I always found the rules about public drinking in the US to be more strange than the drinking age.
Depends on the area, there are some where it’s legal to drink outside as long as it’s from a local business
Which means there are areas where you can’t even sit outside a Cafe or bar and have a beer. This seems so strange.
You misunderstand you can drink at a cafe/bar’s outdoor patio anywhere in the US.
The places I was talking about in my original comment are called DORA - “Designated Outdoor Drinking Area” and usually span the whole downtown of a city. Those have cheap, but reusable plastic cups that you can get refilled at any business downtown.
Really great for festivals where you just pop in for a refill and head back out to keep watching a stage show or whatever. It cuts down on waste over cans/bottles too.
Ah alright that makes a lot more sense. As I said that seemed strange. Thanks for clarifying! I love learning about different cultures and laws.
Ah, yes, Germany! The land where there are no alcohol issues because everybody is by default drunk.
I think you have Germany confused with Czechia
I think every other country has this joke about themselves, “haha we’re the biggest drinkers”
Though the Czech drink by far the most beer according to wikipedia
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Denmark is doing pretty well statistically in terms of drinking though, the biggest amount of alcohol consumed by young people in the world
Czechia drinks just a little bit more than germans(Beer). On Average Germans drink afaik 114 l/year when Czechia has something like 116 l/year.
Germany has 99 l, we drink 140 l. Second place is Austria with 107.8
Maybe not Saudi Arabia.
I think we’re pretty average and it’s even on the decline.
I was just making a stupid joke. Playing with an old stereotype. It’s germans and beer and us and our mustaches.
That is good to know. My own country had a serious issue with alcohol and we managed to curb it in less than 10 years.
The recent surge revolves around binge drinking and hard liquor, when it was originally around wine. And supposedly women are drinking more than men, nowadays.
Yeah I know, all good :D
Where are you from? Nordic country?
Portugal, Land of the Epic Mustache!!!
That’s not Nordic :D and why is Portugal famous for a mustache? Haha
The mustache was a mandatory fixture for the portuguese man between the 70’s and the 90’s.
Hell I didn’t know the mustache was that relevant for Portugal, til.
By the time Germans turn 18 (legal age for stronger alcoholic beverages) most of them already know their limit and party with more responsibility in my opinion.
Unfortunately alcoholism problems are worse here in Germany than the US. Many point to the early drinking ages for this, personally I see it is more a general cultural issue.
I have no data to back this up, but I seem to find that regions at Northern latitudes tend to have higher rates of alcoholism. I think it has something to do with long winter nights and people being able to find a sense of community in a pub/bar/Ratskeller after the sun goes down at 16:00 for half the year.
The US is much further south than most of Europe AND there are large regions that are very anti-alcohol due to religious reasons.
I would assume there is good data to back it up as depression rates tend to trend in this way way as well. With that said, alcoholism in Germany is still worse than with US states at the same light levels. Also if you take a peek at lists of alcoholism Lists of alcoholism there are both dark and sunny countries in favorable and unfavorable places. So I’m not sure it can be a sole factor in drinking rates but likely a contributing factor.
You could probably back this up by looking at the alcoholism rates in Scandinavia (especially Norway and Sweden)
Scandinavia had their own prohibition and still to this day have a strict 18/21+ drinking age with booze only being sold during very specific hours (and never on Sundays or religious holidays), with anything above I think 12% only available at the government run bottle shop
I feel like that’s mostly a feelgood myth. Like for every person who handles their drink responsibly and started drinking young it produces like 10 functioning alcoholics. This countrys relationship to alcohol is fucked up
You stop drinking alcohol mostly at 21 I feel like.
At least most of me and my friends did. We still drink, but way way way way less. I feel like 21 or around there we the time we hit that responsibility.
Unfortunately data does not back that up. German people in fact drink more often and heavier, also into adulthood.
Its much better to find your limits at 18…
Grew up in South America and underage drinking, though illegal in theory, is pretty much the norm.
I grew up in the US, and the only person I know who didn’t drink as a 15 year old is a 33 year old who still doesn’t drink. Lol.
Most people I knew started in college. 15 is a bit young. Only knew a handful of partiers who drank in high school.
As a non-American, every single American teenage movie I’ve ever watched tells me this is untrue.
I mean getting alcohol for an underage party is the whole plot of Superbad.
