The legal drinking age varies in the different countries of the world. The laws are often complicated and difficult to understand. There is a difference between the legal age of buying alcohol and consumption in the same country.
America is one of the countries with the highest legal drinking age. However, the legal drinking age in America is 21; there are differences between the different states. Some states allow drinking alcoholic beverages below the age of 21 but there are restrictions for this. Most of these states require for consumption that they need to be accompanied by a family member.
There is a lot of confusing in the laws of some countries. A good example is United Kingdom. The legal drinking age is 18 years for purchasing these alcoholic beverages however; they can drink this when they are only 5 years old with permission of their parents. Is this not too young for children even if their parents allow this? In my opinion there is need to adapt the law because this can lead to serious problems in the future.
Most countries have a legal drinking age of 18 years but there are several countries in Europe with a lower drinking age of 16 years old like Belgium, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Italy and some others. There are even countries with no legal drinking age at all like Armenia and some others. The laws are changing all the time and it should be wise to have the same legal drinking age in all the countries of the world.
There are different reasons for a legal drinking age. Probably is the most important reason to prevent accidents. Young drivers are often not aware about the consequences of drinking alcoholics and are responsible for many accidents. According to statistics we see a decrease of injuries and deaths caused by drinking alcoholic beverages.
Another reason is that they can be addicted to alcohol and this can give problems in their behavior and lead to negative effects in their studies. Alcohol damages the brains of children and these effects are irreversible. Depression and social problems are often consequences of this behavior.
The law of legal drinking age is also necessary for cultural and religious reasons. Some Muslim countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and some others prohibit consuming alcoholic beverages for religious reasons.
There will be probably no consensus about the same legal drinking age in every country of the worldwide but there are changes in some countries necessary for avoiding the problems between legality to buy and to consume. Why are there countries where you can consume on a younger age than you can buy? Is this not ridiculous? However, in these countries permission to drink alcoholic beverages is necessary; some parents take sometimes unwise decisions.
In my opinion it should be wiser that in every country the legal drinking age should be the same as the age for buying them. Probably the legal drinking age is not the issue but warning our children for the negative effects of drinking alcoholic beverages. If you succeed in this matter many problems can be solved.
Better to warn them for the terrible side effects than making strong laws. Young people are always inventive in evading the laws.