What do you think should be the legal minimum age for drinking? (page 3)

ballistic

There is no drinking age in the UK, only the age at which you can purchase alcohol, which is 18. Are people saying that in the US, the government are placing restrictions on what you do in your own home?

Celia

Growing up in France, us kids were given some red wine (mixed with water) with meals. I remember my grandfather giving us red wine to which he had added sugar, water and lemon juice.... Delicious. None of us turned out to become an alcoholic. All in moderation...

The first few years in the US, I couldn't understand why it was such a taboo to give a little wine or champagne to kids, even in your own house...

Some people even said of me I was alcoholic, just because I had a glass of wine with dinner ! milk was their drink of choice with dinner, or Coke,... Yuuuk...

prophecor

Some people even said of me I was alcoholic, just because I had a glass of wine with dinner ! milk was their drink of choice with dinner, or Coke,...

I think we here in Amerikka could learn a thing or two about social graces, alcoholic intake and a little decorum when it comes to alcohol consumption and other things. England & France, you both appear to be way ahead of the curve in this respect.
Thanx Celia

Golf

JB, screw the bureacracy! We have allowed the government bureacracy to rule over us, and as such, we have give up our freedoms by being complacent and apathetic.

Why is it that young men can go to war at 18 and KILL, but yet, can't drink beer until their 21?

Underage kids can smoke pot take drugs have sex and children but young folks at 18 can't drink?

I'm thinking out loud again.

Golf

Undecided

My dad never got drunk but did ocassionally drink a shot or two. He always had a bottle in the cabinet, which would last for months. We never got into his whisky as young teens. He would let us have some once in a while and it never seemed an issue. We never got drunk. I think the more they restrict something, the more trouble it creates among young people. Of course we are in a different world today than it was then. I still have a drink once in a while but it isn't a necessary part of life for me.

I don't even try to understand the way the young generation is going today, drugs seem to be destroying alot of their lives.

Ken P.

Euphemism

ballistic wrote:
There is no drinking age in the UK, only the age at which you can purchase alcohol, which is 18. Are people saying that in the US, the government are placing restrictions on what you do in your own home?

Technically, yes. It's rarely enforced, of course, and the exact rules vary by state; but in much of the US it's illegal for an adult--even a parent--to give an alcohoic beverage to a minor (or an adult under 21), even at home.

Jeannie... too funny. That would have been the more Marxesque answer, I suppose.

What do you think should be the legal minimum age for drinking?