The legal drinking age is 21. It has been moved a handful of times over the course of history, but the 21 limit has now been in place for decades and appears to be the one that will stick. And there are many people who wait to try alcohol until they are 21 years old.
However, the statistics show that most people start drinking far earlier than that. In fact, the median age at which a person usually consumes their first alcoholic beverage is just 15. That means that they have six more years to wait until the activity becomes legal, but they may consistently engage in the practice anyway.
Plus, that’s just the median age. If you assume that some people do wait until they’re 21, you also have to assume plenty of people balance that out by drinking before they’re 15. It is not a minimum age.
This practice has become so common in the United States that many people don’t even really think of it as illegal. They know that they’re not supposed to do it, of course, but they don’t look at it the same way that they would look at stealing from a store or getting involved in a fight. You have many people who never break anything more strict than the speed limit in the rest of their lives, but they’ll still drink alcohol.
What this means is that many people get arrested every year for underage drinking. Many are high school students and college students. It is important for all of them to understand their legal defense options. If your teen has been arrested for underage alcohol possession and drinking, get legal assistance fast.