Charles Joseph Haddad^1,, Judella Haddad-Lacle¹, Lori Bilello², Charles Michael Haddad²

On July 17, 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act creating a nationwide minimum drinking age to 21 years of age. All 50 states rose their alcohol purchase age to 21 by mid 1988. There are some federal exceptions to the minimum age of 21 for underage consumption of alcohol including exceptions for religious or medical reasons. Under age drinking remains a pervasive problem on the US college campuses. Under age drinking has been related to poor academic performance, motor vehicle crashes, risky sexual behaviors, sex violence and alcohol related health problems including future alcohol dependency. Laws vary from state to state on the use of fake identification (Fake ID`s) and the potential penalties if caught with a Fake ID`s. We conducted a study at three large state universities in Florida to evaluate the use of False Identification (Fake ID) to subterfuge the underage drinking laws. 688 of these surveys were used for the analysis since 128 respondents did not met the age criteria of being 18 or older but under age 21. Of the 688 respondents, 273 (33.5%) had a fake ID and the vast majority of these students used fake IDs to purchase alcohol (83.1%) and/or enter a bar to drink alcohol (85.9%). Despite national and state efforts to decrease underage drinking, there is still a high percentage of college students who participate in underage drinking. In our study almost 40% of underage students have fake ID`s.

Fake identification, Fake ID, Underage Alcohol Usage