Between and , nearly half the states dropped the drinking age to 18, 19, and By , all the states had adopted the age minimum. The United States has one of the highest minimum legal drinking ages in the world. The government will also be able to collect taxes from the sale of those drinks, generating extra funding for essential services.
Rapper R. Kelly is found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking. NYC public school staff deserve Election Day fully off. Thomas Jefferson statue will rightfully be removed from City Hall. Baruch alumni deserve longer access to free career services.
Emergency medical service workers are fundamentally underpaid and unvalued. USG report: Helpful resources for class registration. Congestion pricing in NYC will do more harm than good. No paid family leave in the US is inexcusable. Tuition-free community college fails to come to fruition again. Cancel reply. Your email address will not be published. Very much agreed, the drinking age should be lowered to 18 in every state and territory of the United States.
Supporters of the oppressive drinking age of 21 cite junk science and use ageist attitudes against young adults who are years old. In an ideal world, public policy development would be based on the identification of a problem and the scientific evidence of the factors that are most effective in reducing that problem. In the real world, however, public policy results from economic and political forces, which occasionally combine with good science. Following the repeal of Prohibition, nearly all State laws restricting youth access to alcohol designated 21 as the minimum age for purchasing and consuming alcohol Mosher These changes occurred at the same time that minimum-age limits for other activities, such as voting, also were being lowered Wechsler and Sands Scientists began studying the effects of the lowered MLDA, particularly focusing on traffic crashes, the leading cause of death among teenagers.
With evidence that lower legal drinking ages were associated with more traffic crashes among youth, citizen advocacy groups led a movement to restore the MLDA to 21 in all States Wolfson Persons who were below the MLDA in their own State could drive across State borders to purchase alcohol in a State with a lower MLDA and then return home, increasing the likelihood of being involved in traffic crashes.
Because the 21st amendment to the U. Following the end of Prohibition, each State developed its own set of policies to regulate the distribution, sale, and consumption of alcohol. In addition to the MLDA, examples of other alcohol control policies include excise taxes, restrictions on hours and days of sales, and server training. Many of these other alcohol policies have only recently been evaluated see Toomey et al. Of all the alcohol control policies, MLDA policy has been the most studied.
Thorough literature reviews by Wagenaar , , the United States General Accounting Office , and Moskowitz provide detailed summaries of many of these studies.
Methods used to study the effect of the MLDA on alcohol use have varied widely, contributing to differences in conclusions among studies. For example, some studies used convenience samples, such as students in introductory psychology classes, whereas other studies used sophisticated, random sampling designs to obtain nationally representative samples. Wagenaar concluded that studies employing strong research and analytical designs typically observed increases in alcohol use among youth following a lowering of the MLDA.
Beer is the alcoholic beverage of choice for most youth. As a result, reduced rates of alcohol use among youth after the MLDA was increased were primarily evident in decreased rates of beer consumption Berger and Snortum Rates of wine and distilled spirits use among youth did not change dramatically following the rise in the MLDA Barsby and Marshall ; Smart Opponents of the age MLDA theorized that even if a higher MLDA reduced alcohol use among minors, drinking rates and alcohol-related problems would surge among those age 21 and older.
Alcohol use among youth is related to numerous problems, including traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Alcohol use is reported in one-fifth to two-thirds of many of these problems Howland and Hingson ; Plant ; Roizen ; Smith and Kraus ; Strunin and Hingson As drinking rates increase or decrease, rates of alcohol-related problems may change in response. Using various research methods, at least 50 studies have evaluated the effect of changes in the MLDA on traffic crashes Wagenaar These studies evaluated the effect of MLDA changes on a variety of outcomes, including total traffic crash fatalities for youth; drinking-driving convictions; crashes resulting in injuries; and single-vehicle nighttime crash fatalities the crashes most likely to involve alcohol.
Most studies on the effect of lowering the MLDA found an increase in traffic crashes and traffic deaths among youth Wagenaar Only three clearly found no change in traffic crashes involving youth.
The remaining six studies had equivocal results. Since researchers have been investigating whether changes in the MLDA also affect other alcohol-related problems.
