Overview of the Legal Drinking Age
One of the most important laws to understand in North Carolina is that you must be at least 21 years old to legally purchase and consume alcohol. The legal drinking age in North Carolina follows the legal consumption age of 21. It is a crime in North Carolina for a minor drink alcohol.
To clarify, you cannot legally purchase or consume alcohol until you are 21 years old. Even if you are 18, 19 or 20 years old and presented with a valid form of identification showing that you are above the legal drinking age of 21, the legal burden of proof is on the seller to know the law and abide by it.
Citizens 21 and over have the right to purchase alcohol as long as they follow the alcoholic beverage control laws for the area or special jurisdiction in which they are located. Although most counties in North Carolina are wet , there are some counties that are dry. There are also dry towns and cities within wet counties. That means that some areas are controlled by county ordinances and others by town ordinances. For more information see our article on wet/dry counties in North Carolina.
There are exceptions to the legal drinking age in North Carolina. If a minor is a part of a religious ceremony involving wine, he or she has a legal right to consume the wine. There are also exceptions made for parents. In a few cases, parents have the right to supply their son or daughter with an alcoholic beverage. North Carolina law does not allow the minor to possess the alcohol unless the parent is immediately present and supervises the consumption of the alcohol.
Exceptions to the Exceptions
North Carolina has a couple of exceptions or loopholes to the rule. One exception is for religious ceremonies. North Carolina law allows an exception for religious ceremonies associated with rites of passage such as first communion drinking of wine, which is permitted for those 18 and older. This is the exception afforded to parents if they provide alcohol for their own children as long as the parent is giving it to their own child on property they own or control.
Additionally, if the parent or guardian is a custodian of an unemancipated minor, then the parent may provide that child appropriately controlled and regulated (or lawful by law enforcement) location.
However, it is a defense for the servers if the server has been duly trained in responsible vendor programs pursuant to Chapter 18B and the server can provide proof of training within thirty days of the alleged offense. Additionally, chapter 18B provides good faith defenses for bar owners and others involved in the responsible vendor program.
The Responsible Vendor Program was created by North Carolina’s House Bill 500 in 1999 and is designed to reduce drunk driving and underage drinking. The program allows beer and wine vendors to receive liability insurance discounts and tangible benefits when they agree to voluntary comply with chapter 18B and conduct responsible vendor programs. Further, in-house employee training programs were authorized that is approved by the Alcoholic Beverage Control commission on the state-level and counties may also offer approved programs.
Penalties for Breaking the Minimum Drinking Age Rule
In addition to potential criminal charges, individuals who violate the drinking age laws in North Carolina may also face other penalties. This may include fines or community service requirements. Under North Carolina General Statutes §18B-302, it is illegal for a person under the age of 21 to purchase or attempt to purchase malt beverages or unfortified wine, consume malt beverages or unfortified wine on licensed premises, possess an alcoholic beverage while on or in the public streets, highways, roads, or other public property, or possess or consume alcohol while attending any public assembly, parade, or other form of mass gathering.
Unlike individuals who are 21 or older, those under 21 who violate the drinking age laws face criminal misdemeanor charges and do not get a first-time offense pardon for a drinking violation.
If a minor violates the drinking age laws, he or she will typically be charged with a misdemeanor. The minimum punishment is 24 hours of community service or 48 hours of community service if the minor is under the age of 18. The maximum punishment is 60 days in jail, though this is unlikely for a first-time offense. Fines may also apply, typically around $100. The Judge may suspend the punishment if the defendant adheres to certain conditions or requires the defendant to complete the punishment within a year.
The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) also has the ability to suspend or revoke a minor’s driver’s license if he or she has been convicted of a misdemeanor involving the consumption of alcohol. If you have been charged with violating the drinking age laws in North Carolina, consult an experienced criminal defense attorney.
Influence of Drinking Laws on Young People
The impact of drinking laws on North Carolina’s youth population is significant. In 2001, the statewide law raised the legal drinking age to 21. While this change was immediate and uniform, younger high school seniors continued to have more access to alcohol after the law was passed. In a 2011 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse, 14.5 percent of high school seniors reported that they drove or were driven home by someone else who had been drinking.
Nationally, an estimated 12 annual deaths for every 100,000 children aged 14 to 15 years were associated with motor vehicle crashes involving drivers aged 20011 to 2049. In North Carolina, one motor vehicle collision occurred every 6 minutes and 27 seconds in 2010. In fact, motor vehicle collisions involving alcohol became the top cause of death for 15- to 17-year-olds in North Carolina. In the 2010 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 7.9 percent of 1,116 survey participants reported that they had ridden with someone who had been drinking.
An evaluation of five underage drinking accountability programs conducted from January 2004 through October 2008 found that while a reduction in underage crash fatalities has been observed, this impact may be postulated to be a result of other concurrent efforts such as Zero Tolerance legislation, secondary seat belt laws, ignition interlock laws, and increased police accountability.
In response to the increasing prevalence of underage drinking, schools have begun to offer educational programs to the students about the dangers of both underage drinking and drinking and driving. Certain programs, like "Underage Drinking Reduction Enforcement" (UDRE) and "Community Mobilization Grant Program" (CMGP), are funded by grants of up to $100,000 from the Alcohol Law Enforcement division to local law enforcement for the purpose of targeting underage drinking through periodical operations and educational campaigns.
