The NY Times reports this morning that the age-old question, “Does anybody really know how to change a teenager’s behavior?” has at least a partial answer:
There is in fact a surefire way to get teenagers to consume less beer, tobacco and drugs, according to one study after another: raise the cost, in terms of either dollars or potential punishment.
In just about every state that increased beer taxes in recent years, teenage drinking soon dropped. The same happened . . . [when] states passed zero-tolerance laws, which suspend the licenses of under-21 drivers who have any trace of alcohol in their blood. . . .
Teenagers, it turns out, are highly rational creatures in some ways. Budweisers and Marlboros are discretionary items, and their customers treat them as such. . . .
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Not only that, but unprotected sex tended to become less common after the changes in the law, according to studies. Gonorrhea and H.I.V. rates dropped. So did drunken-driving deaths and, for boys, suicides.
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