In Kansas, buying alcohol for underage drinkers can carry a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.

In other words, according to stickers now decorating beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages around Lawrence, “Think. If you buy them booze, you can lose.”

In March, Draw the Line Lawrence, formerly the New Tradition Coalition, sought to sway enablers of teen drinking to obey the law — which prohibits providing alcohol to anyone under 21 years of age — by sticking this warning to alcohol across the city. Anyone who has shopped at one of the 20 participating local stores in the last few weeks may have noticed the firetruck-red stickers adhered to the sides of 12-packs and other liquor.

The program, known as Sticker Shock, is designed “to bring awareness to the issue of underage drinking, often associated with prom and graduation season,” according to DCCCA, Inc. of Lawrence.

In addition to creating the sticker, Longren joined 57 other youth volunteers at the Lawrence DCCCA building on the morning of Saturday, March 3 to slap 4,000 of the red circles to the inventories of liquor, grocery and convenience stores. These Free State and Lawrence High students split up into groups led by volunteers from the Lawrence Police Department and the Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

“It is important to remember that we all have a social responsibility to do the right thing,” Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib said in a statement. “Providing alcohol to minors or allowing them a place to drink under your control is not only illegal; it sends the message that breaking the law is acceptable. Both may lead to tragic consequences.”

According to Jen Jordan, Director of Prevention at DCCCA, a 2010 Communities that Care survey found that 44 percent of LHS seniors admitted to drinking alcohol in the month preceding the survey, and 30 percent of those seniors claimed to have obtained that alcohol from someone over 21 years of age.

Free State teacher Peggy Nelson believes violation of the law is a serious issue in Lawrence, especially when it comes to adults hosting parties for underage drinkers.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s many times or one time,” she said. “It could be any one of those times that someone gets hurt, or gets sick.”

Nelson started Sticker Shock with Free State students two years ago. The group communicated with other cities that have initiated similar programs before contacting Lawrence retailers for permission to sticker their stocks. Though not all of the businesses contacted agreed to participate, Longren, who visited two of the 20, described the stores as “really welcoming.”

“They even showed us some of the people they had caught, you know, buying for minors,” she said. “They showed us one from the newspaper who was a well-known person, which was kind of ironic and funny.”

Nelson estimates the message reached 2,000 to 3,000 consumers.

“I’ve talked to parents who have said if they were ever going to [buy alcohol for minors], the stickers would have made them think twice,” Nelson said.

However, because the program occurs only once per year, much of the marked stock “is gone the next weekend,” she added.

For this reason, program coordinators try to schedule the event around times of heavy drinking. Last year, volunteers decked the aisles for graduation, and this year Sticker Shock hit the big leagues: March Madness, St. Patrick’s Day and spring break.

According to Nelson, the stickers will next target prom of 2013.

Participating Businesses: