ALCOHOL SALES TO MINORS - A SURROGATE STUDY

Background. Legislation is a potentially important health promotion st rategy to control the consumption of tobacco and alcohol by miners. Ef fectiveness of such laws may depend on the extent to which laws are ad equately drafted, implemented, and enforced. However, studies of adher ence with laws banning the sale of cigarettes to miners indicate low l evels of enforcement. As a comparison, this study investigated adheren ce of alcohol retailers to legislation banning the sale of alcohol to miners in New South Wales, Australia. The aim was to determine the pro portion and characteristics of alcohol retail outlets which sell alcoh ol to apparently underage youth. Method. Eight 18-year-olds who were j udged by independent raters to look younger than the legal age attempt ed to purchase alcohol from 168 alcohol retail outlets (hotels, regist ered clubs, and bottle shops), in a nonmetropolitan region of New Sout h Wales. Results. No challenge about age was made for 68% of purchases . Youth were asked their age on 8% of occasions and proof of age was r equired on only 24% of occasions. Display of a warning sign was not as sociated with being required to show proof of age, nor was gender or d ress of the buyer (casual clothes vs school uniform). Bottle shops wer e more likely to require proof of age than hotels or clubs. Conclusion s. The results suggest that the implementation of legislation banning the sale of alcohol to miners is currently inadequate and that new eff orts are needed to discourage the sale of alcohol to miners. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.