The State of Nebraska is undertaking what's being described as a groundbreaking study examining young adults' attitudes about alcohol. The idea is to learn from the data and change behavior so Nebraska isn't such a heavy binge drinking state.

In Nebraska, one case is often cited to underscore the dangers of binge drinking. In 2004 after a night of college partying, Samantha Spady, 19, never woke up. She died of alcohol poisoning at Colorado State University. She was from Beatrice, Nebraska. On some occasions, Sam would have as many as 40 drinks.

When it comes to young adults we know a lot about what they drink and how much. "I'm a social drinker,” says Katie Ehler.

A new survey is circulating examining our beliefs and attitudes about alcohol. Consider this: young adults in Nebraska -- those between 18-and-25 -- are binge drinking at alarming rates.

Binge drinking is a pattern of behavior that would get you to .08 blood-alcohol level which is the benchmark for drunk driving.

For a typical male -- that translates to 5 or more beers in two hours. For a typical female, it's four or more. In Nebraska, young adults drink this way more often than the national average.

"Drinking itself is pretty prevalent in our population and will likely continue to be,” says young adult Kathryn Istas.

A 4-page survey comes from the State of Nebraska -- DMV and Health and Human Services. It's confidential and voluntary. But what does the state hope to accomplish with it?

"We're trying to focus in on the behavior," says Dr. JoAnn Schaffer with Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. "Before you can change a behavior you need to know what the attitudes are."

Nebraska's top doctor calls the statewide survey groundbreaking. "We're not aware of anyone else in the country who has approached it this way."

With the help of a $10-million grant, state experts have put together a wide-ranging anonymous survey.

We took the questions to some young adults at the Crescent Moon in midtown Omaha.

Reporter: "In the past 30 days, what percentage of people your age do you think have at least one drink?"
Andrea Haugen: "Probably 95%."

Some of the questions deal with getting the behind the wheel. "There are a lot of people who drink and drive unfortunately,” says Ehler.

Other questions simply ask whether young adults believe it's wrong or not wrong to get drunk and whether they agree or disagree that law officers and bartenders should rein us in when we drink too much.

"There's a lot more they have to worry about,” says Istas.

All of it aimed at understanding our attitudes so the data gathered can be used to change our behavior. "What does drinking responsibly mean?" asks Dr. Schaffer. "We spend a lot of time telling people to do that but we don't give them any guidance on what that means."

Soon Health and Human Services hopes to have a road map on how to do that more effectively.

The state hopes to have the data analyzed by June which at that time they'll share with substance abuse coalitions around the state to organize specific marketing campaigns. The state will put out another survey in a couple years to see if binge drinking is going down.

The state sent out 10,000 surveys. So far, 2,500 have been returned. Experts say that's more than an adequate sample for useful results.