Let’s raise the drinking age to 21 to stop teenage drinking. Wait...........
I don’t know how other states handle it, but in NJ one fairly effective way to combat teen drinking is to simply postpone the offender’s eligibility to drive. Their drinking doesn’t even need to involve a car; they simply don’t want to issue a drivers license at the standard age to someone who drinks alcohol at 15. Driving isn’t a “right”, and drunk driving isn’t even a criminal offense in NJ - it is a motor vehicle violation (there is no pre-trial intervention, no right to a jury trial, etc. as would be allowed with criminal charges).
While teen drinking will always be an issue, it seems to have been replaced by many younger people with pill use; they know the effects of alcohol, and instead risk the unknown problems with pills.