Composition 3

Minimum Drinking Age Laws

Editors: Pamela Korsmeyer and Henry R. Kranzler

Before the twentieth century, there were few legal restrictions on the consumption of alcoholic beverages by youth. Early in the twentieth century, laws prohibiting alcohol sales to minors began to be implemented as part of a broader trend of increasing legal controls on adolescent behavior. The temperance movement worked to establish national prohibition in 1919 but when the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933, all states implemented legal minimum ages for alcohol purchase or consumption, with most states setting the age at twenty-one.

From the 1930s through the 1960s, the issue received little public attention. In 1970, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowered the voting age in federal elections from twenty-one to eighteen. By 1974, all fifty states had lowered their voting ages for state elections to eighteen. As part of this trend of lowering the age of majority, twenty-nine states lowered their minimum drinking ages between 1970 and 1975, most setting the age at eighteen or nineteen. In the mid-1970s, studies began to emerge that showed significant increases in the rate of young drivers' involvement in traffic crashes following the reductions in the legal drinking age. The trend toward lower drinking ages was reversed, with Maine being the first state to raise its legal drinking age from eighteen to twenty in October 1977. Several other states soon followed, and research studies completed by the early 1980s found significant declines in youth traffic-crash involvement after states raised their legal drinking age. With the support of organized efforts by such citizen-action groups as Remove Intoxicated Drivers and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, federal legislation was passed in 1984 that called for the withholding of a portion of federal highway-construction funds from any state that did not have a legal drinking age of twenty-one by October 1986. As a result, all the remaining states with a lower legal drinking age raised their minimum age to twenty-one by 1988. Thus, all states as of 2008 have a uniform legal drinking age of twenty-one, although details in regard to the purchase, possession, consumption, sales, and furnishing of alcohol to underage youth vary from state to state.

The legal drinking age became a major issue because of the serious consequences of young people's consumption of alcohol. Most teenagers drink; in addition, almost one-third become regularly intoxicated (Johnston et al., 2007). Such use is not without considerable expense. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, and nearly one-fourth of youth in fatal traffic crashes have been drinking (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006). These intoxicated drivers are a danger to themselves and a considerable danger to others, as half the people who die in crashes involving an underage drinking driver are people other than the driver (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2004). Other leading causes of death and disability among youth, such as suicide, homicide, assault, drowning, and recreational injury involve alcohol in one-fourth to three-fourths of cases (Smith et al., 1999). Injuries are only part of the problem. Early use of alcohol appears to affect multiple dimensions of physical, social, and cognitive development. Alcohol increases the odds of having unprotected sex (i.e., failure to use a condom); multiple partners; pregnancy; and contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV; Cook & Clark, 2005; Dunn et al., 2003; Guo et al., 2002; Stueve & O'Donnell, 2005). Further, nearly three-fourths of date-rape situations involve individuals who have been drinking (Mohler-Kuo et al., 2004). Early use of alcohol increases the odds one will move on to using other drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, or heroin (Kandel, 2002) and increases thePage 54  |  Top of Articlelikelihood of later addiction and criminal and violent behavior (Brown et al., 2000; Ellickson et al., 2003; Monti et al., 2005; Warner & White, 2003).

Additionally, research has shown that exposure to alcohol in adolescence can have detrimental long-term effects on brain development and intellectual capabilities (Brown et al., 2000; Monti et al., 2005). Despite the many problems associated with young people's drinking, the most obvious one, and the one that received the most attention in debates on the legal drinking age, is traffic-crash involvement.

EFFECTS OF THE DRINKING AGE ON CAR CRASHES

The legal drinking age is one of the most extensively researched policies designed to reduce traffic crashes and other alcohol problems, with nearly 150 empirical evaluations published since the early 1970s. Sixty-one published studies have assessed effects of changes in the legal minimum drinking age on indicators of driving after drinking and traffic crashes, providing over one hundred estimates of effect. While results vary across studies and across states, the preponderance of evidence indicates an inverse relationship between the minimum legal drinking age and traffic crashes: When the legal age increased, crashes decreased.

Twelve studies have examined the effects of lowering the minimum drinking age (usually from age twenty-one to eighteen) and most (exceptions are Bellows, 1980; Naor & Nashold, 1975) reported increases in fatal and injury-producing traffic crashes likely to involve alcohol (e.g., single-vehicle crashes occurring at night) following a decrease in the legal drinking age. Across all outcomes studied, over half (52 percent) of observed effects were statistically significant, with increases in youth involvement in fatal traffic crashes ranging from 2 to 30 percent (Shults et al., 2001).

