Sleuths target online booze

By Thomas Goldsmith

"Students between 18 and 20 -- under academic and legal supervision -- will be recruited for a $400,000 study later this year to test how easy it is to order alcohol from the Web. The same researchers running the alcohol study helped put a major dent in online cigarette sales to minors with similar tests earlier this decade."

"The number of underage people who buy booze over the Internet is a matter of controversy. But at some sites, a mouse click asserting that a buyer is 21 appears to be the only proof a minor needs to buy liquor, wine or beer. Offshore locations, variations in law from state to state, and the chance to avoid sales tax have all contributed to the growth of online alcohol-marketing sites..."

"Even if relatively few minors are ordering beer, wine or liquor online, the practice should be shut down before it grows, said Traci L. Toomey, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. As crackdowns on selling beer and booze to minors in convenience stores and other bricks-and-mortar venues continue, online sources may get more underage traffic, Toomey said..."

Full article available at http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1363323.html