The Lansing area is known for many things. It’s home to the largest university in Michigan and well as the State Capitol.
However it recently became known for something else; drunkest city in the state.
One student in line at the bar said, “I think East Lansing was voted the most drunk city because we have so many people here that just like to party.”
The new distinction is based on a nationwide survey by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse. According to the survey, around 21.9 percent of adults in the Lansing area drink excessively compared to the 20 percent statewide.
David Mager, a student at MSU, thinks the success of MSU sports could be a reason behind being named the most drunk city.
“We have the best basketball team in the state, best football team in the state and it’s the biggest school in the state too,” said Mager.
However, based on his own observations, Judge Ball, a district judge in East Lansing for 25 years and a resident for 31 years says according to his court data, he isn’t sure how the study came to this conclusion.
“The data I would look at to make a determination would be the number of arrests and the number of prosecutions relating to alcohol consumption or alcohol related conduct. Those numbers would not lead me to conclude or could not lead me to conclude that this community has a larger number of consumers of alcohol than some other community,” said Ball.
His observations are based on court data and the cases that are brought to him.
“My own observation over the past few years is that the number of misdemeanor arrests and prosecution has declined fairly dramatically in this community,” said Ball.