I beleive that by lowering the legal drinking age alcoholism will be gone by the time my children have children. \"In Portugal and Belgium, there are no age restrictions on purchasing or drinking alcohol, and in New Zealand, children of all ages can drink in public with their parents. These countries believe that kids who are allowed to drink with their families become socialized to drinking moderately. In the United States, despite--or perhaps because of--continual admonitions not to drink, the young and inexperienced often go overboard.\" psychology today