Underage Drinking

What can I do to prevent underage drinking?

Alcohol use by youth is a serious public health problem in the U.S., where alcohol is the most commonly used drug among teenagers. A strong relationship has been shown to exist between alcohol use among youth and other problems such as academic failure, violence, theft, cheating, vandalism, and risky sexual behavior. In addition, research has shown that people who start drinking at an early age greatly increase their chances of developing an alcohol problem at some point in their lives. (NIAAA)

Visit our Key Issues section to learn more about:

• Laws that have been shown to reduce underage drinking and fatal accidents among 15-20 year olds.
• Alcohol maketing

Here are some resources that can provide strategies for preventing underage drinking in your community:

• FACE: A national non-profit organization that supports sensible alcohol policies and practices through the development of messages, strategies and training designed to create public awareness about the connection between alcohol and critical public health issues.
• The Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center was created by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (U.S. Department of Justice) to provide training and technical assistance to communities working to combat underage drinking.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has created Strategies to Prevent Underage Drinking. This publication outlines strategies for preventing underage drinking that consider the role of schools, extracurricular activities, families, the community, and policy change.

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What policies or laws exist to prevent underage drinking?

U.S. policies that are intended to discourage underage drinking include:

• Youth Consumption of Alcohol Law: In 36 states it is an offense for individuals under 21 to consume alcohol or to have any amount of alcohol in their bodies.
• Alcohol Taxes: Research has shown that there is a relationship between low alcohol costs and underage drinking rates. Increasing taxes on alcohol deters underage use. Since 2002, nine states have increased taxes on alcohol.
• Social Host Law: In most states, it's considered a misdemeanor offense for an adult (aged 21 or over) to serve alcohol to a minor (someone under the legal drinking age of 21). The Social Host Law imposes a potential liability on hosts in non-commercial locations such as private homes who serve alcohol to obviously drunk people or minors who are later involved in a car crash causing injury or death.
• Keg Registration: Beer kegs and other large beer containers are required to be tagged with identification tags and recording the purchaser's name, address and location where the keg is to be used in order to track the source if minors are served. Currently, 24 states have keg registration laws.

To find out more about your state's laws, visit:

• Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) provides information on state alcohol-related laws.
• The Alcohol Epidemiology Program is a research program within the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. This program provides a layperson's guide to government control of alcohol (The Pathfinder for Research of Alcohol Law in the U.S.).
• The Institute of Medicine provides a report called "Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility."

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