Every so often I get a reminder that Time Magazine still exists. What's wrong with those kids?!
One may be changing laws, including the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which set the age to purchase or publicly possess alcoholic beverages to 21. Prior to that, the minimum age to drink was 18.
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Marijuana could be a part of that shift. The drug is legal in nearly half of all U.S. states for recreational use. Nearly 80% of Americans live in a county with at least one cannabis dispensary, according to the Pew Research Center, and cannabis has been put into drinks being marketed to younger consumers.
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Another contributing factor has to do with the changing socialization patterns of younger generations. “Alcohol tends to be a social drug, even for young people, so part of the decline in underage drinking could be related to less in-person socializing,”...
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Marsh says that younger generations are much more interested in living healthy lifestyles than generations past, and evolving alcohol marketing tactics reflect those changing values. “If you look at alcohol marketing, they're sort of stopping short of saying it's healthy to have some drinks, but that drinking can be part of a healthy lifestyle,” she says, “as opposed to the Gen X type of marketing, which was like, ‘party hard.’”
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