duty to report and testify against underage drinkers "who don't
get drunk or cause trouble" or the adults who provide them with

alcoholic beverages, even when it results in death, injury or other
30
negative consequences.

Given the failure of the general public to participate in, cooperate with or demand effective enforcement of the existing drinking age laws, there is little likelihood that raising the age one, two or even three years will enhance the likelihood of enforcement. Indeed, responses to public opinion polls indicate that the higher the legal drinking age is, the less willing the general public is to assist in its enforcement.

The futility of attempting to control the use of alcohol among young people by law alone is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that, although the overwhelming majority of the citizens oppose the use of marijuana; despite the fact that it is illegal everywhere and that there is not one single legitimate outlet for smoking marijuana without prescription anywhere in the United States, it is available throughout the land, it is the most frequently used drug next to alcohol and tobacco, and the drug most frequently 31 used on a daily basis by the nation's high school seniors. Certainly, if laws cannot successfully control our children's access to and use of marijuana, there is no likelihood at all that laws can effectively control their access to and use of alcohol, which is available in more than 750,000 licensed establishments, eighty percent of the nation's households and virtually every picnic, party, graduation, church social, fundraiser, social and sporting event at which more than two adults are present.

Those who advocate raising the legal drinking age tell us that, while it is not the solution to the adolescent drinking problems and while it may not do much good, it certainly can't to any harm and is at least a step in the right direction. They are wrong on all counts.

Not one, two or two dozen, but more than two hundred experts

in the field have found evidence that raising the age is not even a partial solution to the problem; it is likely to do more harm than good; and, it is a step in exactly the wrong direction.

Because it is futile at best and fatal at worst, I ask you to reject this proposal and to focus instead on mechanisms for changing the social attitudes which common sense and scholarly research have clearly identified as the single, most influential factor in controlling the behaviors of our children.

FOOTNOTES

(1) Minnesota and Massachusetts both experienced significant increases following the raised drinking age.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1974; Johnston,
etal, 1979; Blane, 1977.

(2)

(3)

Jessor and Jessor, 1973.

(4)

(5)

(6)

Bruun, 1963; Blackford, 1977; Davies, 1972; Gallup, G. 1977;
Johnston, 1979; Kandel, 1980; Mandell, 1962; Marden, 1977; Mulford,
1960; NIAAA, 1974.

Johnston, 1979; Brehm 1975; Rachal, 1980; Wisconsin School News.

Abelson, 1977; Birkley, 1978; Blackford, 1977; Blane, 1977; Mandell, 1962.

(7) Rachal, 1980, P. 137.

(8) NIAAA, 1974; Blane, 1977; Rachal, 1980.

(9) Wagenaar, 1981 (Nov.)

(10)

Birkley, 1978, p. 5. See also: Characteristics of the Population,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1971.

(11) Although in some states analyses of highway crashes and alcohol-related crimes and disturbances found per capita increases among those affected by the lower drinking age, in most there was either a statistically declining or stable rate per capita. See: Douglass, 1977, Cuchiaro, 1974, Naor, 1975, Birkley and Quirke, 1979.

(12) NIAAA, 1874; Gallup, 1972; Brehm, 1975; Harris, 1975; Rachal, 1980.

(13) NIAAA, 1974; Bruun, 1975; Bonnie, 1980; Globetti, 1964; Matlins, 1975; Popham, 1973; Birkley, 1979.

(14) Maisto, 1980.

(15) Non-change states by drinking ages and () rank in apparent consumption among adults and adolescents fifteen and older are:

Oregon (24), Nevada (1), California (7), Washington (21),
New Mexico (22), North Dakota (23).

See Birkley, 1978, p. 19.

(17) Birkley, 1981.

(18) Rachal, 1980, p. 137.

New York (20), South Carolina (29), Louisiana (33).
Reports of Single State Agencies to NIAAA, 1976)

35-289 0-84--11

(19) Wisconsin School News, 1979; NIAAA, 1974: Massachusetts, 1978; Bacon, 1979; Bruun, 1963; Blackford, 1977; Bruun, 1975; Maisto, 1980;

Matlins, 1975; Room, 1971; Zylman, 1974, 1976.

(20) Globetti, 1964; Straus and Bacon, Drinking In College, New Haven: Yale University, 1964.

(21) Zylman, 1974; Naor, 1974; Chafetz, 1979.

(22) Douglass, 1979-80; Massachusetts, 1980; Wagenaar, 1981 (Nov.); Williams 1981; See Minnesota data, attached.

(28) Williams, 1981. See also Birkley, M.M., Analysis and Comment, Unpublished.

(29)

In Wisconsin, convictions of adult providers numbered less than 20 per year prior to 1980. Juvenile arrests for violations totaled less than

1,500 annually.

(30) Birkley, M.M., 1978, pp. 40, 41, 84, 85.

(31) Johnston, et al, 1979.

(32)

(33)

(34)

Birkley, MM "Death and the Legal Drinking Age: A Tri-State Study",
Issue Brief, Madison, Wisconsin, The Blaney Institute, 1983. (Addendum D)

Birkley, MM, Ganser LJ, Quirke MA, "Traffic Accidents and the Legal
Drinking Age In Wisconsin: A Second Opinion" Unpublished Manuscript,
1983. (Addendum C)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; The Legal Drinking Age -
A States Study, Washington D.C., 1974.

REFERENCES

Abelson, H. I., Fishburne, P. M., and Cissin, I. National Survey on Drug Abuse: 1977, A Nationwide Study Youth, Young Adults and Older People, Volume I, Main Findings. Washington, D.C.: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1977.

Anonymous, Student Councils Survey Teens on Alcohol Issues.
Wisconsin School News, August, 1979.

Bacon, M. and Jones, M. B. Teenage Drinking: New York:

1968.

Crowell,

Bruun, K. and Hauge, R. Drinking Habits Among Northern Youth, a
Cross-National Study of Male Teenage Drinking in
Northern Capitals. Helsinki: Finnish Foundation for
Alcohol Studies, 1963.

Barnes, G. E. A Current Perspective on Teenage Drinking.
Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychiatry,
University of Manitoba, 1980.

Birkley, M. M., "Controlling Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Taking Behaviors: The Effects of Formal and Informal Social Controls" Conference Report, National Conference of State, Legislatures Workshop on Juvenile Justice, Madison, WI, January, 1981.

Birkley, M. M. and Quirke, M. A., The Effect of Lowering the
Legal "Drinking Age" on 18 through 20 Year Old Wisconsin
Drivers. Grassroots, October, 1979, Alcohol (10/79), 19-22.

Birkley, M. M., Alcoholic Beverage Abuse and Control: Issues

And Discussion. Report to the Wisconsin Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services, 1979.

Birkley, M. M., Alcoholic Beverage Sales and the Legal Drinking Age. Madison, Wisconsin: Commonweal Foundation Institute for Social Research and Public Education, 1981.

Birkley, M. M., et al. Youth, Alcohol and the Law. Report to the Wisconsin Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services, 1978.

Blackford, L. St. C. Summary Report

San Mateo, CA: San Mateo County Department of Public
Health and Welfare, 1977.

Blane, H. T. and Hewitt, L. E. Alcohol and Youth: An Analysis of the Literature, 1960-1975. Report for NIAAA, Contract ADM-281-75-0026m November, 1977.