A drinking game that encourages young men to drink enough beer to make a stack of cans exceeding their own height has some experts concerned that it's contributing to rising binge drinking rates, the Canadian Press reported Sept. 18.

Photos of "wizard stick" parties are starting to pop up on the Internet, showing participants carrying around crude walking sticks fashioned from taped-together beer cans. The object of the game, popular among males into skateboarding or heavy-metal culture, is to obtain "wizard status" when the stack becomes taller than its owner.

The game provides an Internet-friendly, visual demonstration not found in other drinking games. "You can always swing around and hit people with [the stick]," said Richard Smith of the Simon Fraser University School of Communication. "You can stand beside it. You can put it in photos and email it to your friends."

However, the game is popular with the very demographic most likely to binge drink and suffer harmful consequences -- males aged 19 to 29. "It's a particularly vulnerable group and I'm sure the drinking games don't help," said Norman Giesbrecht, a researcher at the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.