Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

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.

___________________________________________

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The impact of minimum legal drinking age laws on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use revisited




In volume 30, issue 4 of this journal, we used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997 cohort (NLSY97) to estimate the impact of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use among young adults.

In our analysis, we used a restricted sample of young adults and considered only those who have consumed alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or used marijuana at least once since the date of their last interview.

In this paper, we revisit our original study using the full sample. We show that our results for alcohol consumption in the full sample are similar to those from the restricted sample.

However, the effect of the MLDA on smoking and marijuana use is smaller and often statistically insignificant.



Read Full Abstract

Request Reprint E-Mail:   byoruk@albany.edu