Legal Drinking Age
I have a secret. I no longer live in Spain. I moved to Malta with my family last year and I have been telecommuting from Malta since then. I used to think I was one of those who would stay long-term in Bilbao (using Ane Miren’s terminology, see her blog on 8 April) because I married a Basque guy. Things do not go as planned sometimes. When the opportunity knocked, we took it.
Malta is a small country with a population of slightly more than 400,000 people. When we first arrived in Malta in the summer of 2007, I was appalled to see young teenagers drinking alcohol in the streets of Paceville. The Paceville (pronounced as Putt-Che-Vil) area has the highest concentration of restaurants, night clubs, and discos in Malta. There are also several five-star hotels. In short, Paceville is the place to hang out at night in Malta, teenagers and matured adults alike. A lot of these youngsters I saw were foreigners but there was a fair share of Maltese teenagers as well. I don’t know what they were drinking, could have been beer, wine, or hard liquor. I felt an urge to find out the legal drinking age of Malta immediately. It is 16, same as Spain.
In Paceville, there are several liquor stores that open well into the middle of the night. These teenagers buy the alcohol from these stores, and drink them right there in front of the stores on the sidewalk, quite openly, freely, and happily. It is quite obvious that even though the legal drinking age is 16, it is not enforced.
Malta has become a very popular country for teenagers from other European countries to come and study English in the summer. I wonder if the ease of purchasing and consuming alcohol has anything to do with its popularity. I went out this weekend in an attempt to snap a few photos to show you what I mean but the scenary in Paceville is quite different now than when we saw in the summer. I hope to show you what I mean when the summer arrives.
For all those years I lived in Spain, I never paid any attention to the legal drinking age there. I know Spanish start drinking when they are quite young, but I don’t think I have ever seen teenagers that young in Spain drinking alcohol on the streets so openly.
Do you know the legal drinking age where you are? Is it enforced? And what about the parents responsibility for keeping an eye on their kids? At what age do/will you let your children start having alcohol?
sandy
—-
Visit my favorite fine wine shop online
Tags: legal drinking age, Malta
April 15th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I’m from Philadelphia (USA), and I bet I would have done a double-take had I seen a group of young teens sitting along the sidewalk drinking alcohol.
I like to see/hear about the different ways in which countries handle alcohol, it’s very interesting. My big question would be, do they have an increased number of reports regarding public intoxication and disturbing of the peace?
April 15th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I have always felt that the British idea of a good night out was to go and get blind drunk and then punch someone’s lights out. At pub closing time it was always a bad time to be on the streets and there was a threatening sensation of violence. Europe (especially Southern Europe) seems different. There is no feeling of being threatened. Sure people get drunk, but they tend to be friendly drunks. The Spanish ‘youth’ have a horrible habit of mixing red wine with Coke (don’t worry it is bad red wine - mainly from tetrapacks) and you do see them stumbling around if you go to their haunts - but there doesn’t seem to be the same level of trouble as I have found in the UK. I think that their attitude to alcohol is better and they are less prone to senseless aggression.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:22 am
It seemed to be more a socially accepted behaviour for teenagers to drink in Malta, or Spain for that matter. I don’t hear or read many articles regarding public intoxication but you see them driving sometimes. Some neighbours complained about one of the liquor stores cause it was causing excessive noises, and blocking the traffic (most streets are very narrow in Malta).
As Miles pointed out about Southern Europe, there is usually no violence. Otherwise we will hear or read more about it for sure. Sometimes these teenagers would be in the middle of the (narrow) street when we try to pass with a car, I always feel a bit intimidated when it happens because of all the places I have lived in in the past (including USA). But usually they move to the side and let you go through without an incident.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Drinking in the north and south of Europe also seem to serve different purposes. In the south it is much more of a beverage accompanying food, or drunk in moderate measures in the company of friends. The drink is something secondary.
In the north many people seem to drink in order to be excused for totally changing behaviour. “But I was drunk” is a more or less accepted excuse for having acted in a way that you would not even dream of when being sober. When they drink, my Spanish friends change their behaviour to a much less extent than my northern friends. My view of the differences could of course depend on the fact that I have not lived in the north for more than a decade and nowadays I drink wine with Spanish mothers and fathers of young kids and they are more or less constantly sleep deprived. They simply don´t have the energy to get really drunk and act out. Having said that, when I am out late at night in Stockholm I always get surprised about how many really drunk forty-somethings are out on the streets. So drinking probably continues to serve different purposes in the north, even after you´ve grown up and became middle aged.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
It sounds like Fredrik is an expiert! How did you achieve all this wisdom? I bet you heard it all from Perre.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
The brits are terrible for their drink( being a brit myself) i am 17 years old and asshamed to apart of this country i really am!, walking along the road on saturday morning on sunday morning after the usual weekend binge drink is foul, there sick all over the place, blood from fights, ppl sleeping on the ground, i am unlike many teenagers in britain as i have a decent head on my shoulders and do not smoke or do drugs i very rarely have a few drinks only if im going to a get together. i think maybe if they the british goverment lowerd the drinking age more teenagers would be in the clubs dancing and having a few drinks instead of hitting the streets n dodging the police!…
Rant over
Hope your all well
xx
July 21st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Thanks for the comment, Emily. I just don’t know what the British law says about a 17-year old girl commenting on a wine blog. What is the legal drinking age in the UK anyway?