Similarities and Differences by State on Alcohol Laws
While alcohol laws differ slightly state by state, there are some similarities across the country. For instance, the legal drinking age in all states is 21 years old. There are, however, exceptions to this rule in some states including that a person under the age of 21 may be allowed if it is provided by a parent. Until recently, all the drinking limit in all 50 states was 0.08 percent blood alcohol content. Utah became the first state to lower the drinking limit to 0.05 percent.
For specifics on underage drinking laws, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism created the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) which “provides State-by-State summaries of statutes and regulations related to underage drinking and access to alcohol.” As noted by APIS, an estimated 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year from alcohol-related causes such as “motor vehicle crashes, other intentional injuries, and homicides and suicides.”
State alcohol laws not only restrict the age at which a person can consume alcohol but can also restrict a person from possessing and purchasing alcohol or prohibit others from furnishing alcohol to someone underage. While the federal government did not impose a legal drinking age, they did enact legislation withholding federal funding for highways from states that failed to raise the legal drinking age to 21. All 50 states have “passed legislation to meet the Federal funding requirements.”
Some states have gone further, imposing criminal liability for underage drinkers that purchase alcohol with the use of false or fake identification. Other states have strict criminal sanctions for people under the age of 21 who drink and drive. Depending on the state, an underage person who is caught driving with any alcohol in their system could lose their license for a year or more and be required to install an ignition interlock device (IID) on any vehicle they own or operate.
For more about individual state alcohol laws visit APIS.