Legal drinking age in Switzerland compared to the U.S.

The United States has taken several different actions with the legal drinking age. On January 16, 1920, the 18th amendment was put into effect. This amendment tried to eliminate al

The history of the Swiss drinking laws can be traced back to the 19th century. To overcome the extremely long and hard working days in the factories many workers resorted to a cheap and effective method. They would drink spirits or "Brönz" as the strong liquor was called. Around 1880, potato spirits became popular as an intoxicating drink for the lowest class of society and spread all over the Cantons of Berne, Fribourg, Solothurn and Lucerne. It was produced by farmers in small pot stills and was not very good quality and very cheap. Men, women and children often drank potato spirits as a narcotic before going to work or school. This mainly happened because of not enough time, money, and basic facilities necessary to prepare decent meals. In 1887 the first alcohol law was introduced to Switzerland. This law covered only potato spirits but not the spirits obtained from distilling fruit, berries and wine. It was not the intention to ban the alcohol but to prevent abuse. On January 1st, 1933 the current law was set on the consumption and purchase of alcohol in Switzerland. The Swiss people have a very relaxed opinion about drinking. As long as it is done with moderation and control the drinking age is commonly not fully enforced. This is not only the way that the country Switzerland thinks but many other European countries as well. Many of these countries wonder why the United States have all of these alcohols related problems even though they have the highest legal drinking and purchasing age in the world. For whatever reason the United States sees for having the drinking age where it is today, some thought should go into the fact that there are so many alcohol related problems compared to other countries in the world.

The country of Switzerland has a legal drinking and purchasing age that varies with the alcoholic content. In Switzerland they have twenty three cantons which are basically our version of a state. These different cantons have different laws on the legal age of purchasing and consuming alcohol. Seventeen of the twenty three cantons have a purchasing and drinking age of fourteen for beer and wine and eighteen for hard liquor. The other six cantons have a law of sixteen for beer and wine and eighteen for hard liquor. According to Justine Martin, the law between the purchase of beer and the purchase of hard liquor is very strict. Justine told me that most Cantons (regions) of Switzerland that have the law set at

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