Legal drinking age
[5] There is a concept called underage clubs, where individuals below the legal drinking age are catered for and are served non alcoholic beverages.
However, Angola (except Luanda Province), Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali have no laws on the books restricting the sale of alcohol to minors.
Children's Act Section 78 – It is prohibited for any person to sell, lend, give, supply, deliver or offer alcohol beverages to any child under the age of 16 years, except upon production of a written order signed by the parent or guardian of the child known to such person.
The police has the duty to seize any alcohol beverage in the possession of a child under the age of 16 years without a written consent of the parents or legal guardian.
In Canada, however, two provinces, Ontario [in 1979] and Saskatchewan [in 1976], quickly raised their subsequent MLDAs from 18 to 19 years in response to a few studies demonstrating an association between the lowered drinking age and increases in alcohol-related harms to youth and young adults, including increases in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and alcohol intoxication among high school students.
Following MLDA reductions in the US, research in several states provided persuasive evidence of sharp increases in rates of fatal and nonfatal MVAs appearing immediately after the implementation of lower drinking ages.
These scientific findings galvanized public pressure on lawmakers to raise MLDAs and, in response, the federal government introduced the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which imposed a reduction of highway funds for states if they did not increase their MLDA to 21 years.
[47]Law 259 Against the Sale and Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (2012) Article 20 Law prohibiting minors entry to entertainment venues Article 1 prohibits those under the age of 16 from entering cinemas and theaters (except during children's programming), clubs, cafes, or venues licensed to sell alcohol beverages.
[88] Seventeen states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia have laws against possession of alcohol by minors, but they do not prohibit its consumption by minors.
United States customs laws stipulate that no person under the age of 21 may bring any type or quantity of alcohol into the country.
[107] 18 in public spaces[115] According to a global school health study, 40% of minors over 13 drink alcohol and up to 25% buy it from stores.
It is technically legal for minors to possess and consume alcohol at home and in public (not in any licensed premises) as there is no law prohibiting it.
Parents are required to forbid their children who have not reached age 20 to consume alcohol beverages.
Although Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Switzerland (except Ticino) maintain a minimum purchase age below 18 years, minors are permitted either full or limited access to alcohol.
A national ID card, obtained in the local town hall, can serve as age verification.
