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Emerging but limited evidence suggests that alcohol consumption has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed: (1) whether drinking behaviors changed during the pandemic; and, (2) how those changes were impacted by COVID-19-related stress. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey with a convenience sample of U.S. adults over 21 years in May 2020. We conducted adjusted linear regressions to assess COVID-19 stress and alcohol consumption, adjusting for gender, race, ethnicity, age, and household income. A total of 832 responded: 84% female, 85% White, and 72% ages 26-49. Participants reported consuming 26.8 alcohol drinks on 12.2 of the past 30 days. One-third of participants (34.1%) reported binge drinking and 7.0% reported extreme binge drinking. Participants who experienced COVID-19-related stress (versus not) reported consuming more drinks (β = 4.7; CI (0.2, 9.1); p = 0.040) and a greater number of days drinking (β = 2.4; CI (0.6, 4.1); p = 0.007). Additionally, 60% reported increased drinking but 13% reported decreased drinking, compared to pre-COVID-19. Reasons for increased drinking included increased stress (45.7%), increased alcohol availability (34.4%), and boredom (30.1%). Participants who reported being stressed by the pandemic consumed more drinks over a greater number of days, which raises concerns from both an individual and public health perspective.

This article examines how public health addresses alcohol use through marketing - place, product, promotion, and price. The article reviews current product trends and how restrictions on certain products designs may reduce youth consumption; how product availability may be restricted through zoning; and the current advertising landscape.

Background: Alcohol is responsible for 4,300 deaths a year in the U.S. among persons under 21. Alcohol companies innovate rapidly and produce new products, some of which prove popular among young people. The 18 "control jurisdictions" in the U.S. - those that exercise monopoly control over some aspect of alcohol distribution - have the ability to govern which products become available within their borders and have, at times, exercised that authority to block particular products from sale., Objectives: This paper is an exploratory study examining how states use regulatory authority in control jurisdictions to restrict the sale of new alcohol products within their borders, and the reasoning used to justify those decisions., Methods: The authors, collaborating with the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, surveyed control state officials regarding procedures and policies governing the sale of new products in their jurisdictions., Results: Control jurisdictions have banned/restricted different products (e.g., grain alcohol and alcoholic energy drinks) for a variety of reasons (e.g., flavorings/packaging appealing to underage drinkers, blurring of distinctions between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and judgment that the product was not socially responsible). Conclusions/ Importance: Although U.S. control jurisdictions universally have the authority to limit access to problematic alcohol products; they vary in the degree to which they use it. These states need to take action, and as of now, there is no systematic reasoning behind when and how states make decisions to ban/restrict these products. Greater exploration of regulatory authority in this arena could be protective of public health.

Objectives: To evaluate US state regulations regarding marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol to determine the extent to which states attempt to govern these substances in early care and education (ECE) settings., Methods: Two independent reviewers assessed regulations enacted by December 2016 for all states and the District of Columbia. Reviewers compared regulations to national standards on the possession or use of marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol in ECE settings., Results: Fewer states regulated marijuana than tobacco or alcohol in ECE settings. More states restricted the use of these 3 substances than they restricted the possession of them., Conclusions: Most states address alcohol or tobacco possession or use in their regulations but should consider updating these provisions to align with national standards. Public Health Implications. Updating and strengthening state childcare regulations regarding marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol possession and use may help protect children in ECE settings, where many children spend a substantial portion of time. As more states legalize marijuana, they may consider updating their regulations and including precise language to better protect children from unintended pediatric marijuana exposure or impaired childcare providers.

Objective: Although not originally enacted to deter the problem of underage drinking in the United States, one set of laws that may influence this behavior is juvenile curfew laws. This research asked the following: (a) What is the effect of enacting a juvenile curfew law on youth drinking, and (b) do demographic variables moderate the relation between juvenile curfew law enactment and drinking? This study examined the effect of juvenile curfew laws on underage drinking, using data from 46 U.S. cities from 1991 to 2005., Method: In 2014, we compiled a data set containing alcohol and curfew law data by zip code. It included 63,081 minors (ages 12-17 years) from 1,081 zip codes. We used difference-in-difference regressions to analyze the data., Results: The effect of the enactment of a curfew law on the likelihood of consuming alcohol in the past year or past 30 days or of heavy episodic drinking in the past 2 weeks was not significant when compared with cities without curfew laws during the same periods. Although the likelihood of consuming alcohol over the past year differed depending on an individual's characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, and gender), none of the interaction terms between these characteristics and curfew laws were significant., Conclusions: Curfew laws appear to have a nonsignificant effect on youth drinking, but these results are unclear without more knowledge as to where and when youth are drinking both before and after the enactment of curfew laws and how these laws are being enforced.