Drinking alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal in the United States – but there’s no law about looking like you’re drinking. As the market for nonalcoholic beer, wine, and “mocktails” grows, so does the number of kids and teens drinking them.
To be considered nonalcoholic in the U.S., a drink must contain less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV). Because these drinks are considered nonalcoholic, even if they look and sound like they’re not, they can pretty much be sold anywhere in the country to anyone, even minors.
Now, there are growing concerns these nonalcoholic beverages offer a dangerous gateway into drinking culture, potentially prepping kids for the real thing.
One doctor with the Stanford Prevention Research Center said while they won’t get kids drunk, these nonalcoholic beverages often have the same look, flavor, and smell as real alcohol. In fact, one study did find a link between alcohol-flavored nonalcoholic beverage consumption and alcohol use among adolescents.
The study – which was done in Japan, where the legal drinking age is 20 – found up to 30% of elementary, middle, and high school students drank the nonalcoholic beverages. Additional studies found elementary school students who drank the nonalcoholic versions of drinks were more interested in drinking real alcohol than the kids who didn’t.
The Distilled Spirits Council, a U.S. group that represents alcoholic drinks makers, said its members agree that nonalcoholic beverages that are made to look like the real thing should not be consumed by kids and teens, however, it has no say in state-mandated age restrictions.
One researcher said after looking into laws in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., she found only 12 have regulations limiting the sales of nonalcoholic beverages to minors to some degree.
For example, Georgia and Idaho don’t sell nonalcoholic drinks to minors because they’re regulated in those states based on the way the drinks are made, rather than alcohol content. So essentially, if it’s brewed like beer, it’s considered beer.
Meanwhile states like Florida and Kansas have stricter definitions of what counts as alcohol than the federal government does. While anything with an alcohol content of 0.5% or less is considered nonalcoholic by the federal government, Florida and Kansas’ state governments have decreed any alcohol content at all makes a drink alcoholic, so minors can’t buy them.