The Northern Medical program has led a study on the drinking age and impaired driving.
UNBC Associate Professor Dr Russ Callaghan says his research team found impaired driving arrests spike for people who just recently reached the legal drinking age.
“As these individuals and the the whole population get a little bit older and gets legal access to alcohol, many more of them are drinking in a hazardous way; some of them at the bar or club, some of them at their friend’s house, some of them at their own homes but they also tend to get into their cars in greater frequency.”
Looking at impaired driving statistics from across Canada, the increase equates to a 28-43% jump in males and a 19-40% increase for females.
“One of the issues is probably maturity on young people’s part, especially males in terms of impulsiveness. As they grow older that diminishes, they also begin entering into different kinds of roles that may protect them in some way.”
Despite what some will say, Callaghan says the drinking age has big impact on how young people access alcohol and their drinking habits.
Although he acknowledges politics would never allow it, from a public health standpoint, 21 would be the the ideal legal drinking age.