In most European countries, the minimum age to consume alcohol is 18, while some countries even allow legal consumption at the age of 16. In the United States, there have been proposals to change the legal drinking age. They haven`t gone far with lawmakers, making it unlikely that the minimum drinking age will change anytime soon. Once a person reaches the legal age of their state, they can enter into legally enforceable agreements. Minors do not have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. However, an agreement entered into when a person was a minor may be ratified, expressly or implicitly, upon reaching the age of majority, so that it becomes valid and enforceable. The legal age of majority is distinct from the legal age of license. The legal driving age is the minimum age a person must reach to legally participate in certain activities, such as drinking alcohol, voting or driving. The legal age of license varies by activity and jurisdiction and may, but is not obligatory, coincide with the age of legal majority.
The minimum age to consume alcohol in Mexico is 18 and alcohol is permanently available in many places. The legal drinking age is the minimum age to buy or drink alcoholic beverages. The minimum age for legal alcohol consumption may differ from the minimum age for purchase in some countries. But there isn`t much clarity in state laws. In Alaska, teens can marry at age 14 with a court order. Only a handful of states allow alcohol consumption before the age of 21 under strict circumstances, such as: if a parent or guardian is present. However, in many other Asian countries, alcohol laws do not exist or are very flexible. Cambodia, Macau and Vietnam do not have a minimum age to buy or consume alcohol. The most well-known reason for the law behind the legal drinking age is the effect on the brain in teenagers.
As the brain is still maturing, alcohol can have a negative effect on memory and long-term thinking. In addition, it can cause liver failure and cause hormonal imbalance in adolescents due to the constant changes and maturation of hormones during puberty. [3] Youth are also particularly at risk of injury when drinking alcohol,[4] as they may not have the necessary knowledge about low-risk drinking. In fact, public health researchers found that people`s age to drink the first full serving of alcohol was significantly related to knowledge of low-risk alcohol consumption and beverage counting. Knowledge about low-risk alcohol consumption and frequency of beverage counting increased more sharply with age at first drinking in adolescence than at the end of the period. [5] The most common minimum age to buy alcohol in Africa is 16. However, Angola (with the exception of Luanda province), Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Togo do not have laws restricting the sale of alcohol to minors. In Libya, Somalia and Sudan, the sale, production and consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited. [incorrect synthesis?] Health experts cite evidence that the age of 21 is necessary to protect young adults from alcohol dependence. States that have raised the minimum drinking age to 21 have seen a decrease in the number of car accidents. France, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Greece all have a minimum drinking age of 18. The minimum drinking age in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec is 18.
Canada`s other provinces and territories allow the legal purchase of alcohol at age 19. * For established religious purposes;* If a person under twenty-one years of age is accompanied by a parent, spouse or guardian twenty-one years of age or older;* For medical purposes, if purchased as an over-the-counter drug or prescribed or administered by a physician, pharmacist, dentist, nurse, a hospital or an authorized medical facility;* In a private dwelling, which includes a residential dwelling and up to twenty contiguous hectares on which the dwelling belonging to the same person who owns it is situated;* the sale, handling, transport or service of supplying alcoholic beverages on the basis of the lawful ownership of an establishment or the lawful employment of a person under twenty-one years of age by a duly licensed producer, wholesaler or retailer of alcoholic beverages. Most laws only apply to alcohol consumption in public places and not to alcohol consumption in private homes. Some countries also have a minimum age for certain beverages, such as distilled alcohol. Newly legal drinkers often buy alcohol for their underage peers, resulting in a “trickle-down” effect. [34] Surveys show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year-olds is their peers aged 21 to 24. [35] In a 2002 meta-study on legal drinking age and health and social problems, 72% of studies found no statistically significant association, although it was claimed that lowering MLA to 18 would increase suicide and criminal activity among adolescents. [19] After prohibition ended in 1933, most states set the drinking age at 21, which was the minimum voting age at the time.
All fifty states had raised their minimum drinking age to 21 by the summer of 1988. South Dakota and Wyoming were the last states to comply with the change. And since 1984, when states began raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in exchange for federal funding for highways — in some cases, as little as a decade after the cut — they couldn`t buy beer at a bar in most of the U.S., a restriction that has infuriated students ever since. U.S. alcohol laws regarding the minimum age of purchase have changed over time. In colonial America, there was usually no drinking age, and alcohol consumption among young teenagers was common, even in taverns. [1] In post-revolutionary America, this laxity gradually changed due to religious sentiments (embodied in the temperance movement) and a growing recognition of the dangers of alcohol in the medical community. [1] Recent history is given in the table below. Unless otherwise stated, the age indicated below will be set at the lowest specified age if different categories of alcohol have different minimum ages of purchase (for example, If the age of purchase is 18 years for beer and 21 years for wine or spirits, as has been the case in several states, the age in the table is “18”, not “21”). In addition, the age of purchase is not necessarily the same as the minimum age to consume alcoholic beverages, although they are often the same. The method of calculating the legal age for alcohol is slightly different from the calculation of Korean age, where another year is added to the person`s age, while this method does not take into account the month and day of birth, but only the year.
[105] A poll for the Center for Alcohol Policy found that 86% of Americans support the legal drinking age of 21. [54] Numerous state and national surveys from the 1970s (when states raised the legal drinking age) to the present have shown overwhelming public support for MLDA 21. [30] [31] [32] Section 78 of the Children`s Act – No person shall sell, lend, give, provide, provide or offer liquor to children under 16 years of age unless there is a written order signed by the parents or guardians of the child known to that person. The police have a duty to confiscate any alcoholic beverage in the possession of a child under the age of 16 without the written consent of parents or guardians. [38] Wisconsin was the first U.S. state to introduce a minimum drinking age in 1839. It prevented the sale of wines or spirits to persons under the age of 18 without parental consent. It is technically legal for minors to possess and consume alcohol at home and in public (not on authorized premises), as there is no law prohibiting it. It is also technically legal for someone to buy alcohol and give it to minors outside the store or licensed establishments. [104] At that time, many states changed their minimum voting age to align it with the minimum drinking age.
Germany is one of the most interesting countries when it comes to the minimum drinking age. It has one of the lowest minimum drinking ages in the world, allowing teenagers to drink alcohol at the age of 14 if accompanied by an adult. A U.S. District Court ruled on September 22. December 1978 that MLDA 21 is “reasonably related to a government goal of reducing motor vehicle accidents” and that MLDA 21 resists constitutional challenge on three important legal issues: (1) alcohol consumption is not a constitutionally guaranteed “fundamental right,” (2) age is not inherently a criterion for “suspect” discrimination (as opposed to race or ethnicity, for example), and (3) the use of drinking age for the prevention of motorway accidents has a “rational basis” in the available scientific evidence. [29] The legal age is also called the age of majority. This is the age at which a person acquires the legal status of an adult. The legal age is determined by state law and may vary from state to state. However, almost all states set the basic legal age at 18.
This is the age at which a person takes control of their own actions and affairs and becomes responsible for the decisions they make.