Trifter

Staying safe on spring break requires more common sense than security measures. While anyone may have enough misfortune to be attacked in safe surroundings, the probability of it happening is much less than for those who deliberately put themselves in danger. Spring break is almost by definition a time for taking risks. Too much alcohol mixed with too many recreational drugs and nearly naked bodies is a recipe for disaster. By taking some reasonable precautions, young people heading off to the Meccas of spring breaks can have a great time and stay safe, too.

Stay with a group of friends at all times.

Most spring break problems arise when careless young people head off unescorted with a stranger or someone that they barely know. With their judgement clouded by chemicals flowing in their veins, these youth will do on spring break what they would never do at any other time. The tragedies of spring break almost always occur when a young man or young woman heads off into the darkness with one or more strangers that plan to get their own form of pleasure from the encounter. Physical harm or death is too frequently the outcome. Staying with a group of a half dozen friends will almost always prevent this type of harm.

Give yourself a curfew and stick to it.

Curfew is a dirty word to most young people on spring break. In spite of this, most spring break locations in the United States are beginning to enforce a curfew to curtail drunkenness and worse. Teens and young adults want to prove they have come of age. The reality is that people who are of age know how to limit themselves even in a crazy spring break world. Self-control is a major step toward spring break safety. Midnight or one o’clock is usually a good place to draw the line. You can stay up later, but find your way back to your room and stay up there instead of on a beach or at a party.

Limit the amount of substances that you put into your body.

Not only is there danger from strangers on spring break, there is danger from abusing alcohol and drugs. Alcohol poisoning and overdosing on drugs are two real hazards to be confronted on spring break. If you drink to the point of passing out or abuse any substance until you lose control of your actions, you have turned a serious corner on getting into trouble. For girls, this can lead to pregnancy. For both sexes, it can result in contracting a disease or having your body abused in some other way.

Never accept a drink or eat food that you are not sure of its purity and origins.

If you leave a drink unattended with strangers around, get a new drink. Date rape drugs and worse can be laced into your beverage. You can be careful about quantities and still have a bad result if you do not watch your drink. The same is true of food. It is better to be too cautious about this than to be tricked by some unsavory person.

Do not drink and drive.

Harm can come to you and others by your own hand if you get behind the wheel of a car when you are impaired by drugs or alcohol. This is one of the oldest cautions around, but it still rings true. Once you are drunk or high, you may not even realize how much control or judgement that you have lost. Your first clue of a problem may come after you have lost control.