So far this semester, there have been 18 cases of fake IDs and 33 counts of minors in possession of alcohol reported from the University Police Department and Oxford Police Department.
OPD Maj. Jeff McCutchen said college freshmen tend to be the most frequent violators of underage drinking in the Oxford-University area.
“I feel like it’s a college epidemic,” McCutchen said. “There are many lives that get hurt throughout a semester, throughout a whole school year, and a lot of it comes back to the alcohol issue.”
In 2014, 87.6 percent of 18-year-olds and older said they drank alcohol. Seventy-one percent said they drank in the past year, and nearly 57 percent reported they drank in the past month, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
McCutchen has worked in law enforcement for 14 years, as a patrol officer and as a detective. This is his second year as a major of operations, where he supervises patrol officers and detectives for the department.
McCutchen said underage drinkers in Oxford typically get access to alcohol by using fake IDs or through personal connection with bartenders.
“We do get a lot of fake IDs, so that’s probably their easiest avenue of getting alcohol,” McCutchen said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, underage drinking plays a role in an average of 4,358 annual deaths. The most prevalent cause of death involving alcohol is motor vehicle accidents with more than 1,500 deaths.
McCutchen said Thursday nights and ball game weekends are when underage drinking incidents most often occur, and the Square is a known hotspot for underage drinking.
McCutchen attributes the amount of underage drinking to Ole Miss’ reputation as a party school. The university is ranked the No. 7 party school in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.
“(Ole Miss is) a party school, and it’s very difficult for someone to be here three or four years who is underage and not partake,” McCutchen said. “We understand that they’re going to party. On the flip side, we see a lot of what’s going on with that, whether it’s arrests, fights or sexual assaults.”
McCutchen said students who get carried away when drinking tend to see it as just having a drink, but there is more danger than they realize.
“People get upset, saying ‘You wrote me a MIP ticket’ or ‘You took my fake ID,’ but they don’t see it from our standpoint of a bad wreck or a girl whose parents we have to call,” McCutchen said.
In the state of Mississippi, those under the age of 21 only has to blow a .02 on a breathalyzer to be considered intoxicated, whereas an adult would have to blow .08.
Additionally, many people fall victim to crimes while under the influence.
“If you get to a state of over-intoxication, a state where you’re not thinking clearly, there are so many things that could happen–a wreck, a DUI, you lose your wallet and you become victim of identity theft or credit card fraud, sexual assault– It opens Pandora’s box when you’re out of your normal functioning or thinking,” McCutchen said.
In order to prevent underage drinking, OPD evaluates trends. McCutchen said the trend typically stays the same, especially from a numbers standpoint.
“When your numbers are staying the same, for us, we feel like we may be doing a better job since student population is going up and the number is staying the same,” McCutchen said. “Maybe we’re curving it a little bit.”
