|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2009 17:31:27 GMT
Drink for thought  |
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Oct 21, 2009 19:23:14 GMT
Surely you remember from your teen years what was said about the southern half of Louisiana -- if you can reach the bar to put down your quarter, they'll sell you a beer.
|
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Oct 21, 2009 19:32:05 GMT
The drinking age in Québec is 18, not 19. Those damned anglo provinces upped it to 19 - too influenced by the US, I guess?
As you imagine, we get lots of youths from New England getting wasted here, and even 18-year-old Ontarians.
I never had any problem getting served at 15 or 16, though they actually take it a bit more seriously now.
|
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Oct 21, 2009 19:39:29 GMT
When I was 18 in Ontario, the legal drinking age was 21, so boys from my high school would charter a bus and go to Buffalo, NY to get drunk on beer. I think the legal age was lower in Quebec then but don't really remember.
I don't know when the legal age was lowered to 18, but too many 15 or 16 year olds were being served with fake drivers licences as proof of age so they raised it to 19.
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Oct 21, 2009 20:51:23 GMT
didn't know romania had no drinking age.
|
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on Oct 22, 2009 6:34:03 GMT
I don't think drinking ages have the desired effect. I'm surprised to find out Italy has a drinking age. I would have thought it has no alcohol laws at all aside from driving impaired, they seem so sane about it. About the only drunk people I can recall seeing there were stupid English teenagers in the Piazza del Campo in Siena, you almost never see Italians drunk.
Uptight repressed prudish cultures generally seem to me to have the worst problems with alcohol. I guess it's easier to pass blue laws than to deal with the underlying issues.
|
|
|
|
Post by happytraveller on Oct 22, 2009 7:02:50 GMT
In Switzerland (and I think in most western european countries?) you are only allowed to drink Wine and Beer with 16, with 18 you are allowed to drink everything
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 7:19:20 GMT
Yes, it's the same in France.
|
|
|
|
Post by hwinpp on Oct 22, 2009 7:39:42 GMT
In fact I think the legal drinking age for beer in Germany is 14 if accompanied by an adult. My nephew has declared he wants to drink alcohol with his uncle (me!) when he visits me after Christmas. Good to see there's no legal limit in Cambodia  No worries, I'll be responsible... |
|
|
|
Post by BigIain on Oct 22, 2009 7:45:31 GMT
I have been "lucky" enough to witness drunkenness and binge drinking by locals in almost every country in Europe at one time or another. Some of the worst has been in France actually. I have nothing against it pesonally but it has nothing to do with the country and more to do with the individuals.
|
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Oct 22, 2009 9:56:59 GMT
Think Italy has the same law as France and Switzerland. Absolutely not enforced if a 15-year-old is having a glass of wine with a family dinner. I think such laws are mostly on the books to control excesses.
There has been a rash of serious youth drunkenness in Spain, for one place thought to have a "drinking wine with meals and enjoying a beer on a hot day" kind of culture.
Big Iain, I have observed that obnoxious English tourist behaviour as well. Obviously not all English (or all Brits) but there is a subset, and I do find it obnoxious. Have nothing on earth against people having a few drinks or even more than a few as long as they aren't driving, but their behaviour could be extremely aggressive.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 11:09:35 GMT
I remember it was incredibly easy to get served in New York when I was barely sixteen and I looked very much younger than my age. And youths would spill over from other states to take advantage of this. (The age limit was 18 then,changed later to 21).
What always struck me as absurd was how I was able to get served with no problem in NY and LA but then at age 19 I'm in Missouri and the age being 21,I'm suddenly being carded.
I'm in full agreement with what fumobici said.
(And the ridiculousness of being old enough to vote, and serve in the military, but not able to drink legally).
|
|
|
|
Post by imec on Oct 22, 2009 11:22:00 GMT
The drinking age in Québec is 18, not 19. Those damned anglo provinces upped it to 19 - too influenced by the US, I guess? Still 18 here in MB. |
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Oct 22, 2009 11:56:23 GMT
Well, you have old (if buried) French and francophone Métis roots in MB, as in your historic chapel thread.
US drinking laws are beyond weird. Think MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) had a strong influence. Agree with them about drink driving, but they have a hidden temperance agenda and a strong meddling streak. Suspect they'd approve of Iranian drinking laws.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2009 14:20:44 GMT
It's 19 here, and it's true, Quebec is 18.
The thing is, around here, the drinking age limit is not followed at all. The 16 doesn't surprise me in parts of Europe though.
|
|
|
|
Post by imec on Oct 22, 2009 14:35:55 GMT
US drinking laws are beyond weird. Think MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) had a strong influence. Agree with them about drink driving, but they have a hidden temperance agenda and a strong meddling streak. Suspect they'd approve of Iranian drinking laws. Actually it varies dramatically from state to state. In fact the laws in many of the states I've visited make drinking laws in all Canadian provinces look draconian by comparison. Which laws have you found particularly wierd? |
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Oct 22, 2009 15:58:04 GMT
interesting though that in germany it is 16 and in czech republic it is 18 - when at least when i was in the czech republic like ten years ago, i had the impression it was a lot easier for kids there to go into a bar and get alcohol, than here (where i wasn't allowed to buy the drink for my 16th birthday party in a local supermarket, because i was still 15 for a day)... i guess laws are always one thing, and how they are kept another thing...
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2009 19:22:58 GMT
Supermarkets are now reputedly asking for proof of age in France, but I bet that most of the small places are not.
|
|
|
|
Post by existentialcrisis on Nov 10, 2009 9:20:51 GMT
The drinking age is 18 in Alberta too. I was suprized, I thought Quebec was the only exception.
I was 17 when I was in Germany, and they would serve us beer but we had to be 18 to drink hard liquor. This rule was only enforced in one bar we went to, however.
When I was in Slovenia there appeared to be no drinking age whatsoever. I was billeted with a family, as were the 10 other girls I was travelling with, and we kept asking our hosts to bring us to bars. Our Slovenian friends couldn't wrap their minds around why we wanted to go to bars so badly. Not having a drinking age seemed to take away their desire to drink, but us Canadian girls were obsessed with alcohol!
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 12, 2009 17:03:23 GMT
i rarely go to bars these days, so i don't know - but i wonder if bars are stricter in enforcing the drinking age for hard liqueur here after that kid (i think he was 16) died after a drinking contest with the barkeeper a few years ago...
|
|
|
|
Post by existentialcrisis on Nov 14, 2009 12:24:53 GMT
Where was that, rikita?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2009 15:23:57 GMT
The crackdown in France is because binge drinking among teens is becoming fashionable for some reason. I blame the media for this, because they have done so much negative coverage of binge drinking in the UK and Scandinavia that the kids are thinking it must be cool if it is so bad.
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 20, 2009 21:50:03 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2009 21:53:38 GMT
3 years,5 months! That's manslaughter or worse!
|
|
