Hot Topic: Minimum Legal Drinking Age

Once again under discussion is the topic of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA), also referred to as the age 21 laws. Campus and community leaders are examining all sides to this issue, reviewing reputable research and discussing how the drinking age plays out practically on campus.

The MLDA discussion involves several issues. On one hand, some campus and community leaders celebrate the raising of the legal drinking age to 21 as the soundest public health policy ever passed, citing multiple research studies. Prevention professionals also worry about the effect of alcohol use on the teenage brain and the “trickle-down effect” of giving legal access to alcohol to teenagers who might then pass it on to even younger friends. On the other hand, some campus and community leaders propose changing the drinking age to 18 to match other rights and responsibilities given at that age. They also claim that teenagers can be taught to drink responsibly, reducing harm caused to themselves and others.

As is the case with all public health debates, one must look beyond the rhetoric to examine the real questions and underlying issues being raised. The current debate can be informed by more than 20 years of reliable research and practices that have been tested and proven in the alcohol abuse prevention field. Careful review of the data is a necessary step toward forming an opinion on any public health issue and especially this one, where instructive data are abundantly available.

The drinking age is just one part of the environment that young adults operate in and respond to. As administrators and prevention professionals on campus continue to discuss this issue, it is important to realize that effective, research-based strategies are available for addressing problem behaviors on campus. For more information on developing an effective prevention plan for your campus, see the Prevention Basics and Environmental Management pages on the Higher Education Center’s Web site.

Resources from the Higher Education Center

Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. Frequently Asked Questions: Age 21/MLDA, 2007.

DeJong, W. “The Age 21 Debate: Battling Over the Word ‘Adult.’” Prevention File: Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs, Spring 2008, 12–13.

Key Research

Wagenaar, A.C., & Toomey, T.L. (2002). Effects of minimum drinking age laws: Review and analyses of the literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14, 206–225.

Everitt, R., & Jones, P. (2002). Changing the minimum legal drinking age—its effect on a central city emergency department. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 115(1146), 9–11.

Fell, J.C., Fisher, D.A., Voas, R.B., Blackman, K., & Tippetts, A.S. (2008). The relationship of underage drinking laws to reductions in drinking drivers in fatal crashes in the United States. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 40(4), 1430–1440.

Grube, J.W. (2005). Youth drinking rates and problems: A comparison of European countries and the United States. Calverton, MD: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Office of Juvenile Justice Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program.

Kindelberger, J. (2005). Calculating lives saved due to minimum drinking age laws. Traffic Safety Facts: Research Notes.

Kypri, K., Voas, R., Langley, J., Stephenson, B., Begg, D., Tippetts, S., & Davie, G. (2006). Minimum purchasing age for alcohol and traffic crash injuries among 15- to 19-year-olds in New Zealand. American Journal of Public Health, 96(1), 126–131.

LaBrie, J.W., Rodrigues, A., Schiffman, J., Tawalbeh, S. (2007). Early alcohol initiation increases risk related to drinking among college students. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 17(2), 125–141.

O'Malley, P.M., & Wagenaar, A.C. (1991). Effects of minimum drinking age laws on alcohol use, related behaviors and traffic crash involvement among American youth: 1976–1987. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 52, 478–491.

Ponicki, W.R., Gruenewald, P.L., LaScala, E.A. (2007). Joint impacts of minimum legal drinking age and beer taxes on US youth traffic fatalities, 1975 to 2001. Alcohol: Clinical Experimental Research, 31(5), 804–813.

Voas, R.B., Tippetts, A.S., & Fell, J.C. (2003). Assessing the effectiveness of minimum legal drinking age and zero tolerance laws in the United States. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 35, 579–587.