Background: Little is known about the enforcement of minimum legal age for purchase of alcohol (18 years) in Norway. We have assessed to what extent this requirement is fulfilled in grocery stores, on-premise outlets and monopoly outlets.
Material and methods: Questionnaires were filled in by 13-17 year-olds who had started drinking. They were asked about the frequency of purchase attempts in grocery stores, on-premise outlets and in monopoly outlets in the past year and how often their attempt to buy alcohol had been refused.
Results: Slightly more than 20% of the under-aged alcohol consumers (n = 9,309) had tried to buy beer in grocery stores; a similar proportion had tried to buy alcohol in pubs, bars, etc, and less than 5% had tried monopoly outlets. More than half of the attempts in grocery stores, 80% in on-premise venues and two thirds of those in monopolies were successful (i.e. purchase was not denied).
Interpretation: A stricter enforcement of the minimum legal age is likely to reduce availability of alcohol to the under-aged.