Background: Norway has a legal age limit for buying beer and wine of 18, 20 for spirits. Knowledge about how under-aged adolescents procure alcohol and the relative importance of the various sources is important in order to reduce the availability of alcohol among adolescents.
Material and methods: In a national school-based survey among 12,000 students in junior and senior high school a sub-sample comprising 13 to 17-year-old current drinkers were asked to state the frequency with which they had obtained alcohol from 8 different sources in the past 12 months.
Results: On average the respondents had obtained alcohol 11 times during the past year. The most frequently used source was "other adolescents" which constituted one third of the total number of times when alcohol had been obtained. Other important sources were "at home" (given or stolen), 20%; "off-premise and on-premise sales" (stores, wine and spirits outlets, bars, pubs etc., 22%; and "other sources", 19%. Older adolescents and those who drank frequently obtained alcohol more often and from a larger number of sources than others.
Interpretation: Enforcing the legal age limits in on-premise and off-premise alcohol outlets as well as limiting adolescents' access to alcohol at home may reduce consumption and related harm among adolescents.