As an American emigrant: the red cups are real, but not limited to house parties; alcohol is a lot less accessible, so the party would be more likely to have four different kinds of liqueur from peoples parents or three handles of paint cleaner; getting the cops called on an underage party is serious. Like, potentially lose your job and home serious, even if you were gone for the weekend.
Oh no. Wait until he finds out what frat parties really look like
It is untrue. You can go to any highschool and find giant parties happening several times a year. It happens at multiple schools, kids travel to the next school over, and they will typical be 100s of kids at these things.
Maybe it’s changing with gen z but the overwhelming majority of American high schoolers in the 90s and 00s were having drinks from time to time and party.
Interesting. I’m in Australia now and people here actually do respect the law when it comes to drinking. If you are under 18, it’s unlikely you will be able to buy alcohol or get into a nightclub etc. It would be shocking to hear someone got pissed drunk at 15, whereas where I come from that isn’t the case.
From OPs post I presumed US would be more like Australia in that regard, but, I take your word
That might be more to do with your social circles. There was a shit ton of teenage drinking happening when I was in high-school.
Might be a thing of social circles. For middle working class in NSW, personally, I’ve found it’s not the norm in my circles and I might say it’s also not the norm for even wealthier people- but I don’t rub shoulders with these crowds a lot. I’m sure it happens though.
My experience elsewhere was that underage drinking was actually the norm across any backgrounds.
With the exception of fake IDs, I don’t know if anyone getting into nightclubs or most bars. Occasionally there’ll be a shitty gas station that’ll sell kids beer, but they get shut down pretty quick. It’s mainly kids getting drunk with other kids in garages, at house parties, in the woods, et cetera, because one of them has an older brother, or is dating an older person or something.
I lived in Straya my whole life. I remember being 12 and my 13 year old buddy getting fucking drunk as hell on his dads beers during a massive party. It was a rural area though.
Fair enough. I’ve lived mostly in urban areas, but, good to know things are more relaxed in rural areas. (Still not smart getting drunk though)
Yeah it wasn’t. But this was years ago.
in Germany at 16 it is not underage drinking, you can legaly buy beer and wine.
In Germany underage drinking is at 13-14 and also happens a lot
yes, but leo is 16 in this image, and 16 is nit underage drinking in germany. and 15 is underage, too, isn’t it? it happens a lot and is nothing positive, but here we are 🤷
Thats exacly my point. It is not positive and it happens much earlier. In the end it’s less about laws and more about how people think about it
With 16 only Beer, stronger alcoholic drinks only when 18 Years old.
That’s the official age for stronger alcoholics. Most 16 year old already drink the hard stuff.
This is inevitable, but they cannot buy it themselves in a store. The owner risks having his store closed and having to pay a large fine if he sells alcohol to minors.
Theoretically you’re right, but from my experience a lot of cashiers don’t care if you’re 18 or not. Some do and ask for your ID, but especially in the more rural areas it generally isn’t a big problem to buy harder Alkohol. Of course the shop is risking a fine but I haven’t heard about any sort of market getting fined for selling Alkohol to minors.
Beer and wine with 16. Spirits with 18.
Drinking alcohol or buying it? Because in Britain it’s 18 to buy it yourself but 5 to have it at home.
What the hell, Britain?
You ever tried cleaning a chimney while sober at 5 1/2 years of age?
Would singing a jaunty tune help?
It would help cover the sounds of muffled child screams from within the wals of the building, so yes.
That is certainly a perspective I’ve never considered
Purchasing and drinking beer or wine is legal at the age of 16, for spirits of all sorts you need to be 18.
The day after I moved to Germany I went to the hospital emergency room with what was later diagnosed as a kidney stone and stomach infection.
I was given over the counter painkillers and some cramp medication and told to drink lots of beer to treat the stomach infection by the doctor.
I am serious. I asked about the complications drinking on the pain meds and he just said it was OK.
mixing those meds with alcohol fucks your liver
Was “fuck your liver” as in “once is enough to fuck your liver” or as in “do this every day over a month to see any significant damage” kind of thing.
depends on the painkiller. Tylenol? Yeah goodbye liver. Ibuprofen? Better eat something alongside so your stomach lining doesnt get fucked.
