Mandate Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Programs

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What Parents Can Do

What Agencies Can Do

What Schools Can Do

Strategies & Approaches › Reduce Availability › Mandate Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Programs

Mandate Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) Programs

The primary lines of defense against commercial access to alcohol by underage youth are the sales clerks, waiters and waitresses, and bartenders who directly interact with them. Business owners and managers should set clear policies for their employees regarding checking ID and denying service to underage customers. Without this support, changes in permissive server or seller behavior are unlikely.

Many states' Alcohol Beverage Control boards provide free responsible beverage- service-and-sales training to licensed establishments. Some states require such training for licensing, and others provide specific incentives for businesses that participate voluntarily. These programs inform participants about state and local ordinances concerning alcohol sales to minors, and about penalties for breaking these laws. Further, they help owners and managers to develop establishment-level policies and practices to help employees carry out their legal obligations.

Essential elements of effective service and sales policies include:

establishing 21 as the minimum age for everyone who serves or sells alcohol,
ensuring that staff know their legal responsibilities regarding underage sales,
ensuring that staff know the establishment's policies and the consequences for violating them,
requiring ID from all customers who appear to be under 30,
developing specific guidelines and providing training on valid forms of ID, and
monitoring staff compliance and enforcing consequences for violations.

Good training programs offer skill-development exercises, such as:

how to identify a fake ID, how to confiscate it, and what to do with it once confiscated;
how to determine whether an adult is buying alcohol for someone underage, and how to refuse service;
how to resist pressure to serve or sell alcohol to an underage customer; and
how to refuse service without creating a tense situation.

Businesses should inform customers about their participation in such programs both to encourage community support for responsible business practices and to deter underage youth from trying to buy alcohol or gain entry.

For more information on responsible beverage service, see the link below: Hoover, S.A. Responsible Beverage Service. Community Prevention Institute (CPI) & Center for Applied Research Solutions (CARS).
http://www.ca-cpi.org/tarp/RBS-final.pdf

Issue	Underage youth are being served alcohol at local bars and restaurants within the community.
Strategy	Encourage all business owners to periodically offer RBS training to new employees, particularly sales clerks, wait staff and bartenders so that they know the proper steps and procedures to take when identifying whether someone is of legal drinking age.

For additional strategies and approaches for changing policies, see the following:

What You Can Do: Community
What You Can Do: Parents
What You Can Do: Agencies
What You Can Do: Schools

References:
Underage Drinking Prevention Action Guide and Planner. 2001. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Available at: http://media.shs.net/prevline/pdfs/phd858.pdf#search=%22underage%20drinking%20prevention%20action%20guide%20and%20planner%22. Accessed on [08/25/06]

L Underage Drinking in California: California Town Hall Meetings. Community Prevention Institute. March, 2006. Available at: http://www.adp.cahwnet.gov/Prevention/townhall/pdf/CA%20Underage%20Drinking%20Survey%20Data%20Report.pdf. Accessed on [08/25/06]

Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG, and Schulenberg JE. 2006. Monitoring the Future national results on adolescent drug use: Overview of key findings, 2005. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Bonnie, R.J. & M.E. O’Connell (eds). 2003. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

A Guide to Zero Tolerance and Graduated Licensing: Two Strategies that Work. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Available at: http://www.udetc.org/documents/Guide2zero.pdf#search=%22a%20guide%20to%20zero%20tolerance%20and%20graduated%20licensing%22. Accessed on [09/06/06]

Drinking in America: Myths, Realities, and Prevention Policy. U.S. Dept. of Justice. Available at: http://www.udetc.org/documents/Drinking_in_America.pdf. Accessed on [09/05/06]

The Relationship Between Alcohol Availability and Injury and Crime. Available at: http://www.alcoholpolicymd.com/alcohol_and_health/alc_availability.htm. Accessed on [01/09/06]

Alcohol Restrictions at Community Events. Alcohol Epidemiology Program. University of Minnesota. Available at: http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/policy/atevents.shtm. Accessed on [08/29/06]

Wagenaar AC, Harwood EM, Toomey TL, Denk CE, Zander KM. 2000. Public opinion on alcohol policies in the United States: Results from a national survey. Journal of Public Health Policy, 21(3):303-27.

Highlight on Underage Drinking. Alcohol Policy Information System. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Available at: http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BDA5E054D-FB8E-4F06-BBBC-6EED9F37A758%7D. Accessed on [09/08/06]

Underage Drinking Prevention Action Guide and Planner. 2001. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Available at: http://media.shs.net/prevline/pdfs/phd858.pdf#search=%22underage%20drinking%20prevention%20action%20guide%20and%20planner%22. Accessed on [08/25/06]

Alcohol Home Delivery Restrictions. Alcohol Epidemiology Program. University of Minnesota. Available at: http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/policy/homdeliv.shtm. Accessed on [09/01/06]

Johnson, K.D. Underage Drinking: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Specific Guides Services. U.S. Dept. of Justice. Available at: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/PDFs/underage.pdf#search=%22statistics%20on%20alcohol%20free%20events%20and%20underage%20drinking%22. Accessed on [09/01/06]

Alcohol Epidemiology Program. Alcohol compliance checks: A procedures
manual for enforcing alcohol age-of-sale laws. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2000.

Shoulder Tap Program. 2003. Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Available at: http://www.abc.ca.gov/programs/Shoulder_tap.html. Accessed on [09/06/06]

A Practical Guide to Preventing and Dispersing Underage Drinking Parties. 2005. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation: Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center.