Well Malone brought up smoking so I am going to bring up drinking (alcohol that is).

Not to be politically incorrect (who me but why is the minimum drinking age 21 years in Hawaii (and all other states).

In Canada, we have been able to reduce our drunk driving fatalities to the same extent as the US over the last 15 years while still retaining an 18-19 year old minimum drinking age.

Has this caused a problem for any travelers who are used to drinking at a younger age going to places where they can't?

... and for those who live under stricter laws, did you travel elsewhere and get blasted just because you could?

This has nothing to do with driving. It is so that they can be sober while voting.

Unfortunately,the US is not as serious about drink driving as many other countires (see today's headlines in the US that the Senate voted down an amendment which would have made the US Office of National Drug Control Policy include alcohol in its ads targeted to young people and drugs). Texas will lower the blood alcohol content to .08 this year. Many other countries have much lower blood alcohol driving levels and are much more serious about drink driving. In those countries, the minimum age for drinking is often lower (and the penalty for a person under 21 who is caught drinking and driving is much more severe--like a .00 requirement. Any alcohol and you automatically lose your license). The federal government tied the 21 year old drinking age to the federal transportation money in an attempt to get the states to address the problem of young people drinking and driving. It's a backwards way to do it, but better than nothing. And, yes, nothing worse than the flight from the US to Australia where all the American kids get totally drunk since they can drink legally!

Ever since the mid-1980s the neo-prohibitionists in the good ol' US of A ram-rodded a higher drinking age, and the government acquiesced by tying federal highway funds to passing a 21 drinking-age law. No pass, no money. No money, no highway repairs.

While I DO NOT condone drinking and driving (which was the original intent of the re-raising of the drinking age) statistics (as in lies, ****ed lies and statistics) showed a decrease in highway fatalities when the drinking age was raised. When the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1970, many states followed suit with the drinking age. Nowadays, you can vote, get drafted but not be served alcohol until you can prove you're 21.

The individual states are responsible through their Alcoholic Beverage Control office (the name may differ in each state, but they perform the same function) to control the sale and distribution of liquor, including setting the drinking age. Even so, some states let the individual counties or local jurisdictions set alcohol beverage sales policy, which is why Dallas has such weird liquor laws. (Each county judicial precinct can either be dry or various stages of wet (for example, beer and wine sales only). Once set, the law is very difficult to change.) A couple of small, independent cities in the Dallas area voted themselves to be wet, and one particular town called Buckingham (which is about a couple of hundred acres in size) has two liquor stores and a very small police department, but does gangbusters business on Saturdays with liquor sales from dry North Dallas.

It's not a problem in San Antonio, where I live, since the entire county is wet. And as such, you practically need a guidebook to get a drink in Texas!



------------------
AlphaSigOU
Causa latet vis est notissima - the cause is hidden, the results are well-known.

Thanks for the insights!

Two thoughts:

First, TexasFlyer's flight from Australia with drunken teenagers is a direct contrast to mine yesterday on United from Paris to Dulles: the FA's explained to the (many) teenagers that they couldn't serve them alcohol because they were under 21 (the kids, that is).

Second, as for wet vs. dry areas: I toured the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, TN last month, and at the end of the tour they serve lemonade, not whiskey - they're in a dry county, despite making how many million gallons of hooch a year!! But they did get a special act of the legislature a few years ago to let them sell (only) commemorative decanter bottles at the tour; at $38 for a fifth, I passed on this offer.

Pgupta011:

In light of the politicians we've elected, I feel a lot better assuming people ARE drunk while voting. The thought that people are actually in control of their faculties while selecting some of the politicians is truly frightening. Reminds me what a wise man Mr. PT Barnum is when he said, "You can fool most of the people most of the time."

------------------

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

RE: Johna's comment. I don't fly US carriers to OZ, so don't know what United's position is, but to cut down the hassle of having to deal with drunken teenagers,if I were a flight attendant, I think I'd prefer to allude to US restrictions and not serve them. Remember when alcohol was illegal in some states on Sundays and beverage service varied depending on which state you were flying over?

My post was in jest. People under 21 can vote, serve in the military, etc.

[This message has been edited by pgupta011 (edited 07-03-1999).]

in Switzerland:
16 years is the limit for beer, wine etc.
18 years spirits

when Maria (my daughter, at that time 22 but she looked like 18) and her boy-friend Dani (at that time 20 - but he looked like 25 accompanied us on our Las Vegas - San Francisco - Seattle trip 4 years ago - Maria was always asked first to prove identity, and when she showed her passport nobody did care to ask Dani for his!

Only very embarrassing experience was at the music-clubs in Seattle downtown (Pioneer Square). Both had to show passports and Dany was denied entrance - even my arguments that I would guarantee that he would only have softdrinks didn't get him in - really embarrassing and, if we would have stayed longer, they would have organized some falsified identification.

... and yes, pgupta is right, those were the arguments (they serve in military service starting at the age of 18) to lower voting and alcohol age too to 18 in Switzerland 4 years ago.

I worked security while at university in Vancouver (BC's legal age is 19), and the eighteen-year-olds who had managed to fake their way in always got far drunker than anyone else who *was* legal age, since they didn't know if/when they'd be able to do it again.

The real irony in BC is that 18 year olds are considered old enough to vote in national - but not provincial - elections.

Personally, I've always thought it stupid that individuals at university would not be legally allowed to drink, as they're going to find some way to gain access anyway.

The French style of giving children a wine and water mixture, gradually moving from mostly water to all wine, seems to be one of the most effective ways to teach responsible use of alcohol. My parents used this technique, and I was well into my twenties and had been "legally" drinking for about 7 years before I was for the first - and hopefully last - time drunk enough to be ill (alas, it was due to very fine cognac too...)

I think a good majority of children are responsible and it seems wierd to be able to die for your country and vote for boring politicians when you can't have one beer.

This is the truth: I DID NOT DRINK UNTIL I WAS 23. IT WAS A PERSONAL CHOICE. YES, I'M DANDY DULL BUT I DID NOT FEEL THE NEED. UNTIL MY AUNT'S DEATH AND OTHER CRISISES.

Maybe it's my baby face but I have been carded in Vienna (two years ago) Alaska, Hoboken and as lately as a month ago on a UA flight from SFO where Ms. Sour says she thinks my goatee is fake and when I ask for a beer she wants I-D. So I take out my wallent and put on the table my driver's license, work I-D, Credit cards, supermarket discount cards, ATM cards... finishing with (How many kids 21 and younger have all fo this???)


------------------
MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!!!

If you don't let kids drink in bars, they have no choice but to drink in their cars.

Catman -- I have all of those except a supermarket discount card. I guess that's the revealing sign of age, right?

Re the original post, I lived in Europe for a while with my mom, and was able to drink there.. When we came to the US, I couldn't drink anymore, but it really didn't bother me. It's not an essential thing.