Drinking age

[polishgirl]

Hi I was just wondering, what age did you guys start drinking? What do you think should be the age to legally consume alcohol?

 

[MrJones]

Legal age doesn't really mean anything.

In Spain it's 18 but kids usually start drinking and smoking (also legal at 18) around 13 years old, and too many times even younger (8-9 that I know, really sad).

I don't drink, but I drank in the past and I don't really remember, but I was too young to handle it, even if it wasn't too much.

 

[Silatuyok]

I was raised going to a Byzantine Catholic church, so I guess you could say I started drinking when I was 7. ::

Seriously, though, I didn't really "start drinking" until I was in my mid-twenties, and even then and now it is minimal.

 

[emre43]

I'm 22 and I'm teetotal. I know, I'm really boring - I've just never had any desire to start drinking and don't intend to start now.

 

[MikeyC]

Legal age for drinking is 18 in Australia but under-age kids tend to get their hands on alcohol one way or another.

I didn't have my first drunk experience until I was 19 and that started years of binge drinking that continues to this day. When I was 24 last year I attended a 40th birthday party, where I got so drunk I have scenes missing from that night, threw up in someone's car, threw up more when I got home, started swearing at nothing, and woke up with the worst hangover of my life and was sick for a week afterwards. Since then I have always watched my drinks and now I don't find it to be that enjoyable to drink anymore.

 

[WeirdyMcGee]

I was given my first drink at 8 years old and from 14 years, onward, given a glass of wine with Christmas dinner even when I turned it down because it's 'tradition'.
(liquoring up your coffee on Christmas morning is also 'tradition')
All the kids in my extended family are given a drink at that age.
I've never been tipsy or drunk and I haven't touched a drop of alcohol in years. It doesn't interest me.

The legal drinking age in Ontario is 19, I think.
You can serve alcohol in a restaurant by 18 - if you have a smartserve certificate.


I do believe that a glass of wine or beer is fine if you have a child at 16 who wants to try it- granted they are staying home and not wandering the streets or driving anywhere.
I do agree with the legal drinking age for people who are buying booze; although younger teenagers who want to get drunk can prove to be quite resourceful in order to get their hands on liquor.
Mom buys the booze for my brother when he wants it for a party in our basement.
The rules are that he and his friends are to stay there until the next morning- sleep in the house; no driving and no going out and running amok.
Seems to work fine... as long as his alcoholic friends don't insist on binge drinking and puking all over our floors.

 

[Pyrophosphate]

I've never drank. Ever.

And I don't believe in laws.

 

[Tiercel]

I don't drink too much alcohol. I didn't really start trying different things until my early 20s.

Here the legal age is 21. Yet when we're 18, guys must register for the draft. So at 18 we're old enough to possibly kill and die in war, but not old enough to drink.

I find something very wrong with that.

 

[Psychedelicious]

drink drank drunk

I don't drink a lot but I started when I was 14, but that was very very rarely. I do it more now but still not a lot. The legal age is 21 and I think that's so dumb, it should just be 18.

 

[Illusions]

Legal age where I live is 18 which I think is just right. Not that laws matter much because underage people can get their hands on alcohol anyway. As for me I drink socially.

 

[Aletheia]

I started drinking regularly when I started university at 17. The legal age then was 20, which just taught me to be nervous around bouncers.

Almost everybody here starts drinking as teenagers, and I think 20 was simply unrealistic, and encouraged kids to drink unsupervised.

Thankfully they dropped it to 18.

(I also started working at Pizza Hut at 17, a job which required me to serve alcohol which I don't think was strictly legal.)

 

[MikeyC]

(I also started working at Pizza Hut at 17, a job which required me to serve alcohol which I don't think was strictly legal.)

You're right, that's very illegal. There was a restaurant in Shellharbour that had minors serving alcohol and the wrong people found out. Of course they were shut down immediately and everyone was sacked.

 

[Aletheia]

binging

and woke up with the worst hangover of my life and was sick for a week afterwards

I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience (although I'm glad for you that you gave up the binging).

