Underage Drinking May Lead to Alcohol Dependency

In today’s society, alcoholism is a major problem and the younger you start drinking the more problems it can lead to as you age. Many people who grew up in a place in time when you could legally purchase alcohol before the age of 21 are considered to be much more likely than others to be alcoholics or have a drug problem, even well in to their adult years.

Dr. Karen Norberg, a research instructor in psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, said, “The effect lingers. A drinking-age law of 21 is associated with lower risks of long-term problems which alcohol use.”  The most recent study to support this fact was published online, on September 18th, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Norberg and her research team analyzed surveys of approximately 34,000 people that were born in the United States between the years of 1948 and 1970. They examined their records to determine if the rates of alcoholism and drug abuse differed depending on their states’ laws for buying liquor at the time the participants were teens or young adults.

In the early 1970s, 26 states had lowered their legal drinking age to 18 after the federal voting ages was lowered to 18, Norberg stated. After the passage of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, the federal government pressured the states to increase the drinking age or forfeit funds for highways. By the late 1980s, most of the states complied and they raised the drinking age back up to 21. However, the researchers noted that Louisiana was the last to do so in 1995.

In this study, the people who had been allowed to buy alcohol before they were 21 were approximately 33 more likely to have suffered from alcoholism within the year before they participated in the survey. Being able to drink at a younger age was also found to increase the risk of abusing other types of drug, in fact they were found to be approximately 70 percent more likely to have had a problem with drugs than those who had to wait until they were 21 to legally drink. However, no differences were found between women and men, ages groups, or various ethnicities. Norberg said that the findings suggest that the frequency or intensity of drinking in later teen years has long-term effects.

A study that was released earlier this year reported that states that allow the suspension of a driver’s license for any alcohol violation while underage and states that have zero-tolerance laws that make it illegal for young people to drive with any level of alcohol in their system have fewer accidents that involve drunk driving. The study also found that so-called use-and-lose laws resulted in approximately 5 percent fewer automobile accidents that were related to drinking. This study was also published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Norberg’s study is believed to be the first study to take a look at the very long-term effects of lowered drinking ages. Dr. Marc Galanter, who is the director of the division of alcoholism and drug abuse at New York University School of Medicine, said, the study “substantiates something that has not been substantiated this way before -- that the [legal] drinking age really has long-term impact. Even in [people’s] forties and fifties, this impact was felt.”

Though people across the country continue to debate what the ideal legal drinking age should be, some are still calling to lower the drinking age. Galanter stated that the results of the study suggest that keeping the status quo would be good.

Tracy Toomey, who is an associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, who has also researched this topic, agreed. She said that this new study provides us with another piece of the puzzle that looks at the same policy from a different angle.

However, Norberg states that though her research poses a “strong argument” for keep the legal drinking age at 21, “there  might be some other solution,” such as the drinking “learner’s permits” that some have made a proposal for. That concept aims to change the younger generation from acceptance of excessive drinking to preference for consuming a limited amount of alcohol. One way we could do this, proponents say, is to allow some younger than 21 to apply for a learner’s permit that allows the limited use of alcohol only under certain monitored conditions.