Alcohol laws are laws in relation to the manufacture, use, influence and sale of ethanol or alcoholic beverages that contain ethanol. Alcohol laws often seek to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages, often with the stated purpose of reducing the health and social side effect of their consumption. In particular, such laws specify the legal drinking age which usually varies between 16 and 25 years, depending upon the country and the type of drink. Some nations do not have a legal drinking or purchasing age, but most set the age at 18 years. This can also take the form of distribution only in licensed stores or in monopoly stores. Often, this is combined with some form of alcohol taxation. In some jurisdictions alcoholic beverages have been totally prohibited for reasons of religion (e.g., Islamic countries) or perceived public morals and health (e.g., Prohibition in the United States from 1920 to 1933).
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Famous quotes containing the words alcohol and/or laws:
“Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I have not yet learned to live, that I can see, and I fear that I shall not very soon. I find, however, that in the long run things correspond to my original idea,—that they correspond to nothing else so much; and thus a man may really be a true prophet without any great exertion. The day is never so dark, nor the night even, but that the laws at least of light still prevail, and so may make it light in our minds if they are open to the truth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)