Some doctors are wild. Mine will give me anything. I had a sore neck, he gave me tramadol. I was having trouble sleeping after quitting drinking, he gave me quietapine antipsychotics because their side effects are drowsiness. He gave me phentermine, a weight loss drug and powerful stimulant, because I was depressed. I was still depressed, but was much faster.
Does your doctor’s name tag have the word “Dr.” in quotes, by any chance?
You misunderstood, the beer is for your kidneys. Alcohol inhibits the adiuretic hormone, so you have to piss more often, especially if you drink beer which is around 95% water. Drinking a lot reduces the formation of kidney stones since they get flushed out before growing too big.
I wouldn’t take painkillers tho, maybe Ibuprofen if it’s unbearable, but stay away from Aspirin in conjunction with alcohol.
Meanwhile in Sweden, the National Board of Health and Welfare changed their guidelines in regards to drinking:
"Risky drinking now means drinking any of the following:
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10 standard glasses or more per week.
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4 standard glasses or more per drinking occasion (so-called intensive consumption) once a month or more often."
True story!
Google translate:
Also in Sweden: if your 5 year old and her friends wants to do vodka shots for their tea party, you can just go ahead and pour some for them.
Same in Denmark. It was 15 until recently. We also held the record for teenage drinking for a long time, and still hold “most average alcohol per session” or something.
Yet we are statistically one of the “happiest” countries in the world. And take the most antidepressants!
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It’s actually quite hard to buy alcohol in Sweden. You can’t buy it in a regular supermarket you have to go to a special shop, that is open at different times, etc. And it’s expensive.
Expensive is relative. Systembolaget is so huge that they have incredible deals with certain vendors and makers. I know fo a fact that most single malt whisky from scotland are cheaper to buy from systembolaget as compared to a Tax Free shop abroad. Beer and (usually)cheap wine however is pretty expensive due to the added alcohol tax.
You can buy alcohol at regular store but it’s capped at 3,5% iirc
From what I remember it was even 2,5%. Really bad surprise when you take your first sip in the camping and you just wanted to enjoy a beer after 2 weeks in the wilderness.
I checked, it’s “II beer”, 3,5%. I’ve had one for a serious hangover but it was shit even for that
The result of this is that all drinking Swedes just have a huge storage of alcohol at home though.
They also frequently drive all the way to Germany (through Denmark) to shop duty-free drinks in bulk.
Scandinavian countries have “pant” on bottles and cans, meaning you pay extra for the container, but get the money back when you return it empty.
Same in Iceland. Was wandering around the supermarket looking for some, and the wife eventually said “no, it’s from a special shop”. Which was closed. Because why would anybody want to buy alcohol after 5pm?
Went there the next day, the four-pack seemed about the right price so went to buy that, and the wife again went, “no, that’s per can”. The special shop just splits multipacks.
I can only assume all the alcoholics get their booze via dodgy sources, because there’s no way they’d be able to afford to be perma-twatted at those prices.
When I was in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, the liquor store was open for 2 hours a day and closed weekends.
I was in Ísafjörður and theirs was open most days for a normal working day.
Either Ísafjörður has more drunks than most towns, or Seyðisfjörður is like the Icelandic equivalent of the village in The Wicker Man.
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Clever meme. The drink in hand works so well that you wonder whether the caption came before the image or vice versa.
Had this pic had people ass covering the right side of it this whole time?
Had the pic not had had people ass covering a whole ass side, how had you’d feel?
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
Btw, this meme is 14 years old. Get off my lawn
ass covering
Does that mean covering it with a picture of your own bum or is that just how I make my memes?
Funny story about that.
When I was a kid, 15+ years ago, my parents told me about somebody that did that here in Texas with their son.
The father took his underage son to a restaurant and was able to get him a beer. During the meal, the father went to the bathroom and the son took a drink of his beer. A cop was sitting nearby and arrested the kid for underage drinking because the father wasn’t in the presence of the son so it was no longer “supervised”.
That’s exactly what I expected Texas cops to think about while out to dinner.
Were they brown? Seems like that wouldn’t happen in Texas to a little white boy
It could also be entirely fake or misremembered.
Probably
Wisconsin has the same law and includes spouse of drinking age.
I remember being 14 and having friends of the same age order beer here in Italy, get drunk, nobody cared.
8 year olds in Slovakia:
Well, if your sneakey about it…
Right. That was I - batshit drunk from half a bottle of wine on my 12th birthday.
