Following a night of heavy drinking, it is not unusual for student party-goer to wake up in unexpected places. Like on a friend’s couch. Or in a bathtub. Or maybe even on their knees, praying to the porcelain god.
However, not many students ever visualize themselves waking up alone on a cot in a bare, cement-encased room.
“I always thought, ‘Detox?’ That’s not going to happen to me. But I ended up waking up in there [one night],” said one male UW-Madison sophomore.
In 2001, 67 people between the ages of 18 and 24 were placed under protective custody — or detained and transported to detox — in the Central Police District, which encompasses the downtown and campus areas. Of these, 54 were male and 13 were female.
In a Wednesday press conference regarding UW’s support for proposals to restrict drink specials in the downtown area, and conceivably reduce trips to detox, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said a goal of the administration and the city is to reduce incidences of students in dangerous, alcohol-related situations.
“Everything you can imagine takes place, does take place [in detox],” Wiley said.
From first sip to the Drunk Tank
The sophomore male, who wishes to remain anonymous, was one of those people. Last October, he spent a Saturday drinking with friends and went too far. He said he started drinking at about 6 p.m. and estimates that he quit drinking at about 1:30 am.
“I was drinking shots, beer, anything I could get my hands on,” he said.
He and his friends pre-partied at his apartment, then went to a house party. After that, he remembers very little. From what he was told by friends and a counselor at detox, he believes he left the party without telling anyone but has no idea what he did for a span of time.
Campus police found him walking down the middle of Dayton Street, in the rain, without any shoes on, at 3:45 a.m.
The student reports that he has yet to locate the missing shoes.
He was then put into protective custody and transported to detox.
Madison Police Officer Phil Moore explained the concept of “protective custody.” He said the state of Wisconsin mandates police officers take a “community caretaker” role when someone is intoxicated to the point of being a threat to themselves or others. Protective custody is not an arrest and has no legal repercussions; it simply means that police are required to transport the intoxicated individual to a detox facility.
Once there, the person will spend at least 12 and up to 72 hours sobering up.
Moore said, as a police officer, legal action is separate from protective custody and only applies when an individual has done something illegal while intoxicated, such as cause property damage or get into a fight. In the event of this, the person will spend time in detox before being criminally charged.
As a police officer, Moore says he can recognize definite signs a person who needs to be brought to detox displays. He defined an intoxicated person as someone whose mental and physical functioning is impaired but who does not appear to need medical attention and is not causing undue problems.
An incapacitated person — someone in need of detox — is considered so if s/he is either making threats to himself or others, is unconscious and cannot be made to respond to auditory or physical stimulus or is extremely physically debilitated.
“The key is going to be whether it is a person who is able to function without harming themselves or others,” Moore said.
The most common places police officers find people in need of detox are passed out in or walking into streets, like the UW sophomore male was, he added.
According to the sophomore, the police put him in handcuffs because he was angry and resisting detainment. Once at detox, he was restrained and given a shot of Haldol, a tranquillizer, because he was acting aggressively. He vaguely remembers these events.
“When I first woke up, I thought, ‘where am I?’ I thought I was at the police station because I remembered vaguely talking to the police the night before,” said the sophomore male.
Still drunk, he walked out of his room and asked the desk staff where he was and they informed him that he was at detox. He was free to walk around but not to leave the center.
The Telluvian Detoxification Center, where this young man was held, is a locked, 30-bed facility located at 2914 Industrial Drive.
“Everyone was actually pretty friendly,” he said. “They told me I was pretty bad that night. Besides being mad at myself for what happened, I couldn’t really blame anybody but myself.”
After approximately eight hours at detox, the sophomore was given a chance to meet with a counselor. He said this person was friendly and helpful, referring him to resources for drinking problems at University Health Services and discussing his history of alcohol problems with him.
University Health Services offers brief intervention services through the Counseling and Consultation Center. Officials urge students interested in an assessment for alcohol problems to contact the center and meet with a counselor for individual counseling.
If the issue cannot be addressed within a few sessions, the student will be referred to further community-based services for alcohol problems.
After his 12 hours was up, the sophomore was picked up by friends and was allowed to leave Telluvian, although his experience was not yet over. Shortly after leaving, he felt a tightness in his neck and said it looked like it was “folding over.” He went back to the Center, where he received a shot of Benadryl because he was having an allergic reaction to the Haldol he was given the night before.
After going to detox, the sophomore said he felt terrible for about a week. “It was affecting my schoolwork,” he said. “I couldn’t really get anything done. It was like a week-long hangover. It just lingered for about a week. I took it easier [drinking] after that.”
Freshman year bingeing
Another sophomore shared her experiences with detox. Last year, approximately one month into her freshman year of college, she spent two consecutive Saturdays at Telluvian Detoxification Center.
The first time, she remembers drinking shots of hard alcohol at the bar. While she blacked out during the night, she was later told that she was picked up by the police trying to get into her room at a university residence hall. Apparently, she was talking to the officer about her fake I.D. and about how much she drank. At that point, they gave her a breathalyzer test and she blew a .31.
She was transported to Telluvian, where she was later told she was very compliant with the staff. When she woke up, still drunk, she was very confused about what was happening. She said she walked out and asked the desk staff where she was and they told her she was at detox, but the sophomore female said she was given little other information.
“They were secretive and mean. I thought they were there to help me, but they were just, like, [in attitude] ‘shut up, you drunk,'” she said. The sophomore female said she wishes she had gotten more information about her situation when she first woke up.
“I think when you first wake up, they should have someone tell you where you are and what you have to do,” she added. “I was 18 years old, straight out of high school. I was scared. It’s a trapped feeling. I wanted to get out of there and just run. I would have if I could have.”
“Often, they’ll ask, ‘When can I leave?’ Because they are intoxicated, they’ll get explanations several times throughout the night,” said Lisa Schara, Program Supervisor at Telluvian, of questions asked by people detained in detox.
She said there is always someone on staff to answer questions and that patients are encouraged to sleep and eat something during the first part of their stays.
After the person has sobered up a bit, usually after about eight hours, according to center staff, they meet with either a Certified Addiction Counselor or a Registered Addiction Counselor and are given explanations on their rights, why they were detained and given the opportunity to get their questions answered in detail as well as to review the events that led up to their stay at detox.
The sophomore female said during both of her detox experiences, the counselors were nice to her. “I remember crying to both of them, just bawling, and I felt really trapped,” she said.
Changing perspective
The following Saturday, she was out at a bar again, drinking shots. She said she went back to her dorm early because she was afraid of going to detox again. However, the police found her passed out and unable to respond when they followed a friend of hers, also extremely intoxicated, up to her room.
She said that the second time, when she woke up in detox, she knew exactly where she was.
“Basically, the next day was like hell,” the sophomore female said. “I was like, ‘This is a nightmare, I’m here again.’ The second time really kicked in. If you’re in denial at all [about a drinking problem] after going twice in one week, you know.”
The experience has made the sophomore female a smarter drinker, she said. After the second trip to detox, she abstained from drinking for two months and after that began to drink beer rather than hard alcohol more often. A year and a half later, it still makes her a more cautious drinker.
“When I get drunk now I’m not as wasted,” she said. “It definitely changed my perspective towards drinking.”
