Local Policies, Enforcement, and Underage Drinking
Component Co-Directors:
Mallie J. Paschall, Ph.D.
& Joel W. Grube

Drinking by young people under the legal drinking age of 21 poses many risks, including the immediate risks of impaired driving crashes, violence, and risky sex as well as the long range problems of alcohol dependency and other chronic illnesses.  Laws and policies can be very important to preventing these problems by reducing the access young people have to alcohol.

Alcohol policies can include a number of formal laws and rules, enforcement of these laws, and more informal procedures designed to reduce underage drinking.  These laws and procedures make it more difficult and more costly for young people to obtain alcohol and they make it more risky and costly for adults to provide alcohol to underage drinkers.  These policies can also strengthen community norms against underage drinking and against providing alcohol to youth.

Local communities may be particularly important in setting up these policy interventions, which can be very important tools for reducing underage drinking and drinking problems.

 Communities in many states including California can:

• Impose zoning restrictions that limit how many outlets can be licensed in a given area and where they may be located (minimum distances from schools, for example). 
• Require that people who sell or serve alcohol in commercial or social settings be specially trained or follow particular practices (for example, establishing systems for checking IDs). 
• Use particular kinds of enforcement designed to reduce underage drinking (such as police “party patrols” that safely disperse underage drinking parties and hold party hosts responsible for serving alcohol to minors or other violations that may occur). 

This study will collect information about the local alcohol policies and enforcement activities in a geographically diverse sample of 50 California cities. It will include telephone surveys of young people in these communities to find out what young people think about alcohol, whether and how much they drink, where they obtain alcohol, and what kinds of alcohol-related problems they have had.   The researchers will then analyze the relationship between these local policies and their enforcement and the beliefs, behaviors, and problems of the young people who live in the communities.

As the results of this project are analyzed, researchers will be able to provide guidance to communities regarding the potential effectiveness of policies and enforcement efforts on the drinking and related problems of young people.