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it did use to be 7 and the reasons for the gradual drift later is not good.
Pre-gaming...drinking to get drunk before the party starts so that you're more festive from the get-go and can save money on drinks at the party (particularly for college kids, parties make great fundraisers or paydays. Charge by the drink like cash-bar...or charge for the cup...or charge for "beer-tickets".), now is a common occurrence. So smaller groups of people who are going to the same party get together at someone's house or a bar (usually sometime around 7PM) and get wasted...then they drive to the party. As long as there's a Des. Driver this would be fine...except that I've been seeing more and more idiots who are the DD saying "I'll only drink at the pre-game"...and I've been seeing more and more people who are drinking to far-excess and getting alcohol poisoning. Idiot binge drinking behaviors used to be largely confined to the collegiate-aged generation...and have been drifting upwards towards 30 for nearly a decade.
So, general advice to anybody who wants it from a former fraternity social chair -- Pre-game if one wants but ID safe behaviors when you're sober, stick by 'em when you're drunk: don't get in a car with a drunk person, know exactly how many drinks you're going to have and stick by that number, call a cab company in advance of the party to make sure that they service the address/neighborhood that you're going to & make sure that your host knows that you have that information (that way they/you can call someone a cab easily. (NB: Cab companies love this...it's like a promise of future business. I knew all the dispatchers whose areas covered NE DC and they'd do me favors occasionally...like let me pay them later for the viciously over-drunk guy we just needed to leave ASAP.)), key-check saves lives/no key-check=no-drink. I always loved DD-raffle as advice for party-hosts...you give the DD's orange "I'm not drinking" bracelets upon entry, revokable if they're caught drinking or drunk, numbered (record names & numbers for future reference)...as the party is winding down, draw the winner, the prize is up to you but I find that a value of $20ish is usually sufficient, $50 if the party-purpose is to make money.
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