Legal drinking age

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The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary between countries and many laws have exemptions or special circumstances. Most laws apply only to drinking alcohol in public places with alcohol consumption in the home being mostly unregulated (one of the exceptions being England and Wales, which have a minimum legal age of five for supervised consumption in private places). Some countries also have different age limits for different types of alcohol drinks.^[1]

The majority of countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 18.^[2] The most commonly known reason for the law behind the legal drinking age is the effect on the brain in adolescents. Since the brain is still maturing, alcohol can have a negative effect on the memory and long-term thinking. Alongside that, it can cause liver failure, and create a hormone imbalance in teens due to the constant changes and maturing of hormones during puberty.^[3] Some countries have a minimum legal drinking age of 19 to prevent the flow of alcoholic beverages in high schools,^[4] while others like the United States have a minimum legal purchasing age of 21 (18 in P.R. and USVI) in an effort to reduce the amount of drunk driving rates among teenagers and young adults.^[5]