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Underage Drinking

Iowa Code § 123.47 — no buying, having or drinking alcohol under legal age

  • A person under legal age may not buy, try to buy, drink or possess alcohol, except as given in a private home with a parent's or guardian's knowledge, presence and consent.
  • For someone eighteen, nineteen or twenty, a first offense is a scheduled violation, and a second carries a $500 fine with a choice of an evaluation or a license suspension.
  • No one may sell, give or supply alcohol to someone known or reasonably believed to be under legal age.
  • Iowa Code § 123.47
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An adult who supplies alcohol to someone under legal age commits a serious misdemeanor with a minimum fine of $500.

  • Iowa Code § 123.47
Sources for this section (1)
  1. Iowa Code § 123.47 — Persons under eighteen years of age, persons eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years of age, and persons twenty-one years of age and older

Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Iowa attorney.

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