Drinking Age: How North Carolina Compares
North Carolina’s legal drinking age laws are similar in many ways to its neighbor to the south, South Carolina. South Carolina imposes the same legal drinking age of 21 that applies in North Carolina. Each state prohibits the use of a false ID by an underage individual and shares some common exemptions. In North Carolina and South Carolina, religious organizations are exempt from the legal drinking age requirement when providing the beverage to individuals over the age of 21 as part of a religious ceremony. The laws in North Carolina and South Carolina differ in that they allow a person of any age to possess wine but with greater restrictions than those concerning beer.
Much like North Carolina, West Virginia has a legal drinking age of 21 and licenses verification of age via accepted computer systems, such as the NCATS system in North Carolina. Like some North Carolina statutes, West Virginia does not carry a criminal penalty for the sale or purchase of alcohol by an underage person. However, unlike North Carolina law, a person in West Virginia may be disqualified from receiving a driver’s license for violations under this law. West Virginia imposes no liability upon the social host under the circumstances set forth in this client alert . The responsible service training requirement is greater under West Virginia law, which requires it for all employees rather than just beer servers like in North Carolina. However, North Carolina requires on-site training of such employees within thirty days of hiring, while West Virginia requires periodic re-certification of those serving alcohol.
In Virginia, beer, wine, and cider may be possessed or consumed by individuals over the age of 18. This application of the legal drinking age to those under 21 does not extend to hard liquor or spirits. Sales of alcohol may be purchased by individuals age 21 and older. As in North Carolina, the sale of beer is controlled by the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, and only establishments with liquor licenses may sell beer. Like North Carolina, Virginia does not require server training. However, it is also not directly required in North Carolina. It is required under the alcohol control regulations of South Carolina, as well as Kansas, Montana, Utah, and Nebraska. Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, and South Carolina have private licensee liability statutes that are similar to those in North Carolina.
State Laws Impact on Bars and Shops
As previously discussed, the legal drinking age in North Carolina is 21. To comply with the law, bars and restaurants must merely require a valid form of identification evidencing the date of birth of every patron who purchases alcohol from the establishment. However, North Carolina’s underage drinking laws are more complex. For example, it is unlawful for "any person to attempt[ ] to procure any malt beverage, mixed beverage, or fortified wine on behalf of an underage person." This is true even if the purchase is being made for a family member of the underage individual. Venues with a license to sell alcohol are required by statute to post the following notice on the wall of their premises: "It is a violation of the alcoholic beverage control laws for a person to sell or give malt beverage, unfortified wine, or fortified wine to anyone less than 21 years of age or for any person under 21 to purchase or attempt to purchase these beverages. Area consumers should report suspects and violators to authorities." Restaurants and bars that decide to allow entry of persons under the age of 21 must be aware that this may potentially increase liability to the extent such persons are somehow over-served (and in some cases even if they are not over-served). Further, compliance with the various criminal laws surrounding sales to underage individuals constitutes but a small step toward protecting the establishment. For example, under Chapter 18B-500 of North Carolina’s alcoholic beverage laws, establishments that sell alcohol can be charged with a "violation of the ABC laws" if it "provides or sells alcohol beverages through a vending machine." Moreover, Chapter 18B-302(a) provides that "[i]t is unlawful for an ABC permittee to . . . allow any person who is not an employee or agent of the permittee, except as set forth in 18B-1000, to sell, furnish, serve, give, or in any manner to directly or indirectly provide an alcoholic beverage . . . ]to a person under 21 years old." However, if you do not serve alcohol direct to the customer (i.e. you use a vending machine) there is no violation of § 18B-302(a) and the only way to be charged with a "violation of the ABC laws" is to get into trouble under § 18B-500.
Evolution of the Minimum Drinking Age Law
Unlike many states, North Carolina has not always had the legal drinking age set to 21. That is because of the fact that prior to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, there was not a national minimum drinking age. The way the law worked before the Act was that states were free to set their own drinking ages and it was up to these states to determine whether or not to allow drinking by minors. North Carolina previously had a 18-year-old minimum drinking age.
The Act was passed because one of the contributing factors to the number of deaths caused by impaired driving was a United States’ drinking age that varied from state to state. Moreover, if one state had a legal drinking age of 18, many out of state residents from 18-year-old drinking age jurisdictions would visit it just for its lower drinking age. This "destination drinking" (or as it was often called "destination underage drinking") created a problem because when these people then drove home from those states after drinking, they got in accidents because they went through many other states with higher drinking ages .
Congress stepped in and passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act to try and reduce states’ abilities to set their own drinking age levels. The Act provided that any state that did not establish a minimum drinking age of 21 would lose 10% of its Federal highway construction revenues. So in order to not lose their Federal funding, every state set a minimum drinking age of 21.
As a result of the loss of Federal funding, North Carolina in 1986 passed its minimum drinking age law. As originally enacted, the law applied only to alcohol and not to malt beverages (which are what the term "beer" usually refers to). The practical difference was that the 1986 minimum drinking age law made 18 rather than 21 the minimum purchase age of beer. In 1988, the law was amended and the 21-year-old policy became the minimum purchase age for beer as well.