As some properly know, we have no legal limit for alcohol consumption in Denmark and a 16 year limit, when it comes to buying alcohol. Youth have to get a special ID-card (50 dollars) at the city hall in order to prove to the shops that they are old enough to buy alcohol.
This rule was made because we wanted to lower the number of people being killed on our roads. It is our belief that if a person, who has a drivers license suddenly get access to alcohol without prior knowledge to the dangers of alcohol, will be a higher-risk factor than a person, who has learned how to watch out over a long period.
So if you visit Denmark, you can see drunken teens as young as 12 in parks and beaches drinking alcohol. Do not attempt to jump such a teen and exploit the person, because as it is the case with most children of local wildlife, the parents are somewhere near and hidden. You would not go over and pad a little bear regardless of how cute it is - would you?
And our tactics works. See this statictics over killed persons on Danish roads (The law was adjusted in 2004).
http://www.sikkertrafik.dk/2a03e80Red means killed. Black means injured.
The number for 2006 is 73, which is based on a population of 5,000,000 people.
Then there is other questions like: Can we measure an increase of death and violenced among youths?
The answer is no: The number of people killed has not been influenced by this. 80-100 people are convicted for murder every year (8 to 33 years in prison. Average about 12 years.)
But not everything can be seen through rose-colored spectacles. Youth are not immortal when they travel abroad.
Resently Bulgaria - a country which any reason to travel to and worn down from many years of dictatorship - has sold the highest number of pub-crawling trip in Europe. Holidays, where there is only two things on the agenda. Drinking and sex.
Youth from the entire Europe has traveled there for the last 5 years and now they are coming back in coffins.
The reason is that the ice-cubes is drugged so people can drink more without feeling drunk. So people are killed when they have been drinking 30 beers during a day, because they can not feel it.
There is a link to the story of a Dane, who died down there:
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/102693.htmlAs you also can notice 4 Danish women was raped during just 14 days. And a young man from Sweden was beaten to death by corrupt staff at a night club.
There is all reason to allow the youth to drink at home. Adjust your laws, so they do not leave your country and die.
