. 
Recently, Jesse Drews and his friends went to a Wisconsin tavern to celebrate his 21st birthday. He got home around 1 a.m. Three hours later, his parents took him to an emergency room where he died. His blood alcohol level was at 0.38.
Local authorities believe that Jesse Drews was participating in the "21 Ritual." This is a rite of passage in which birthday celebrants drink 21 drinks in a row, usually whiskey shots. Afterward, many of them post videos and photos of the event on Internet websites like YouTube and MySpace.
According to The New York Times, four out of five Americans go out drinking on their 21st birthdays, and many drink to excess. Researchers at the University of Missouri, in a report published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, found that 34 percent of the men and 24 percent of the women in their study participated in the "21 Ritual" on their birthdays.
At this level of drinking, many people will reach a blood alcohol level of 0.26 or higher. As few as 10 drinks can push the level to 0.30 in some people. At the 0.30 point, respiration can become so slow that the person can die.
"There is a myth out there that drinking has to be a rite of passage," according to Jay Jaffee, a coordinator who has over 30 years experience in the field of substance abuse with the Minnesota Department of Health. Jaffee says many college students play "Beer Pong," a team sport involving a ping-pong table. If a team fails to throw a ball into a line of cups filled with beer, the team must drink all the beer on the table. Anheuser-Busch was giving away ping-pong tables in 2005, while declaring that the official rules of the game called for cups of water, not beer.
The 21 Ritual, Beer Pong, and other drinking games portray drinking as fun and normal, but many teens do not understand that such binges can be deadly. Dr. Clayton Neighbors and others from the University of Washington's Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors are doing a pilot study of Internet-based interventions. So far, they have found that when teens understand the dangers of binge drinking, they reduce the number of drinks they consume.
Dr. Neighbors commented, "One of the problems is that a lot of these kids don't realize that 21 drinks an hour can kill you."
Learn more about the effects of binge drinking at DrugRehabTreatment.com.