St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us, and to many of us, it brings to mind the whole issue of age-related legal drinking. I grew up n Calif., where the drinking age was 21. At 16, I entered college and immediately got a fake (oh so blatantly fake!) I.D. and began my drinking career at Stinkies, a nearby beer and burger joint, at which no one was ever asked for an I. D. Nor was I ever asked at any other drinking establishment. The law was, to put it mildly, rarely enforced. A couple of years later, I transferred to New York University. The drinking age in New York was 18, so I never did use that old ID. Looking back, I don’t think my drinking or the drinking of my friends, ever caused a problem. Then or later.
According to most of those intent upon keeping the age 21 drinking law, younger people are not responsible enough or mature enough, to be allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. To me, this seems patently ridiculous. At 18, a person is mature and responsible enough to join the armed forces and be deployed to fight and possibly die for his/her country. He or she can marry. What’s more, they can have and raise a child or more (what greater responsibility is there than bringing a child into the world?)
I moved to Italy in my mid-twenties. Then as now, Italy had no age-limits on drinking. Most families had a bottle of wine on the table during every meal. As soon as kids were old enough to eat with their parents, they were offered wine with their dinner. As with adults, sometimes the wine was mixed with a bit of aqua minerale, (mineral water) sometimes not.
In the nearly 10 years I lived in Italy, I never saw a drunk, with the exception of an old man in my neighborhood in Milan, who was affectionately known to all as the Pazzo della Guera. That is, the man driven crazy by the war.
Italy has among the lowest rates of alcoholism in the world. Binge drinking and over-drinking are almost unheard of among college kids.
There are only five countries in the world which require a person to be 21 in order to drink legally: They are: Fiji, Pakistan, Palau, Sri Lanka, and the United States.
Enough said?
–cs
