Young Males Most Willing to Buy Booze for Underage Drinkers

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The findings are published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Dwight Heath, a professor of anthropology at Brown University who studies alcohol use, called the study "weak," because four of the five people who approached customers were female.

On a more global level, "it [the study] is a distraction, it's spinning our wheels by looking at something that is relatively unimportant in relation to young people's drinking," Heath said. "What is a major problem is that young people are trying to get booze illegally, and that has to do with a couple of things," including the "absurd law" that says they can't buy alcohol if they're younger than 21, he added.

According to Heath, research has shown that countries have fewer problems with alcohol if young people are allowed to drink.

More information

For more on teens and alcohol, visit the Nemours Foundation.