Does low alcohol beer reduce high risk drinking

Recently, brewers have been able to produce beer with less than half of 1 percent alcohol which is classified in the U.S. as a non-alcoholic drink. Currently 6 percent of American males report having consumed non-alcoholic beer in the last six months. This pilot study involved surveys designed to identify the extent to which non-alcoholic beers are used by high risk drivers (1,000 youth under 21 and 1,000 drivers convicted of driving while impaired). These surveys explored the context in which these beers were used and the reasons given for their use, to answer such questions as whether they appeared to support the use of designated drivers. The study also explored the extent to which these high risk drivers choose to consume beers with differing amounts of alcohol content. This is to determine whether if, current U.S. laws - which prohibit indicating the amount of alcohol in beer on the container label - were changed, whether this would likely result in greater alcohol consumption among these high risk groups. (a) For the record of the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no 868581.