April 10, 2013 9:00am by David Farrar

Lower drinking age not led to more youth drinking problems

Lowering the drinking age to 18 has not led to more binge-drinking or alcohol-related road accidents among young people, researchers have found.

The study, due to be published in an academic journal later this year, shows changes to the minimum purchasing age passed by Parliament in 1999 had no significant impact on the drinking patterns of 15 to 19-year-olds relative to 22 to 23-year-olds between 1996 and 2007.

I am not surprised. The data has been clear for several years. ALAC’s own surveys showed a drop in the youth drinking rate from 53% in 2006 to 2010. Also the number of under 17 year olds drink driving has been plummeting since 2007.

Thank goodness Parliament didn’t give into the moral panic brigade and vote to make it illegal for a 19 year old to buy a bottle of wine.