Forty studies of the effects on traffic crashes of raising the legal age for drinking were published between 1979 and 2007. Nearly all found reductions in the involvement of youth in traffic crashes following increases in the legal drinking age (exceptions are Chung, 1997; Davis & Reynolds, 1990; Hughes & Dodder, 1992; Jones et al., 1992; Vingilis & Smart, 1981). Across all outcomes studied, 57 percent of observed effects were statistically significant. Typically, raising the drinking age resulted in a 6 to 30 percent reduction in traffic crashes likely to involve alcohol (Shults et al., 2001).

Scientists and professionals in the field agree that lowering the legal age for drinking increased car crashes among youth and that subsequently raising the legal age reversed the effect: It lowered car crashes among youth (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2004). There is a large, fairly consistent body of scientific literature substantiating these relationships, with 98 percent of all analyses reporting statistically significant effects finding higher drinking ages associated with lower rates of traffic crashes (Wagenaar & Toomey, 2002). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that the U.S. age-twenty-one policy has saved nearly 22,000 lives, averaging over one thousand lives per year, in reduced car crashes alone (Kindelberger, 2005).

EFFECTS OF THE DRINKING AGE ON OTHER PROBLEMS

Thirty-one studies have examined effects of changes in the legal drinking age on indicators of other health and social problems. Among these thirty-one studies, there are over sixty estimates of effects on social and health outcome measures, including violence, homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury, and results are less consistent than those for traffic crash outcomes. Of all analyses that reported statistically significant effects, approximately 75 percent found higher drinking ages associated with lower rates of problems. Over 70 percent of analyses found no statistically significant association between the legal drinking age and indicators of other health and social problems; some of the studies had low power to detect effects.

EFFECTS OF THE DRINKING AGE ON ALCOHOL USE

Twelve studies examined the effect of the legal drinking age on aggregate alcoholic-beverage sales. Effects were mixed: Some studies found that alcohol sales were significantly inversely related to the legal age whereas others did not find such a relationship. These studies are difficult to interpret, as alcohol sales to young drinkers could not be distinguished from sales to older drinkers.

The effects of the legal minimum drinking age on self-report measures of alcohol consumptionPage 55  |  Top of Articleamong youth are more prolific and have produced conflicting results. Forty-two studies assessing effects of changes in the legal minimum drinking age on self-reported indicators of alcohol consumption were published between 1975 and 2007, providing over sixty empirical estimates of effect. Among these studies, half found an inverse relationship between the legal drinking age and alcohol consumption; that is, as the legal age was lowered, drinking increased, and as the legal age was raised, drinking decreased. A major limitation of many of these studies was their use of nonrandom samples of youth from particular high schools, colleges, and local communities rather than samples that were broadly representative of the youth in a state (Wage-naar & Toomey, 2002). Surveys of college students, which are usually limited to students in introductory social science courses, frequently report finding little effect of the legal drinking age on drinking patterns. In contrast, surveys of random samples of high school seniors and eighteen- to twenty-year-olds across many states, including those entering college and those in the workforce, report finding significant reductions in drinking that are associated with higher legal drinking ages (Maisto & Rachal, 1980; O'Malley & Wagenaar, 1991; Wagenaar & Toomey, 2002). It appears on the basis of the best-designed studies that raising the legal drinking age resulted in important reductions in young people's drinking. The age-twenty-one policy, however, by no means eliminates drinking by youth.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE MINIMUM DRINKING AGE

While there were slight declines in the 1990s and early 2000s, alcohol remains the drug of choice among youth in the United States. When questioned, 45 percent of high school seniors reported drinking in the last month, and 30 percent reported having had five or more drinks at a time at least once in the previous two weeks (Figures 1 and 2; data from Johnston et al., 2007). Among the many reasons for youth alcohol consumption, one important reason is that alcohol remains easily accessible. Published studies indicate that despite the minimum legal age of twenty-one, underage buyers are able to purchase alcohol in many communities without showing age identification in 47 to 97 percent of attempts (Forster et al., 1994; Grube, 1997; Paschall et al., 2007; Preusser & Williams, 1992).

It is notable that effects discussed here have been achieved with only modest (at best) enforcement of this law. While studies of enforcement effects are few, results show that enforcement has reduced illegal sales to youth (Grube, 1997; Huckle et al., 2005; Lewis et al., 1996; Scribner & Cohen, 2001; Wagenaar et al., 2005; Wilner et al., 2000). One study by Wagenaar and associates (2005) indicated that enforcement of the legal drinking age produced an immediate 17 percent reduction in the likelihood of sales to minors, with effects decaying within three months. Thus, enforcement needs to be ongoing to prevent the illegal sales of alcohol to teens.

