Binge drinking reaches deep across U.S.

updated 11:41 a.m. ET March 14, 2005

MANDAN, N.D. - Melissa Maeyer moved to North Dakota from the Washington, D.C.-area three years ago and quickly noticed one thing different about young adults around here: their relationship with booze.

She said young people in North Dakota consume much more liquor than their East Coast counterparts. And they seem to wear alcohol-related brushes with the law as badges of honor, she said.

“It’s like a rite of passage,” said Maeyer, 24, who works at two bars. “I have never heard so many people casually talking about how many drunken driving or minor consuming alcohol arrests they’ve had.”

A recent study from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health seems to bear out her observation. It found more than 31 percent of North Dakotans age 12 and older said they had five or more drinks in one sitting during the month before the survey, done in 2002 and 2003. The national average for binge drinking was 23 percent.

Binge use is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the last 30 days.

Generations apart
Bartender Laura Thompson, who owns the Old Town Tavern in Mandan with her husband, Roger, chuckled at that definition. She said nearly everyone in the bar’s weekly dart league would easily meet the criteria.

“Younger people come in just to get drunk. They do shots and they don’t want to stop,” said Thompson. “Older people come in to drink and socialize.”

Will Kincaid / AP file Melissa Maeyer, who works at a ski area as well as at two bars in Bismarck, N.D., has noticed much more drinking among young adults in North Dakota than in Washington, D.C., where she previously lived.

Nearly 55 percent of North Dakotans between the ages of 18 and 25 reported binge drinking. About 17 percent who were ages 12 to 17 and about 28 percent in the 26-and-older category said they had five or more drinks in one sitting.

North Dakota’s 11 percent rate of alcohol dependence and abuse also led the nation in the study.

Don Wright, assistant director of the state Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, said studies have shown that North Dakotans have the “lowest perception of a problem” when it comes to drinking.

“Historically, the culture has been very accepting of alcohol,” Wright said. “It’s a generational thing.”

'Power hour' problem
State legislators are trying to crack down on “power hour” binges, blamed for the death of one Fargo-area college student last year and the near death of another on his 21st birthday in 2002.

During “power hour” binges, people try to down 21 shots of booze between midnight, when they turn 21, and the 1 a.m. bar closing time. Legislators are considering a proposal to make customers wait until 8 a.m. on their 21st birthday to be legally served a drink.

In addition, Burleigh County Sheriff’s Maj. Nick Sevart said it’s common in North Dakota for adults to allow their children to drink on holidays and on special occasions, like weddings.

“It’s illegal and a problem, and we need to change our attitude here,” Sevart said. “Parents need to set examples for their kids. The sooner we expose kids to alcohol, the sooner some of them will be alcoholics.”

Still, Sevart points out that the state ranks as having one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.

“People are probably too drunk to fight,” Thompson, the bartender.

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