Improved Health and Public Safety
Research performed in 2014 by William DeJong (Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health) and colleagues.
Methodology: “This review focuses primarily on research published since 2006, when Choose Responsibility began its public relations campaign to lower the MLDA” (DeJong, 2007).
Findings:
“The rate of youth binge drinking has declined. In 2011, 36 percent of college students said they had engaged in heavy episodic drinking (five or more drinks in a sitting) in the previous two weeks. That compared with 43 percent of students in 1988, the first year that all U.S. states had an age-21 law. There was an even bigger decline among high school seniors—from 35 percent to 22 percent” (Boston University School of Public Health, 2014).
“[The raised MLDA] While also protecting drinkers from long-term negative outcomes they might experience in adulthood, including alcohol and other drug dependence, adverse birth outcomes, and suicide and homicide” (DeJong, 2007).
Research performed in 2009 by Traci Toomey (PhD, MPH, and professor in division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota) and colleagues.
Methodology: “This article shows how science has influenced MLDA policies in the past and summarizes research contributing to the ongoing debate on the MLDA” (Toomey, 2022).
Findings:
“Despite ongoing debates about the MLDA, research demonstrates the effectiveness of a higher MLDA in preventing alcohol-related injuries and deaths among youth” (Toomey, 2022).
“Alcohol use among youth is related to many problems, including traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a higher MLDA in preventing injuries and deaths among youth” (Toomey, 2022).
Research performed in 2011 by Karen E. Norberg (MD) and colleagues.
Methodology: “We use a ‘natural experiment’ study design to compare the 12-month prevalence of DSM-IV alcohol and substance use disorders among adult subjects exposed to different minimum legal drinking age laws MLDA in the 1970’s and 1980’s” (Norberg, 2022).
Findings:
“Exposure to a lower minimum legal purchase age was associated with a significantly higher risk of a past-year alcohol or other substance use disorder, even among respondents in their 40’s or 50’s” (Norberg, 2022).
Research performed in 2009 by Traci Toomey (PhD, MPH, and professor in division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota) and colleagues.
Methodology: “A search of research articles, websites, and newspaper articles was conducted to identify key messages and influences related to the MLDA movements” (Toomey, 2022).
Findings:
“Although much of the research focused upon effects of the age-21 MLDA on traffic crashes, researchers have also found evidence of decreases in other alcohol-related problems, such as suicides, unintentional injuries, educational attainment and vandalism associated with the increase in the drinking age” (Toomey, 2022).