Age 21 Law
Home Up Treatment Health Benefits Underage Drinking Parental Model Age of 1st Use Age 21 Law Screening Test

 

In the early 1990s, I did the nation's only national comparative study on how easily minors could purchase alcohol.  The results varied widely with very high buy rates in Illinois college towns, such as Champaign-Urbana, Charleston, and Carbondale, but modest buy rates in Florida, and Arkansas.  Although Chicago did poorly, New York City and especially New Orleans had almost 100% buy rates by minors.  In New Orleans, the two 17-year-olds acting as my underage buyers had 98% buy rates!

Since then, the federal government has provided some monies to states to help with enforcement of the age 21 law.  While few states are really doing a good job, i.e., having buy rates under 10% without the use of any ID cards, the situation is considerably improved.  While underage drinking is much worse now in the U.S. than it was 50 years ago, it is still only half the level of the average European country.  Adult alcoholism is also more rampant in Europe although it is also quite common here.  Of course, European countries have virtually no age restrictions on alcohol, and they are paying the price.

Numerous research studies have been done do determine whether the Age 21 law has a beneficial impact.  Below is a review of the research I did 10 years ago.  The evidence is very clear that the Age 21 law does help decrease underage drinking, even though it would have a much better impact if it were better enforced.  Let me assure you, underage drinking and drunkenness is worse in Europe than in the U.S.  Of course, underage and adult tobacco use and drug abuse are all also much worse in Europe.

Our research has found that the lower the drinking or smoking age law a state or country has, the less likely it is to be enforced.  Also, when a state or nation lowers its drinking age law, enforcement is often dismantled or completely eliminated.  The latter occurred in Quebec, Canada, in the 1970s.  When a state or nation raises its drinking or smoking age law, enforcement often does not occur for a number of years.  Public outcry is often the moving force behind getting the government to actually enforce the law.  Enforcement itself can be very inexpensive.  Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies are very or extremely inefficient.  Even with this discouraging situation, the law and its enforcement has been found to have a significant effect.  Not surprisingly, changes in consumption pattern usually occur slowly after a new law is passed, whether it prohibits substance abuse or allows substance abuse.  But changes over time can be quite substantial.

An Annotated Bibliography on increasing the legal drinking age to 21

Hammond RL (1973). Legal drinking at 18 or 21 does it make any difference? J Alc Drug Ed 18:9-13. Lowering the drinking age to 18 resulted in an increase in male juvenile crime.

Smart RG, Schmidt W (1975). Drinking and problems from drinking after a reduction in the minimum drinking age. Brit J Addict 70:347-58. Lowering the drinking age to 18 resulted in an increase in male juvenile crime.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 1989 Traffic Fatality Facts. Washington, DC, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, NHTSA, US Dept of Transportation, Oct 90.

Wagenaar AC (1983). Alcohol, Young Drivers, and Traffic Accidents. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books. Found important changes in indicators of alcoholism related to the minimum legal drinking age.

Smith RA, Hingson RW, Morelock S, Heeren T, Mucatel M, Mangione T, Scotch N (1984). Legislation raising the legal drinking age in Massachusetts form 18 to 20: Effect on 16 and 17 year-olds. J Stud Alcohol 45:534-9. did not find minimum drinking age law to have impact.

Magner DK (1988). Alcohol-related problems have not decreased on most college campuses, survey indicates. The Chronicle of Higher Education pp. A35, A37. Magner cited Engs and Hanson (1988) who found that the number of students who drink had been declining slowly since states raised the legal drinking age. However, 20% of students consume 6 or more drinks at one sitting, which was the exact percentage found in an earlier poll by the authors (Engs, 1985).

Smart RG, Goodstadt MS (1977). Effects of reducing the legal alcohol-purchasing age on drinking and driving problems. J Stud Alc 38:1313-23. A number of North American studies have demonstrated an adverse effect on traffic casualties from the lowering of the legal minimum drinking age.

Anon (1979). Initial impact of raising the legal drinking age from 18-21, The Bottom Line on Alcohol in Society, 3:16:20 (Abstract) in: J Stud Alc (1980), 40:77-8. Found a decrease in school problems when the drinking age was raised.

Williams AF, Zador PL, Harris SS, Karpf RS (1981). The Effect of Raising the Legal Minimum Drinking Age on Fatal Accident Involvement. Washington D.C., Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Raising the drinking age results in a decrease in traffic crashes.

Vingilis E, Smart RG (1981). Effects of raising the legal drinking age in Ontario. Brit J Addict 76:415-24. Found a decrease in school problems when the drinking age was raised.

Wagenaar AC (1981). Effects of an increase in the legal minimum drinking age. J Publ Health Policy 2:206-25. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Hingson RW, Scotch N, Mangione T, Meyers A, Glantz L, Heeren T, Lin N, Mucatel M, Pierce G (1983). Impact of legislation raising the legal drinking age in Massachusetts form 18 to 20. Amer J Publ Health 73:163-9. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Williams AF, Zador PL, Harris SS, Karpf RS (1983). The effects of raising the legal minimum drinking age on involvement in fatal crashes. J Legal Studies 12:169-79. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Wagenaar AC (1983). Alcohol, Young Drivers and Traffic Accidents (Massachusetts, Lexington). Raising the drinking age was found to decrease traffic crashes.

