Imagine taking a six-pack of beer to the check-out at a grocery store and being charged $1,926. Alcohol sales would probably drop severely, but this is the price some underage students are currently paying for being caught carrying around an alcohol container.

Although the charge of being underage with alcohol is minor in criminal severity, it is high in fines.

“Students are looking at around $300 for holding a can of beer,” said ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger.

The fine for being a minor in possession of alcohol has risen to $294, including court costs and surcharge.

According to the ISU Student Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey, done by the Thielen Student Health Center and the Office of Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention, 70 percent of ISU students report that they have drunk alcohol in the past 30 days.

The study was completed by a sample of 2,500 students ranging from freshmen to graduate status in March 2003.

“We know that at least 50 percent of our students are under the age of 21,” said Sara Kellogg, program coordinator for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention.

This means at least 20 percent of the students who reported drinking were underage.

Alongside underage drinking, high-risk drinking – defined as drinking to the level where the risk of negative consequences increases – is also a problem at Iowa State. More than 40 percent of ISU students involved in the survey described themselves as high-risk drinkers, a number that Kellogg said is fairly typical.

“Our high-risk drinking has been fairly consistent for the past few years,” she said.

Although there has not been a decrease in high-risk drinking at Iowa State, the university has managed to stay just below the national average for the number of students that are high-risk drinkers.

Approximately 42 percent of the ISU students who participated in the survey reported themselves as being high-risk drinkers, compared to 44 percent of all college students in the nation. Iowa State is also below the University of Iowa, where roughly 60 percent of the students admit to being high-risk drinkers.

Deisinger said the ISU Police Department does outreach programs to educate students on what the consequences are of excessive drinking, and also tries to promote responsible drinking during events such as football games. Many officers make their way around the tailgating area to build relationships with students and help and encourage them to get some food or something non-alcoholic to drink.

“The goal is not to be punitive, but to try to prevent that person from being a victim of a crime or a perpetrator of a crime that is alcohol-related,” Deisinger said.

The Office of Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention helps with and organizes many prevention programs around campus. It sponsors alcohol-free events, does safe spring break promotions, presentations for student groups on campus and helps fund some of the ISU After Dark programs.

Students wanting to get help with alcohol-related problems can receive counseling through the ISU Student Counseling Service, an organization that helps students who have been referred by judicial affairs or students that refer themselves and are concerned about their drinking habits.

“We do all we can to keep a student from falling through the cracks if they might have a drinking problem,” said Reed Robinson, graduate assistant for Substance Abuse Intervention at the counseling service.

If referred to the counseling service, the student completes a series of tests and also meets with someone from the counseling service such as Robinson, for a couple of interviews to talk about their history of drinking or substance abuse.

If it is concluded that the student does in fact have a drinking problem, the student may be referred to an agency in the area for recovery.