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For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Commentary - The Legal Drinking Age and Underage Drinking in the United States
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(7):598-600.

Each year thousands of adolescents in the United States are killed, injured, or suffer other serious consequences of their own or another's underage drinking. The immense societal costs of underage drinking have made it a focus of concern among policymakers and public health officials. In 2006, the US Congress passed the Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act to help states and communities address this chronic problem. In 2007, The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking appealed to Americans to do more to stop current underage drinkers from using alcohol and to keep other adolescents from starting.

This commentary will review the magnitude and consequences of underage drinking and discuss how increasing the minimum legal drinking age has helped to reduce and prevent the harm caused by drinking among adolescents.


Request Reprint E-Mail: rhingson@mail.nih.gov

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