Smith RA, Hingson RW, Morelock S, Heeren T, Mucatel M, Mangione T, Scotch N (1984). Legislation raising the legal drinking age in Massachusetts from 18 to 20: Effect on 16 and 17-year-olds. J Stud on Alcohol 45:534-9. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Bolotin FN, DeSario J (1985). The Politics and Policy Implications of a National Minimum Drinking Age. Cleveland, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University. Did not find an impact from raising age although methodology has been criticized.

DuMouchel W, Williams AF, Zador P (1985). Raising the Alcohol Purchase Age: Its Effects on Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes in 26 States. Wash DC, Insurance Inst for Highway Safety. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Hughes SD, Dodder RA (1986). Raising the minimum drinking age: Short-term effects with college student samples. J Drug Issues 16:609-20. They did not find a reduction in drinking among 17- to 20-year-olds after the raising of the drinking age to 21.

Males MA (1986). The minimum purchase age for alcohol and young-driver fatal crashes: A long-term view. J Legal Stud 15:181-211. Did not find an impact on crashes from raising the age. Methodology criticized.

Smith DI, Burvill PW (1986). Effect on juvenile crime of lowering the drinking age in three Australian states. Brit J Addict 82:181-8. Lowering the legal minimum drinking age to 18 in two Australian states significantly increased male juvenile crime by 20-25%. In the third, limited data yielded similar results. Female crime also increased in most comparisons. Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia lowered their legal drinking age to 18 in the early 70s (70, 71, 74). The authors from the University of Western Australia recommend a 21-year-old age law.

Smith DI, Burvill PW (1986). Effect on traffic safety of lowering the drinking age in three Australian States. J Drug Issues 16:183-98. Lowering the drinking age in Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia resulted in an increase in teen auto crashes.

Williams TP, Lillis RP (1986). Changes in alcohol consumption by 18-year-olds following an increase in New York State's purchase age to 19. J Stud Alc 47:290-6. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Wagenaar AC (1988?). The legal minimum drinking age in Texas: Effects of an increase from 18 to 19. J Safety Research. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

Wagenaar AC (1988?). Effects of minimum drinking age on alcohol-related traffic crashes: The Michigan experience five years later. In: HD Holder (Ed). Control Issues in Alcohol Abuse Prevention: Impacting Communities Greenwich, Conn, JAI Press. Did find a beneficial impact on auto crashes and drinking age legislation.

 Williams TP, Lillis RP (1988). Long-term changes in reported alcohl purchasing and consumption following an increase in New York state's purchase age to 19. Brit J Addict 83:209-17. Studying one year before, one year after and 3 years after New York raised its purchase to 19, the researchers did find an impact on purchasing and consumption by 16-18 year olds one and three years later.

 Williams FG, Kirkman-Liff BL, Szivek PH (1990). College student drinking behaviors before and after changes in state policy. J Alc Drug Ed 35(3):12-25. Arizona State University student surveys in '83 and '86 before and after increase in drinking age from 19 to 21 and stiff DUI laws and campus-wide administrative actions in dorms found a significant increase in abusive drinking between 83 and 86. There was an increase in the number reporting hangovers, missing class, and being criticized for drinking. Driving after drinking (71% vs. 67%), fighting when drinking in the past year (32%), and thinking they had a drinking problem (32%) didn't change.

 Gonzalez GM (1991). Five-year changes in alcohol knowledge, consumption and problems among students exposed to a campus-wide alcohol awareness program and a rise in the legal drinking age. J Alc Drug Ed 37(1):81-91. Altho the drinking age was raised to 21 in Florida and an alcohol awareness program was started at the University of Florida, no significant overall differences were found between the two samples in alcohol knowledge, consumption or problems. However, significant difference were found in the number of students who were drinkers in 83 and in '88. The author had run the nationally acclaimed alcohol education program and BACCHUS used to be centered at U Fla. The number of non-drinkers did increase from 14% to 22%. Of the non-drinkers 27% said the legal drinking age was a factor in their decision to abstain.

 Tyron GS (1992). Comparison of alcohol use by college students 1983 and 1988. J Alc Drug Ed 37(2):111-120. Abstinence increased from New York had raised the drinking age from 19 to 21 in 1985, alcohol-education become more frequent on campus, policies were more strict in regards to drinking on campus, ACOA and AA were established at Fordham University. Drinking in bars was the most popular and changed little with 74% of 17- and 18-year-olds reporting doing it in '83 and 69% in '88. Residence halls were next most popular at 20% before and 19% after. Drinking to get drunk was positively related with bar drinking and to total consumption. Student endorsement of "Drinking is all right, but a student should never get high or drunk: was negatively related to frequency of bar drinking (all p<.0001). Abstainers increased 8% to 10% and those not drinking in the previous week from 19% to 28%. The average amount of drinking by those who drank didn't change with most of those shifting to none drinking coming from the light drinkers. The percentage of heavy drinkers didn't change significantly. The authors state that bar proprietors are not effectively enforcing the law.

Thomas E. Radecki, M.D., J.D.

modern-psychiatry.com