Let's say you have a kid with you, and it really wants chocolate but rarely (or never) can have it because its parent won't let it. You give said kid a chocolate bar. Instead of eating it slowly, enjoying the taste, the kid will inhale the chocolate and it'll be gone before you know it. The kid just wants that chocolate so bad, that when it can finally have it, the kid just gorges itself whenever it can, because it'll never know the next time it can have chocolate.
Now replace 'kid' with '17 year old' and 'chocolate' with alcohol or drugs. It's the exact same thing, especially in the USA. People aren't legally allowed to have any kinds of drugs, and no alcohol until 21. So when the opportunity arises for this kid to have alcohol or some weed, the drink or smoke as much as they can, because who knows if they'll get to have any more any time soon. With the rules in place, it makes it hard for kids to get any kind of drugs, so they have to put themselves into danger by going out of their way to get the drugs, usually with fake ID's or going into a seedy part of town to buy stuff. Obviously some people have older friends to buy alcohol or a trustworthy dealer that lives close to them, but it's still a very large risk - one that usually makes obtaining and consuming the drug much more intense because deep inside you know you're sticking it to the man.
This is way more prominent in American culture since the rules on drugs are the strictest. Although many European countries have some similar issues, it's never as bad. The main reason I think of? It's because kids in those countries have access to alcohol much easier, so they don't see it as something really special. It's just there. It can make a party more fun sure, but you don't need it, and if you do you surely don't need a lot. If America wanted it's college binge culture to die down, they're going to have to lighten up on the rules, and make it seem like it's not such a secret and awful thing, because that just makes kids want to do it more for the sake of rebelling.
Since I'm living in the Netherlands for now, I've noticed this so much more. Dutch college students version of a party is nothing like an American college student ideal of a party. The Dutch might go out to a few bars, get a drink or two, then go to a club or a coffeeshop, or just relax somewhere with friends and have a good laugh. It's much more relaxed and safe than a bunch of kids in a frat house doing keg stands slamming back as many shots as they can before the cops arrive.
I do see the other side of the argument though. The rules are there to keep kids safe, especially since heavy drinking before 20 can damage a growing brain. But the combination of the risk factor that makes illegal drinking exciting and the lack of a whole lot of education on safe drinking, kids in the states will just binge drink for the sake of binge drinking. The main education about drugs is THEY'RE BAD DON'T DO THEM!!!! There's nothing about experimentation, nothing about how to stay safe if you decide to consume it. Obviously things like heroin or cocaine is far worse and don't do those drugs is the only way to go, but when it comes to weed or alcohol people really need to loosen up. They're not that bad for you given you don't take 15 shots in a night or smoke a whole gram of weed by yourself.
