Thousands cross a boundary every day to get alcohol. It’s not Whiteclay — it’s Lincoln.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln students need travel no more than a mile off campus to reach 100 liquor establishments.

The concentration drives businesses to lower alcohol prices and push shots, countering messages students get about drinking responsibly, say those working to curb it.

But the problem isn’t just with students. As elsewhere, high rates of binge drinking among college students goes hand-in-hand with higher rates among young- and middle-aged adults.

Lincoln’s rate is the fourth worst in the nation. Binge drinking – drinking to get drunk – is worse here than in Madison, Wis.; Las Vegas or Minneapolis.

One in five Lincoln adults consumed five or more drinks at one sitting in the previous month, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every year, every new report, the city finds itself in that same neighborhood.

“Yeah, it’s college students, but it’s a big problem with other people, too,” said Dr. Robert Brewer, alcohol team leader at the CDC in Atlanta.

“It’s not a risk factor that all of a sudden disappears once people graduate from college or high school.”

Brewer, who lived in Lincoln until 2001, wouldn’t single Lincoln out. Drinking to get drunk is common across the United States, and it’s getting worse.

The 1.5 billion episodes of binge drinking that occurred in the United States in 2001 represent an increase of 29 percent from 1993.

Nationwide, about half the over-18 population drinks, Brewer said. And 30 percent of all drinkers binge drink on occasion.

Rarely, binge drinkers die from alcohol poisoning. More often, it raises rates of cirrhosis, sudden infant death syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome. Indirectly, it’s tied to car accidents, sexual assaults, spread of sexual diseases and accidental pregnancies.

In 2003, for the first time, binge drinking nationwide was more common among young women than young men. It was particularly higher for college freshman girls.

In the big picture, 75,000 Americans — often young Americans — die every year because of excessive drinking. In Nebraska, that number is about 360.

Binge drinking is more common among whites of northern European heritage and Hispanics. Rates are higher in the more Germanic northern tier of states.

Efforts to counter the trend include raising prices, reducing availability or limiting marketing, Brewer said.

While Lincoln’s rates are high, Brewer said, the university’s NU Directions program aimed at alcohol “is truly one of the most successful on college campuses anywhere in country.”

Program director Linda Major said binge drinking on campus hovers below the national collegiate average of 42 percent now, down from 63 percent in 1997.

The program supports police efforts to bust out-of-control parties, meets with residence hall, fraternity and sorority students and publicizes non-drinking social events.

A few years ago, Major said, NU Directions oversaw an effort to change state driver’s licenses, making it harder to create a fake ID.

This year, she said, students throwing loud parties will be given written rather than oral warnings.

“A written warning carries more weight,” she said.

While the program’s focus is UNL, Major said, it’s not an island.

An increase in the promotion of shots and a decrease in cost at downtown businesses affects campus “at a time when we’re encouraging students to make better choices.”

A state law that took effect this year allows cities to consider the stress on law enforcement when granting liquor licenses, she said, and could limit new licenses from being granted in oversaturated areas.

Two things she would like to see:

n Consistent enforcement across the state. You always have to educate the first-years, she said. “It’s not like it was at home.”

n Eliminating the misperceptions of freshmen about how much drinking really occurs. “They think it’s more flowing than it actually is,” she said, which encourages some of them to drink more.

Reducing binge drinking takes a multifaceted, communitywide approach, Brewer said.

“We as a society have not taken binge drinking seriously as a public health problem. We’ve not mounted the kind of public health response that we really need to.”

Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com