Drinking Before 21

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by S-2

"In Wisconsin you can get a beer permit at age 18, but not for hard liquor."

Could you reference that with a link, please? All my looking showed that Wisconsin Act 337 raised the minimum drinking age to 21, effective September, 1986. No provisions made for beer at eighteen- I grew up there under an eighteen drinking law.

(Jeff Lebowski raises a White Russian to his bearded face. Ahhhh!)

Wellll, I was only going by memory. We moved out of Milwaukee to Californica in 1951 and the last time I was back there was around 1960. Most of my other relatives and friends also moved out of the freezing blizzards in winter and thirsty mosquitos in summer.

So I'm afraid I haven't kept up with the times. I am surprised though that it wasn't Debbie who caught me first on that one.

[Expat Canuck]

The drinking age in the US is silly, I think it should be at 18 or 19. At this point you are an adult so why not.

Here in Australia though it's even more silly. You can't drive untill your 18 but you get to drink at 18. Good idea, lets get a young 18 year old idiot (as most of us men where at 18) a car and a beer at the same time. I'm glad that I got 3 years of practice in before I could hit the bar. I like many young people was a dumb ****.

Sure it was funny at the time but now looking back I would kick my own ass for the crap I did all boozed up.

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by Expat Canuck

Sure it was funny at the time but now looking back I would kick my own ass for the crap I did all boozed up.

Oh yeah. I remember those times too.

I think.

Well, when I wasn't passed out.

[Expat Canuck]

How about waking up not knowing how you got home and seeing your muddy grass covered car in the driveway.............

This is why I will have large rocks surrounding my lawn, bricks in my garbage can and an armoured mailbox for fending off baseball bat weilding teens. My friend broke his own window when he connected with one of them some dude had armoured with rebar, bat bounced off and he broke his own rear window. Damn that was funny, looking back I take it back it still is funny, I can see the look on his face now.

[tankie]

Had my 1st drink very early , but i wont ever forget what my intake Sgt said , ( Sgt Iyonson ) to me when we had finished our 1st 4 weeks basic ? he said ok boys , over to the naffi and get a beer , i said Sgt im only 17 , he said f### that soldier , your old enough to join the army so your old enough to drink ,( i liked him ) and ive been there ever since

legal age was 18 ?

[tankie]

Originally Posted by Expat Canuck

How about waking up not knowing how you got home and seeing your muddy grass covered car in the driveway.............

This is why I will have large rocks surrounding my lawn, bricks in my garbage can and an armoured mailbox for fending off baseball bat weilding teens. My friend broke his own window when he connected with one of them some dude had armoured with rebar, bat bounced off and he broke his own rear window. Damn that was funny, looking back I take it back it still is funny, I can see the look on his face now.

[Expat Canuck]

Originally Posted by tankie

Had my 1st drink very early , but i wont ever forget what my intake Sgt said , ( Sgt Iyonson ) to me when we had finished our 1st 4 weeks basic ? he said ok boys , over to the naffi and get a beer , i said Sgt im only 17 , he said f### that soldier , your old enough to join the army so your old enough to drink ,( i liked him ) and ive been there ever since

legal age was 18 ?

I had a smiliar situation in my armoury in Vancouver. I was only 18 but was allowed to have a beer and they where like a dollar.

It was really cool for an 18 year old kid, hanging out with these people you think are larger than life in a basement private bar surrounded by signs and other stuff 'found' from random parts of the world.

[Feanor]

Guys the facts are that people will drink before 21. The question is how difficult it is to get it.

[smilingassassin]

Here in Canada I think we have it just about right, legally drive at 16, drink at 19. Of course you really can't stop people from doing either early in rural area's, some kids learn to drive much much sooner because they live on a farm, while drinking, well what else is there to do in a small town? Your not driving anywhere so drinking shouldn't lead to your early demise outside a serious lapse of judgement or freak accedent.

Technically I got drunk at the age of 2, at a party where everyone gave the cute little boy a sip of wine, till mom found out, at which point it was waaaaay too late. The first time I remember getting drunk was at 16 when a freinds older brother supplied the beer. No harm done in either case and I'm anything but an alcoholic (just socially)!

[Trooth]

Once you are an adult you are an adult. Perhaps different cultures view becoming an adult at different times, but it makes no sense to declare someone an adult then restrict legal adult priviledges from them.

I had never really thought much about the driving ages, which seem to consistently be younger than drinking ages around the world. I guess it makes sense to get people used to driving and not drinking.

[Parihaka]

It used to be 20 here but the Govt recently changed it to 18. As a consequence instead of having drunken 17 and 18 years olds vomiting on the streets, we now have them as young as 14 or 15. Far more young women than men usually, as it's easier for them to pass themselves off as 18. Driving deaths are up, rape and violence statistics in that demographic are way up.
I sound like a wowser really don't I? I started drinking when I was seventeen and it was difficult but not impossible to get as the pubs and outlets were controlled by licensing trusts which plowed all the money back into the community. (that's one of those socialist ideas I adhere too: state control does have its uses)
Spirits were practically impossible for someone underage to get and the beer was weak.
During the 'reforms' of the eighties, most of the licensing trusts were done away with (though not my old home town I'm proud to say) and the results of the intense competition for teenagers discretionary dollars are scraped off the streets each morning.
Alco-pops (12 - 17 %) fizzy-water to cater to sweet-toothed adolescents are all the rage with the bars and suppliers, ironically party pills are on the "to-ban-when-we-can-get-the-legislation-through" list, the only currently legal substitute for alcohol.

[entropy]

Ooh, I remember the good old days in Sweden. The government monopoly on alcohol, and 18+ limits on "people's beer" (2.7% donkey urine) made it hard for 13 year olds to get alcohol.
But there was hope! The shop sold cider containing 0.5% alcohol. Miraculously, that did not fall under the category alcohol, so me and my friends bought a truckload of it, drank 5-6 bottles each and enjoyed the barely drunkenness while having a stomach as full as a refugee train...