When you walk into a grocery store and pick up a six-pack of non-alcoholic beer, you may be caught off guard by the cashier asking for your ID. An issue with inventory protocols is that non-alcoholic beer is often categorized into stock-keeping unit (SKU) numbers similar to regular beer, which can result in potential buyers automatically receiving a card at the register. There is a gender. But what may be an occasional annoyance in modern retail may soon become a government mandate.
Various “experts” call to state government According to CNN, age restrictions will be imposed on the sale of non-alcoholic drinks. This is being promoted in the name of protecting underage drinking, with the argument that products like non-alcoholic beer could be a gateway to the real thing. In reality, imposing age restrictions on non-alcoholic beverages may actually increase drinking among young people, rather than reduce it.
Experts quoted by CNN It cites research conducted overseas that purports to show that young people who drink non-alcoholic beverages are also more likely to drink alcoholic beverages. one of the studyFor example, a public opinion survey of Japanese youth found that consumption of non-alcoholic beverages was “strongly associated with alcohol consumption among high school students.”
This sounds pretty damning until you read the next sentence of the researchers’ conclusion, in which they neatly gloss over the actual results of their study. [nonalcoholic beverage] It was not supported because its use leads to increased alcohol intake. [nonalcoholic beverage] consumption Usually begins after the adolescent begins consuming alcohol” [emphasis added]. In other words, adolescents started drinking alcohol first and then started drinking non-alcoholic options, not the other way around.
Perhaps expecting journalists, much less researchers themselves, to understand the difference between correlation and causation is too high a ask, but it only makes matters worse. The Australian researchers also interviewed focus groups and surveys they conducted on the potential interaction between drinking and non-alcoholic beverages among young Australians. According to the researchers, “Several teens said they got used to the taste of beer by drinking the zero-alcohol version, which suggests that zero-alcohol drinks can get young people used to the taste of alcoholic beer. “This suggests that it is possible.”
Leaving aside the obvious evidentiary flaws in what “a few teens” said in the focus group, let’s look at the final study. paper provides as much or more evidence that teenagers are using non-alcoholic drinks as a substitute for alcoholic drinks, rather than as a gateway to serious drinking. The researchers found that “respondents who consumed alcohol [were] 1.8x probability of use [nonalcoholic beverages] Comparison with Abstainers’ again acknowledged that alcohol use may have preceded use of non-alcoholic substitutes.
Even more interestingly, the results show that teenagers are incredibly dexterous in their ability to substitute non-alcoholic beverages for actual booze, and in fact take advantage of available non-alcoholic substitutes to drink stiff drinks. It also shows that they are avoiding peer pressure to drink alcohol. youth investigated63% said non-alcoholic drinks could help them drink less, and 54% said such drinks could help them pretend they were drinking alcohol when they weren’t said. Additionally, 51% said non-alcoholic beverages make it easier for minors to say no to alcohol, and 45% say they allow minors to “blend in” with others who are drinking. Agreed.
In fact, teens are doing exactly what many parents want them to do. What they need to do is find creative ways to work around peer pressure from friends and older acquaintances who force them to drink. In fact, so far most common method The teens surveyed purchased their non-alcoholic drinks from their parents.
Although no national survey of young Americans has been attempted, CNN points to states with stricter age restrictions for non-alcoholic drinks, including Florida, Georgia, Idaho, and Kansas. I haven’t seen it Changes in drinking rates among young people are markedly different compared to those without such restrictions.
Lost in this discussion is any reference to the numbers showing that youth drinking has been declining for decades. In America, the rate of underage drinking is plummeted Since the 1980s. Generation Z is already “ The infamous anti-alcohol generation Their non-alcoholic preferences are rise of”Quietly curious” and “mindful mixology” movement, emphasizing non-alcoholic or low-alcohol alternatives to completely leaded ones. (It’s also important to point out that you don’t need ID to purchase products that contain trace amounts of alcohol, like kombucha. exceed (non-alcoholic beer).
It appears that the free market for non-alcoholic drinks is helping to reduce underage drinking, not increase it, as research from teens themselves suggests. Cracking down on access to non-alcoholic beverages could exacerbate the very problem it is intended to solve.
