Story 4

What began as a typical evening of college partying quickly turned into a nightmare for Washington State University sophomore Gretchen Kramer. She set her drink down on a table for what she felt like was a mere moment during a pre-party for a greek chapter function. After finishing that second drink, Kramer remembers nothing but waking up in the hospital the next morning.

“All I can remember is the nurse saying stay with us, stay with us. Don’t fight the tube, it will help you breathe,” Kramer said tearfully as she described what she could remember of the night she was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital for alcohol detoxification.

“I’m over six-feet-tall and 180 pounds, two drinks shouldn’t have affected me like that,” Kramer said.

Her friends quickly realized that she needed immediate medical attention when she began puking excessively, sweating and became unresponsive. Kramer was rushed to Pullman Regional Hospital.

The next morning, an emergency room doctor told her that because of her symptoms she was likely drugged the night before. Kramer and her friends believe out-of-town visitors are responsible for her drugging at the party. She never pressed charges against the alleged perpetrators because she didn’t want to cause a scene within the WSU greek community.

Kramer is only one of the many college students whom have experienced the nightmare of alcohol detoxification. The rate of alcohol detoxifications in Pullman has increased by more than 22% since 2007, according to the Pullman Police Department annual incident report. The police department took 22 individuals to detox in 2009, according to the incident report.

Commander Chris Tennant of the Pullman Police Department witnesses cases similar to Kramer’s on a weekly basis. Kramer believes that dangerous situations like her's happen more often than college students would like to believe.

“Its normally about two to three times a week that we take students into detox. Way too often if you ask me,” Tennant said.

The annual rate of alcohol detoxifications has been a growing problem in Pullman over the past decade. The rate of individuals being taken to the hospital for alcohol detox by the police department has skyrocketed since 1997, jumping from a total of three in a year to over 20 cases every year.

As the rates of detox continue to rise, Tennant and his fellow officers don’t believe that there is much they can do to stop it. They say that the responsibility is resting on the shoulders of the students. In Pullman, most cases of detox are not from drugging incidents like Kramer’s but rather drinking irresponsibly, Tennant said.

“I don’t subscribe to the Nancy Reagan ‘just say no’ approach. The best advice I can give is to drink responsibly and make alcohol a topic of discussion at the beginning of the night before you go out, not at the end of the night when we’re scooping you off the sidewalk somewhere,” Tennant said.

Contacts for Story

Gretchen Kramer (face-to-face interview)- 406.570.3328

Commander Chris Tennant- 509.334.0802

Police department records- http://www.pullman-wa.gov/Departments/Police/