Content area
Full Text
Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws provide an example of how scientific research can support effective public policies. Between 1970 and 1975, 29 States lowered their MLDA's; subsequently, scientists found that traffic crashes increased significantly among teenagers. Alcohol use among youth is related to many problems, including traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a higher MLDA in preventing injuries and deaths among youth. Despite laws prohibiting the sale or provision of alcohol to people under age 21, minors can easily obtain alcohol from many sources. Increased MLDA enforcement levels and deterrents for adults who might sell or provide alcohol to minors can help prevent additional injuries and deaths among youth. KEY WORDS: minimum drinking age laws; evaluation; history of AOD public policy; public policy on AOD; adolescent; law enforcement; AOD availability; AOD sales; AODR (alcohol and other drug related) injury prevention; AODR mortality; traffic accident; drinking and driving
Science can play a critical role in developing effective policies to address health issues, including those focused on alcohol-related problems (Gordis 1991). 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. Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws provide an example of how scientific research can support effective public policies. This article shows how science has influenced MLDA policies in the past and summarizes research contributing to the ongoing debate on the MLDA.
HISTORY OF THE MLDA
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 1980). Between 1970 and 1975, however, 29 States lowered the MLDA to age 18, 19, or 20. These changes occurred at the same time that minimum-age limits for other activities, such as voting, also were being lowered (Wechsler and Sands 1980). Scientists began studying the effects of the lowered MLDA, particularly focusing on traffic crashes, the leading cause of death among teenagers. Several studies in the 1970's showed that traffic...