Addressing the harmful use of alcohol - WHO Western Pacific Region

6. Setting a minimum purchase age
The supply of alcohol to minors by adults, perhaps just above the minimum age themselves,
and without the knowledge of parents, is a serious public health issue, but laws are underenforced.
To change this situation, legislation needs to be clear, simple and easily enforceable.
A few well-publicised prosecutions raise awareness and may help prevent the serious harm
that comes when some teenagers are supplied with large quantities of alcohol by adults.
Age verification
It is often a defence against a charge of selling to a minor or allowing a minor into agerestricted
premises if the seller has seen an evidence of age document. These documents
should be defined in the legislation and are typically a driver’s licence, passport, or other
officially authorized identification card (and it should be an offence for purchaser to present
false documents). Checking identification is an important host responsibility practice.
Expressing this practice in legislation as a defence mechanism may not be sufficient to enable
monitoring agencies to require it to be done.
Ontario makes it an offence to serve people known or appearing to be under the age of
19, while Manitoba’s regulations require licensees and staff to request proof of age from all
young-looking persons. In New Zealand, where seeing proof of age is a defence, supermarket
chains themselves adopted a policy of requesting identification from everyone who looks
under 25 years – which has been acceptable to customers. In late 2009, Scotland introduced
an amendment to its licensing Act to make it a condition of the licence to have an in-house
age verification policy. This is a management policy that steps are to be taken to establish the
age of a person attempting to buy alcohol if it appears to seller that they may be less than 21
years of age or such older age as may be specified in the policy.
Monitoring and enforcement
Legislation on licensing the sale of alcohol makes it an offence for licence holders or their
staff to sell alcohol to minors, and this may also result in loss of the licence. New Zealand
and Scotland both require the district court to notify the licensing authority of any convictions.
In some jurisdictions, police now undertake controlled purchase operations to test whether
bars or retailers are selling to minors without checking their age. In this test, a minor attempts
to purchase alcohol without identification but does not lie about their age if asked. The
purchase is made using a cash or credit card, which fails (avoiding the problem of what to do
with the alcohol). This may require the law to exempt minors who purchase alcohol to assist
police. Police publicize the names of businesses caught selling to minors and may prosecute
(Alcohol Advisory Council 2004; Huckle et al. 2008a; Montgomery et al. 2006).
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