On Monday, September 24, 2001 2:27 AM Krist van Besien [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>> My theory on this has always been that the incidence of alcohol
>> overdosage
>> goes up as drinking age increases (though I've never seen anything to
>> support this, it seems logically sound).
>
> In Belgium, where I grew up, there is no "legal" drinking age, beer is
> part of everyday culture, and its consumption, even by young teenagers
> is socially accepted. Comparing the behaviour of Belgian teens to that
> of American teens seems to support your theory...
Some libertarian thinker argued much the same in the early 1990s. I don't
recall who he was -- I do recall he was a he:) -- but his reasoning was
based on both comparing other, mainly European nations to the US as well as
the US over the course of its history.
He made the bolder claim that death by alcohol overdose is related to this.
He believed that drinking oneself to death occurs so frequently in American
colleges because the students have never learned how to drink responsibly.
He argued that by starting to drink in the home environment and earlier,
people tend to either avoid the heavy drinking phase or to get it over with
much more quickly.
Of course, against this notion, there is the fact that many Americans do
start drinking quite young -- early teens -- anyhow. I don't know how
widespread this phenomena is. I'm sure there must be lots of studies on
it...
Anybody else here recall that study?
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
