Young Males Most Willing to Buy Booze for Underage Drinkers

Study examined 'shoulder-tapping' strategy, where kids ask strangers to purchase alcohol

WEDNESDAY, June 27, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- In a revealing study into how underage drinkers get alcohol, researchers found that almost 20 percent of young men agreed to buy beer for people who appeared to be under 21.

"One in five is willing to take the risk, for whatever reason, to face jail time or a fine to provide alcohol to underage people," said study corresponding author Traci Toomey, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. "That is a concern, and we need to figure out effective interventions."

All states and Washington, D.C., have set 21 as the minimum age for people to purchase alcohol, yet many underage people -- including high-school and college students -- have no problem getting their hands on beer and liquor. Within the past 15 years, researchers have been examining how they do it, Toomey said.

It's clear that some underage people try the so-called "shoulder-tapping" strategy, asking adults to buy them alcohol as they enter stores.

In the new study, Toomey and her colleagues recruited five people who were over 21 but appeared to be 18 to 20 years old. The recruits approached adults as they entered 219 convenience or liquor stores in a Midwestern metropolitan area and asked if the customers would buy them a six-pack of beer.

In the first part of the study, the recruits asked 102 adults if they'd buy beer; only eight percent agreed. In the second part of the study, the researchers only approached casually dressed men who appeared to be 21 to 30 years old, and 19 percent agreed to buy beer.

"If you think kids are getting alcohol from shoulder-tapping in your community, you probably want to target your efforts toward young men," Toomey said. "Whether it's an education or enforcement campaign, it may be best targeted at a more specific part of the population."

The researchers didn't ask the beer buyers why they had agreed to purchase alcohol, but Toomey has some theories. "I'd imagine they don't know what the law is, they don't think they'll get caught, or someone once bought alcohol for them, and it's a payback situation."

The findings are published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Dwight Heath, a professor of anthropology at Brown University who studies alcohol use, called the study "weak," because four of the five people who approached customers were female.

On a more global level, "it [the study] is a distraction, it's spinning our wheels by looking at something that is relatively unimportant in relation to young people's drinking," Heath said. "What is a major problem is that young people are trying to get booze illegally, and that has to do with a couple of things," including the "absurd law" that says they can't buy alcohol if they're younger than 21, he added.

According to Heath, research has shown that countries have fewer problems with alcohol if young people are allowed to drink.

More information

For more on teens and alcohol, visit the Nemours Foundation.

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