I had a bout of glandular fever when I was 19 (a weird atypical one; my medical history is weird through and through). It damaged my liver, not badly, but enough that if I over-indulge, I'm dry retching all the next day, which is fantastic motivation not to.

 

[MikeyC]

Re: binging

I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience (although I'm glad for you that you gave up the binging).

I had a bout of glandular fever when I was 19 (a weird atypical one; my medical history is weird through and through). It damaged my liver, not badly, but enough that if I over-indulge, I'm dry retching all the next day, which is fantastic motivation not to.

Despite that, I actually had a fun night, but that level of drunkenness is not something I want to experience again.

Glandular fever sounds bad, but it is a very good reason not to binge.

 

[WeirdyMcGee]

You're right, that's very illegal. There was a restaurant in Shellharbour that had minors serving alcohol and the wrong people found out. Of course they were shut down immediately and everyone was sacked.

Yes-- illegal; ridiculously high fines and shutting down of business could occur.
I was serving alcohol at 15 because I was the head waitress.
Small town; everyone knew how old I was and no one ever said a word.

 

[MikeyC]

Yes-- illegal; ridiculously high fines and shutting down of business could occur.
I was serving alcohol at 15 because I was the head waitress.
Small town; everyone knew how old I was and no one ever said a word.

Luckily nobody said anything. Could've been very bad for you!

 

[polishgirl]

In Poland the drinking age is 18 but mostly kids from 12-13 start drinking. I, myself, don't know a single person my age (15) that hasn't tried alcohol yet.

Yes-- illegal; ridiculously high fines and shutting down of business could occur.
I was serving alcohol at 15 because I was the head waitress.
Small town; everyone knew how old I was and no one ever said a word.

People tend to disapprove of underage drinking and I understand that. But when it comes to serving alcohol to them by an underage girl they seem not to mind at all as along as they can get want they want. Ironic.

Legal age doesn't really mean anything.

In Spain it's 18 but kids usually start drinking and smoking (also legal at 18) around 13 years old, and too many times even younger (8-9 that I know, really sad).

I remember when I was in Spain at camp over the summer, me and my friends would go to the beach and sit around drinking (I feel awful writing that, sounds so pathetic). Often, the monitors from the camp would join us and just drink with us.

 

[WeirdyMcGee]

Luckily nobody said anything. Could've been very bad for you!

Would have been fine for me - would have been very bad for my boss, as I was barely old enough to be working full time, anyway... and could've pretended to not know anything.
He'd have taken the whole brunt of the law.

I even shooed away underaged people who came in looking to drink alcohol.
I never understood why you had to be older just to 'serve' alcohol... but not old enough to drink it. A year younger.
That makes no sense.
They set the age limit 'higher' so that you... what?
So you won't drink alcohol that you're supposed to be serving? Why don't they make it the same as the drinking limit, then?
Stupid.
haha

 

[coyote]

when i was a young coyote, the drinking age was 18 for beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% - 21 years old for anything stronger

it takes alot of 3.2 beer to get very drunk - luckily it was also cheap

me and my friends started consuming that on a pretty regular basis when we were 15

all through high school, we would drive up and down the main street of town in the evenings, drinking beer, dodging the cops - it was a mobile party - it's a wonder more of us weren't killed or jailed

 

[MikeyC]

Would have been fine for me - would have been very bad for my boss, as I was barely old enough to be working full time, anyway... and could've pretended to not know anything.
He'd have taken the whole brunt of the law.

That's very true, he would've been in serious trouble, but that would've also meant you were out of a job. I don't know how much importance you placed on that job, but for some it's the difference between living and scraping by.

I never understood why you had to be older just to 'serve' alcohol... but not old enough to drink it. A year younger.
That makes no sense.
They set the age limit 'higher' so that you... what?
So you won't drink alcohol that you're supposed to be serving? Why don't they make it the same as the drinking limit, then?
Stupid.

I've never heard of that. Yeah, that is quite silly. In Australia it's 18 for consuming and serving alcohol.

it's a wonder more of us weren't killed or jailed

What!?