A student at Drake University who celebrated her birthday last weekend died after a night of heavy drinking. The manner and cause of her death are still under review, but a police report blames alcohol consumption for her death while the funeral home cited an undiagnosed heart condition. We are neither condemning nor condoning that level of alcohol consumption or passing judgment on her in any way, but this event is a tragedy that should serve as a reminder of the highest magnitude to students of all classes and ages that, when taken in too much excess, alcohol is not merely intoxicating, but deadly.

Lydia Clark, according to The Des Moines Register, was celebrating her 21st birthday the night before she died. Underage drinking may be the most prevalent illegal activity next to speeding on the highway, but, for many young people, the biggest rite of passage, the biggest coming-of-age experience, occurs the night he or she turns 21 years old.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 52 percent of adults aged 18 years and older (remember, the legal drinking age is three years beyond adulthood) are regular drinkers. Like it or not, alcohol is a dangerous substance that will impair your judgment, alter your perceptions of the world around you and disable your reflexes, even when you’re still near the legal limit.

Beyond that, overconsumption will make you sick. In addition to being in a condition in which you are unable to take care of yourself and in which people can take advantage of you, alcohol can have dangerous physiological effects. In a world where so many of us have health insurance and our medical expenses are paid for, in a world where we all receive a whole slate of vaccinations before elementary school and again before college, we often fail to realize the simple fact that illness precedes death. We also fail to realize that illness brought on by alcohol is not simply a hangover we get over in a day. Some instances are so severe that individuals cannot survive.

One study has shown that 31 percent of college students meet criteria that would be diagnosed as alcohol abuse. Negative long-term effects of alcohol abuse include poverty, ruination of relationships and difficulty living with yourself, even to the point of self-hatred.

We don’t want to sound preachy or act like your parents. But, drinking to excess can potentially be very dangerous. The incidence of drunken deaths, violence and unwanted sexual activity doesn’t have to be as common as it is. So please, take this advice: Enjoy your drinks in moderation. You can catch a nice enough buzz without hurting yourself.