Of 14 state underage drinking policies, we find that all but three are unrelated to adolescent drinking outcomes. Higher beer taxes are associated with lower adolescent binge drinking and current alcohol use rates. Also, laws that require beer kegs to be registered are associated with lower rates of current alcohol use. By contrast, state laws that impose a driver’s license penalty for consumption are associated with higher rates of current alcohol use. These associations may reflect a response to already-existing underage drinking in a state, so causality cannot be assumed.
States with more underage drinking policies in place in 2009 had higher drinking rates in 2011 – although the number of policies and adolescent drinking rates were unrelated in all other years.
These findings are consistent with the mixed results from past research. This may
indicate that factors we cannot measure at a state level, such as family, peer, and other environmental influences, have a stronger impact on adolescent drinking rates than state laws intended to restrict minors’ access to alcohol.