Strong evidence showing that raising the drinking age to twenty-one reduced deaths and injuries incarcrasheswasamajorfactorinthedebateabout the drinking age. Other arguments were also heard, such as those that asked if it is unconstitutional to discriminate solely on the basis of age. Federal courts have ruled that the drinking age is not discriminatory because: (1) drinking is not a fundamental right; (2) age is not an inherently suspect criterion for discrimination; and (3) the higher drinking age has a rational basis and is reasonably related to a legitimate goal of the state to reduce death and injury from traffic crashes (Wagenaar & Toomey, 2002). In a democracy, laws should have the support of the governed. Repeated polls from the 1980s to early 2000s have shown that the majority of those asked clearly support a legal drinking age of twenty-one. Even among youth under the age of twenty-one, polls have shown majority support for this minimum drinking age.

Some people wonder if it is logical to set the legal age of drinking at twenty-one when other rights and privileges of adulthood (e.g., voting, signing legally binding contracts, enlisting in the armed forces) begin at age eighteen. Others answer that it is because there are many different legal ages, varying from twelve to twenty-one, for voting, driving, sale and use of tobacco, legal consent to sexual intercourse, marriage, access to contraception without parental consent, compulsory school attendance, and so forth. Minimum ages are not set uniformly; they depend on the specific

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Figure 1. Percent of high school seniors reported drinking in the last month. (Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2007). Monitoring the future: National results on adolescent drug use: Overview of key findings, 2006. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. ILLUSTRATION BY GGS INFORMATION SERVICES.GALE, CENGAGE LEARNING

behavior involved, and they are determined by balancing the dangers and benefits of establishing the particular age.

Some have argued that a minimum drinking age of twenty-one will make matters worse when young people finally get legal access to alcohol. The idea here is that prohibiting teenagers from drinking causes a pent-up demand for alcohol as a forbidden fruit. At twenty-one, young adults will break loose and drink at significantly higher rates than they would have if they had been introduced to alcohol earlier. This theory is clearly not supported by research. For example, O'Malley and Wagenaar (1991) found just the opposite results in their nationwide study; that is, persons aged twenty-one to twenty-four drank at lower rates if they had to wait until twenty-one to have legal access to alcohol. A frequently heard related argument is that a minimum drinking age of twenty- one may reduce car crashes among teenagers, but this will only be a temporary effect if it simply delays those problems until the teenagers reach age twenty-one. This argument also proves false. The minimum age of twenty-one significantly reduces car crashes among eighteen- to twenty-year-olds, and those injuries and deaths are permanently saved. There is furthermore no rebound effect at age twenty-one; in fact, the higher legal age appears to produce benefits that continue into a person's early twenties.

While the debate around the legal age for drinking appeared to be settled in the United States as of 2008, there are a few observers who are again voicing support for lowering the drinking age, arguing the U.S. has a continuing problem of teen drinking, and they posit that a lower drinking age might help. However, such a hypothesis ignores much of the scientific literature and the

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Figure 2. Percent of high school seniors reported having had five or more drinks at a time at least once in the previous two weeks. (Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2007). Monitoring the future: National results on adolescent drug use: Overview of key findings, 2006. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. ILLUSTRATION BY GGS INFORMATION SERVICES.GALE, CENGAGE LEARNING

direct experience obtained when states last experimented with the legal age in the 1970s and 1980s.

Professionals in the areas of public health and traffic safety, as well citizens, have realized the benefits of the age-twenty-one drinking law in the United States. Other countries are examining the experience in the United States, and are actively considering raising their legal age. The preponderance of evidence indicates that there is an inverse relationship between the minimum legal drinking age and two important outcomes: alcohol consumption and traffic crashes. Compared with a wide range of other programs and efforts to reduce drinking among teenagers, research shows increasing the legal age for purchase and consumption of alcohol to twenty-one has been the most successful prevention effort in decades. Considering the benefits that have been achieved with only modest enforcement, there is great opportunity to even further reduce underage alcohol consumption, traffic crashes, and lives lost.

Source Citation   (MLA 8th Edition)

"Minimum Drinking Age Laws." Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol & Addictive Behavior, edited by Pamela Korsmeyer and Henry R. Kranzler, 3rd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2009, pp. 53-59. Gale Ebooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2699700292/GVRL?u=txshracd2500&sid=GVRL&xid=4cda5fcd. Accessed 17 Oct. 2019.