Of the four studies conducted to date that focused on other social and health consequences of alcohol use, three found an inverse relationship between the MLDA and alcohol-related problems: A higher legal drinking age was correlated with a lower number of alcohol problems among youth. In a study of an increase of the MLDA in Massachusetts, Hingson and colleagues did not find significant changes in the rates of non-motor-vehicle trauma, suicide, or homicide.
Smith , however, found an increase in non-traffic-related hospital admissions following decreases in the MLDA in two Australian states. More research is needed to characterize the full effect of the MLDA on rates of alcohol-related injuries and on problems other than motor vehicle crashes. What is compelling is that the effect of the higher MLDA is occurring with little or no enforcement. A more appropriate discussion, therefore, is not whether the MLDA should again be lowered but whether the current MLDA can be made even more effective.
Despite laws prohibiting the sale or provision of alcohol to people under age 21, minors throughout the United States can easily obtain alcohol from many sources. Buyers who appear to be younger than 21 can successfully purchase alcohol from licensed establishments without showing age identification in 50 percent or more of their attempts Forster et al.
In addition, although many youth purchase alcohol themselves, most youth indicate that they generally obtain alcohol through social contacts over age 21 Wagenaar et al. These social contacts—who include friends, siblings, parents, coworkers, and strangers approached outside of alcohol establishments—purchase alcohol and then either provide or sell it to minors.
Commercial establishments licensed to sell alcohol, as well as social sources, face potential criminal penalties, fines, license suspensions, and lawsuits for selling or providing alcohol to minors. So why do they still supply alcohol to youth?
One reason is that policies are not actively enforced. For policies to deter specific behaviors effectively, people must believe that they have some chance of being caught and that they will face swift consequences for noncompliance Gibbs ; Ross Wolfson and colleagues b found that only 38 percent of the alcohol merchants they surveyed thought it was likely that they would be cited for selling alcohol to a minor. Further research is needed to determine whether social sources are aware of their legal liability for providing alcohol to youth and whether they perceive a high likelihood of facing penalties for doing so.
Laws prohibiting the sale and provision of alcohol to minors are not well enforced Wagenaar and Wolfson , and systems for enforcing the legislation vary by State. Typically, however, enforcement systems use both State administrative agencies, usually called State Alcohol Beverage Control ABC agencies, and local law enforcement agencies, such as police departments and county sheriffs. Enforcement of MLDA laws has focused primarily on penalizing underage drinkers for illegal alcohol possession or consumption Wagenaar and Wolfson , an unintended and unanticipated consequence of the MLDA Mosher ; Wolfson and Hourigan in press.
Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tirol, and Voralberg also prohibit sale of spirits and mixed drinks whether pre-mixed drinks or cocktails to anyone under 18 years of age.
Law Law on the Protection of Minors as revised in Art 37 Chinese Taipei 18 18 18 [none] Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act Art 35 Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act as amended in Art 91 Colombia 18 18 18 18 Decree of 21 January Adopting measures related to consumption of alcohol Art 17 Law of Comoros [varies by religion] [varies by religion] [none] [varies by religion] Production of alcohol beverages, their sale to Muslims, and their consumption by Muslims are prohibited; age limits are not specified for non-Muslims.
Honduras 18 18 [none] [none] The definition of punishable gang activity for minors aged includes drinking alcohol beverages in public places. Code of Administrative Offences, Art 6. Government Gazette No. Access autonomous region legislation on the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality: Alcohol and youth - Legislation Sri Lanka 21 21 [none] [none] National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act 27 of Part II Art 31 Sudan [varies by religion] [varies by religion] [varies by religion] [varies by religion] Prohibited for Muslims, none for others Penal Code Art Suriname 18 18 [none] [none] Law 44 of on Further Amendment of the Criminal Code Sweden 18 20 [none] [none] Alcohol Act SFS Cap 3 Art 7 Switzerland [varies by beverage and jurisdiction] [varies by beverage and jurisdiction] [none] [none] 18 for spirits 16 or 18 for beer and wine depending on the Canton Order on foodstuffs and consumer goods of 23 November Art.
This does not apply in Northern Ireland. Liquor Act as amended in Search for resources by Type Type Category. Policy Tables. Responsible Service.
0コメント