The legal drinking age is the age at which a person can consume or purchase alcoholic beverages. These laws cover a wide range of issues and behaviours, addressing when and where alcohol can be consumed. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased. These laws vary among different countries and many laws have exemptions or special circumstances. Most laws apply only to drinking alcohol in public places, with alcohol consumption in the home being mostly unregulated. Some countries also have different age limits for different types of alcoholic drinks.
The United Kingdom is the only country that has a minimum legal age for drinking alcohol in a home. Some Islamic nations prohibit Muslims, or both Muslims and non-Muslims, from drinking alcohol at any age. In some countries, it is not illegal for minors to drink alcohol but the alcohol can be seized without compensation. In some cases, it is illegal to sell or give alcohol to minors. The following list indicates the age of the person to whom it is legal to consume and purchase alcohol.
Read more about Legal Drinking Age: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania
Famous quotes containing the words legal, drinking and/or age:
“The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)