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Border & Immigration

Is Mexico Going To Raise The Drinking Age To 21?

By Michel Marizco / Senior Field Correspondent
Published January 23, 2012 at 3:00 AM PST
This story was published more than 12 years ago.
Mexico To Raise Drinking Age To 21?
Mexico To Raise Drinking Age To 21?

The Mexican Health Ministry is backing an initiative to raise the legal drinking age in Mexico to 21 from 18.

Health officials announced their support after a new study was released that shows nearly 12 percent of Mexicans suffer from alcoholism. The fastest growing population? Young women.

The Mexican Congress would have to approve the plan.

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Local health officials in Nogales, Mexico are firmly behind it. They do note however that raising the drinking age will have an impact on 18-to-20 year old American teens who travel down to the U.S.-Mexico border to drink legally. Many bars and restaurants along the border rely on these young adults for business.

Border & Immigration
Michel Marizco
Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco (Tucson) has reported along the Southwest border for the past decade, most of that in Arizona and Sonora. Before joining the Fronteras Desk, he produced stories in the field for CNN Madrid, the BBC, 60 Minutes Australia, and the CBC. His work now focuses on transnational trafficking syndicates, immigration, federal law enforcement and those weird, wild stories that make the U.S.-Mexico border such an inherently fascinating region. He is a contributing author on Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime and an occasional writer at High Country News. In his spare time, he works with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, assisting in the ongoing investigations of journalist killings in Mexico.
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