The research, involving 9000 young Australians and New Zealanders from age 13 to 30, also highlights the need to change "the way we deal with alcohol as a nation'', researchers say.
Adolescents who drink weekly before age 17 are up to three times more likely as adults to binge-drink, drink-drive, be alcohol-dependent, and use other drugs than their non-drinking peers, the new research shows.
One of the study authors, Associate Prof Joe Boden of Otago University's Christchurch campus, says regular early drinking, before the age of 17 should no longer be dismissed as a harmless "rite of passage''.
Prof Boden is one of the researchers involved in the university's Christchurch Health and Development Study, and more than 1000 participants in that study contributed to the findings.
He says the study provides robust evidence for policymakers, health promoters, and parents, and says there is a need to take specific steps to counter this big societal and health problem.
"This really underlines the need for change in the way we deal with alcohol as a society,'' Prof Boden said in an interview.
Youthful alcohol use was at the heart of every European society, but more restrictions on alcohol availability, including lifting the minimum drinking age, and reducing alcohol advertising and banning alcohol sponsorship were needed to counter the problems.
"One of the big problems with availability'' was the excessively easy availability of relatively cheap beer and wine through supermarkets.
Otago University researchers collaborated with researchers from the Universities of New South Wales, Melbourne, and Queensland on the study, and results were published recently in the international journal Addiction.
The findings provided the most robust evidence to date on the causal relationship between adolescent drinking and other substance use and alcohol problems in adulthood, Prof Boden said.
The study also found frequency of drinking was as important as how much was drunk, in terms of the link to problems later in life.
The findings suggested that delaying when teens start drinking regularly could have significant benefits to individuals, families and society as a whole.
Public health messages should focus on curbing frequency of drinking as well as the amounts consumed, he said.
Prof Boden said the research highlighted several areas for possible reform of alcohol laws and policies, in particular proposals to increase the minimum purchase age, and reducing the "anytime anywhere" availability of alcohol in many parts of New Zealand.
The study found that frequent early drinking, as well as early binge and problem drinking, was a good predictor of future problems with alcohol.
• The frequency of drinking linked to later problems was drinking at least once a week.
• Those adolescents who drank at least once a week from age 13 were more than two times more likely than their peers to binge drink, drive while intoxicated, and have other problems related to alcohol once they became adults.
It also found:
• Those who drank at least weekly before age 17 had rates of alcohol dependence in adulthood that were three times higher than those who did not drink before age 17.
• Drinking at least weekly before age 17 also increased the risk of smoking cigarettes in adulthood by 60 per cent
• Weekly drinkers before age 17 had rates of drink-driving in adulthood that were almost three times higher than those who did not drink before age 17.
• Drinking at least weekly during adolescence also increased typical alcohol consumption during adulthood by about 80% compared with non-drinkers before age 17.