legal purchase

The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcohol 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 (an exception being the UK, which has 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.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. Young people are also especially at increased risk of injury when drinking alcohol. They may not have the necessary knowledge of low-risk drinking. Indeed, public health researchers found that people's age at drinking the first full serve of alcohol was significantly associated with knowledge of low-risk drinking and drinks counting. The levels of knowledge of low-risk drinking and frequency of drinks counting increased with age at first drink of alcohol more steeply during adolescence than in the later period.

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