The problem of teenage drinking is most severe when combined with teenage driving.

I came of age in New York when the drinking age was still 18, in the early ’60s. Even back then, Europeans were paying gasoline prices, in real currency, much higher than we are now — $3 (American) a gallon in Britain, for example. Consequently, fewer people and very few teenagers drove, and when they did they drove less.

With jobs harder to find for everyone, especially young people, and gasoline prices skyrocketing, market forces may help to alleviate the problem of teen drinking and driving.

CARL BUSCHNER

Warwick