What Is the Legal Age to Drink in Puerto Rico

In the United States, the drinking age is 21, so you have to be 21 to buy alcohol. The rate of self-reported impaired driving over 12 months was 20% for males and 8% for females (p <,001). Twelve-month drunk driving arrests were reported by 0.1% of men and 0.2% of women, while lifetime arrests were reported by 6% of men and 0.7% of women (p<,001). Adjusted analyses showed that daily driving hours (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.01-1.17; p<.05), male sex (OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.07-2.58; p<01), more liberal consumption standards (OR = 4.81; 95% CI = 2.61-8.84; p<0.01) and more positive attitudes towards alcohol consumption (OR = 4.58; 95% CI = 1.28-16.31; p<01), a higher number of weekly drinks (OR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.03-1.07; p<,001) and binge drinking (OR = 2.60; 95% CI = 1.62-4.16; p<001) were risk factors for self-reported drink-driving. Life imprisonment was associated with separation or divorce (OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.04-7.36; p <.05), male (OR = 5.25; 95CL = 1.93-14.26; p<.001), more liberal drinking norms (OR = 6.97; 95CL =: 2.37 to 20.48; p <.001) and illicit drug use (OR = 2.82; 95% CI = 1.25 to 6.35; p<,001). This was assessed for all respondents who had driven a car in the past year and were current drinkers (i.e., respondents who reported consuming at least one alcoholic beverage in the past 12 months). A beverage was defined as a 5-ounce glass of wine, a 12-ounce can of beer and a 1.5-ounce shot of spirits. These respondents were first asked, "Have you driven in the past 12 months when you drank enough to get in trouble if the police stopped you?" Based on their response, respondents received a rating of "no" or "yes". Respondents who responded affirmatively were then asked how often this had occurred in the past 12 months. These are self-reported intoxicated events that have not resulted in an arrest. Previous articles that used the same question to assess self-reported impaired driving include Caetano et al. (2008c), Caetano et al. (2008b), Caetano et al.

(2013), Caetano and Raspberry (2001). In 2014-2015, with data covering a 12-month period, one in five men and nearly one in ten women in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reported driving after drinking. These proportions are higher than those reported by Puerto Ricans in the United States (Caetano et al., 2008), a fact that may be associated with lower access to the car for socioeconomic reasons in the United States (Kochar, Fry and Taylor, 2011). Among Puerto Rican men and women on the continent, the 12-month rate of self-reported impaired driving was 7.8% and 1.9%, respectively (Caetano et al., 2008b). Arrest rates for impaired driving at 12 months are similar in San Juan and mainland Puerto Ricans for both males (0.8%) and females (0.0%) (Caetano et al., 2008b). These rates suggest that the likelihood of an arrest for drunk driving is lower in San Juan than in the United States. In fact, 2012 arrest data reported by the FBI for the United States and Puerto Rico show that the 12-month arrest rate on the continental United States was 1.8 times higher than the arrest rate on the island (Puerto Rico Traffic Safety Commission, 2014). The legal age to buy cigarettes in Puerto Rico is 18. Given the importance of impaired driving as a public health issue, the lack of up-to-date information on rates of impaired driving in Puerto Rico is surprising and regrettable. Puerto Rico has received little attention from the U.S.

federal government regarding research on the effects of substance use. The island was not included in the SAMHSA National Drug Use and Health Survey sample, nor in the four national NIAAA surveys conducted in 1992 (National Longitudinal Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol – NLAES) and 2002-2003, 2005-2006, 2012-2013 (National Epidemiological Study on Alcohol-Related Conditions – NESARC I, II and III). Puerto Rico participates in the CDC`s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), but the special questionnaire module that covers impaired driving has apparently not been used. With respect to socio-demographic and alcohol-related correlates between self-reported impaired driving and incarceration for lifetime impaired driving, most of the assumptions in this paper were confirmed: higher driving lessons per day, male gender, young age, liberal norms and positive attitudes towards alcohol consumption, and higher levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking were all positively associated with impaired driving. These variables are commonly reported predictors of impaired driving among Hispanics (Caetano et al., 2008a, 2008b; Caetano et al., 2013). Illicit drug use is also a risk factor for drunk driving, which is an important finding because it has not yet been identified as a risk factor for Hispanics in the United States.