The recent article on detox ("Ending up in detox," Oct. 25) is another example of lazy reporting by your paper. Rather than investigating the real causes of the upswing in detox visits by students, the reporter simply took the statements of police officers and detox center staff at face value. This article perpetrates the stereotype of students as drunkards by characterizing those brought to detox as uniformly being unable to control their feces and/or urine in addition to "puking out their noses." Given that the threshold Blood Alcohol Concentration for being taken to detox is only .16, I sincerely doubt this is the case.

Rather than a function of increased binge drinking, as claimed by your article, I would argue that the increase in detox visits is a result of increased police presence, both downtown on weekend nights and at football games. Anyone who has been a student for the past few years, as I have, could tell you that the average student this year is no drunker than in years past. What has changed, however, is the massive influx of police officers brought about by the Downtown "Safety" Initiative. I guess Mayor Dave Cieslewicz needed a new way to spend the taxpayers’ money now that the streetcar plan is off the table.

I also take issue with the suggestion that being taken to detox is not a "punitive measure." If being taken to a "low-security prison" and being forced to pay $365 in fees is not a bad thing, please tell me what is. Not to mention the prospect of non-academic misconduct sanctions which the Offices of the Dean of Students will likely place on students who have committed the unspeakable offense of "binge-drinking."

In the future, I hope that your paper’s writers actually do some reporting, rather than regurgitating the misinformation spread by the Madison Police Department.

Brian Febbo

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