Only 4 nations impose a legal drinking age of 21: Malaysia, South Korea, Ukraine and the USA. Excellent company.
Other countries emphasize on EDUCATION instead of POLICE REPRESSION. In other countries, parents teach their children the blessings and the dangers of alcoholic beverages. Young people learn to drink and appreciate beer or wine with their meals. Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages with meals is a very healthy life style.
How can you expect young people to know how to appreciate and handle alcoholic beverages, if they are denied all access to it until they are 21, and then let them loose with no experience. How long would anybody survive in modern traffic, if you hide the person away from traffic until they are 21, and then you drop them in a city.

The appropriate way to teach children is to introduce them to dangerous situations step by step from a young age. Let them experiment in a protected family environment. At least that’s what happens in Europe and the rest of the world, except the four lonely countries mentioned above.

Newsletter January 1999