In the wake of the alcohol-related death of Kansas University student Jason Wren, one local group says it’s time to talk about how drinking affects students.

“There’s a problem with alcohol in Lawrence and young people. And as we have learned and have seen as evidence, people die, they get hit by cars, and there’s a link between sexual abuse and alcohol,” said Laura Green, director of the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas.

Alcohol-related fatalities will be the point of interest at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Kansas Union Hawk’s Nest. The event, sponsored by the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas, will include a documentary on the 2004 death of Colorado State University student Samantha Spady and a panel discussion.

The short film about Spady focuses on the 19-year-old student — a high school class president and homecoming queen– who was found dead at a fraternity in 2004 after drinking too many shots of vodka.

The panel will have Marlesa Roney, KU vice provost for Student Success; Kimber Richter, KU Medical Center associate professor of preventive medicine; Phil Bradley, Kansas Licensed Beverage Association director; and a representative from KU Public Safety. Also on the panel will be Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a Colorado-based organization that believes marijuana is a safer alternative to alcohol and has pushed to reduce the penalties for its use.

The panel is intended to spark discussion about different views on what can be done in the community to curb what Green called “an epidemic.”

“This is something we all as a community need to address and think about why it is kids are drinking themselves to death,” Green said.