• RQG@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I always found the rules about public drinking in the US to be more strange than the drinking age.

    • UnverifiedAPK@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Depends on the area, there are some where it’s legal to drink outside as long as it’s from a local business

      • RQG@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Which means there are areas where you can’t even sit outside a Cafe or bar and have a beer. This seems so strange.

        • UnverifiedAPK@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          You misunderstand you can drink at a cafe/bar’s outdoor patio anywhere in the US.

          The places I was talking about in my original comment are called DORA - “Designated Outdoor Drinking Area” and usually span the whole downtown of a city. Those have cheap, but reusable plastic cups that you can get refilled at any business downtown.

          Really great for festivals where you just pop in for a refill and head back out to keep watching a stage show or whatever. It cuts down on waste over cans/bottles too.

          • RQG@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Ah alright that makes a lot more sense. As I said that seemed strange. Thanks for clarifying! I love learning about different cultures and laws.

  • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Ah, yes, Germany! The land where there are no alcohol issues because everybody is by default drunk.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        I was just making a stupid joke. Playing with an old stereotype. It’s germans and beer and us and our mustaches.

        That is good to know. My own country had a serious issue with alcohol and we managed to curb it in less than 10 years.

        The recent surge revolves around binge drinking and hard liquor, when it was originally around wine. And supposedly women are drinking more than men, nowadays.

  • hyper@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    By the time Germans turn 18 (legal age for stronger alcoholic beverages) most of them already know their limit and party with more responsibility in my opinion.

    • Herding Llamas@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately alcoholism problems are worse here in Germany than the US. Many point to the early drinking ages for this, personally I see it is more a general cultural issue.

      • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I have no data to back this up, but I seem to find that regions at Northern latitudes tend to have higher rates of alcoholism. I think it has something to do with long winter nights and people being able to find a sense of community in a pub/bar/Ratskeller after the sun goes down at 16:00 for half the year.

        The US is much further south than most of Europe AND there are large regions that are very anti-alcohol due to religious reasons.

        • Herding Llamas@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I would assume there is good data to back it up as depression rates tend to trend in this way way as well. With that said, alcoholism in Germany is still worse than with US states at the same light levels. Also if you take a peek at lists of alcoholism Lists of alcoholism there are both dark and sunny countries in favorable and unfavorable places. So I’m not sure it can be a sole factor in drinking rates but likely a contributing factor.

        • Squids@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          You could probably back this up by looking at the alcoholism rates in Scandinavia (especially Norway and Sweden)

          Scandinavia had their own prohibition and still to this day have a strict 18/21+ drinking age with booze only being sold during very specific hours (and never on Sundays or religious holidays), with anything above I think 12% only available at the government run bottle shop

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I feel like that’s mostly a feelgood myth. Like for every person who handles their drink responsibly and started drinking young it produces like 10 functioning alcoholics. This countrys relationship to alcohol is fucked up

      • MashedTech@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        At least most of me and my friends did. We still drink, but way way way way less. I feel like 21 or around there we the time we hit that responsibility.

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    With 16 only Beer, stronger alcoholic drinks only when 18 Years old.

      • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        This is inevitable, but they cannot buy it themselves in a store. The owner risks having his store closed and having to pay a large fine if he sells alcohol to minors.

        • Kühe sind toll@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Theoretically you’re right, but from my experience a lot of cashiers don’t care if you’re 18 or not. Some do and ask for your ID, but especially in the more rural areas it generally isn’t a big problem to buy harder Alkohol. Of course the shop is risking a fine but I haven’t heard about any sort of market getting fined for selling Alkohol to minors.

  • LaLiLuLuCo@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The day after I moved to Germany I went to the hospital emergency room with what was later diagnosed as a kidney stone and stomach infection.

    I was given over the counter painkillers and some cramp medication and told to drink lots of beer to treat the stomach infection by the doctor.

    I am serious. I asked about the complications drinking on the pain meds and he just said it was OK.

    mixing those meds with alcohol fucks your liver

    • derpgon@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Was “fuck your liver” as in “once is enough to fuck your liver” or as in “do this every day over a month to see any significant damage” kind of thing.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Some doctors are wild. Mine will give me anything. I had a sore neck, he gave me tramadol. I was having trouble sleeping after quitting drinking, he gave me quietapine antipsychotics because their side effects are drowsiness. He gave me phentermine, a weight loss drug and powerful stimulant, because I was depressed. I was still depressed, but was much faster.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      You misunderstood, the beer is for your kidneys. Alcohol inhibits the adiuretic hormone, so you have to piss more often, especially if you drink beer which is around 95% water. Drinking a lot reduces the formation of kidney stones since they get flushed out before growing too big.

      I wouldn’t take painkillers tho, maybe Ibuprofen if it’s unbearable, but stay away from Aspirin in conjunction with alcohol.

  • bug@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Drinking alcohol or buying it? Because in Britain it’s 18 to buy it yourself but 5 to have it at home.

  • Knasen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Meanwhile in Sweden, the National Board of Health and Welfare changed their guidelines in regards to drinking:

    "Risky drinking now means drinking any of the following:

    • 10 standard glasses or more per week.

    • 4 standard glasses or more per drinking occasion (so-called intensive consumption) once a month or more often."

    True story!

    https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/kunskapsstod-och-regler/regler-och-riktlinjer/nationella-riktlinjer/riktlinjer-och-utvarderingar/levnadsvanor/

    Google translate:

    https://www-socialstyrelsen-se.translate.goog/kunskapsstod-och-regler/regler-och-riktlinjer/nationella-riktlinjer/riktlinjer-och-utvarderingar/levnadsvanor/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=sv&_x_tr_pto=wapp

    • H4mi@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Also in Sweden: if your 5 year old and her friends wants to do vodka shots for their tea party, you can just go ahead and pour some for them.

    • Ricaz@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Same in Denmark. It was 15 until recently. We also held the record for teenage drinking for a long time, and still hold “most average alcohol per session” or something.

      Yet we are statistically one of the “happiest” countries in the world. And take the most antidepressants!

    • thethirdobject@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s actually quite hard to buy alcohol in Sweden. You can’t buy it in a regular supermarket you have to go to a special shop, that is open at different times, etc. And it’s expensive.

      • teslasaur@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Expensive is relative. Systembolaget is so huge that they have incredible deals with certain vendors and makers. I know fo a fact that most single malt whisky from scotland are cheaper to buy from systembolaget as compared to a Tax Free shop abroad. Beer and (usually)cheap wine however is pretty expensive due to the added alcohol tax.

        • thethirdobject@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          From what I remember it was even 2,5%. Really bad surprise when you take your first sip in the camping and you just wanted to enjoy a beer after 2 weeks in the wilderness.

          • RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            I checked, it’s “II beer”, 3,5%. I’ve had one for a serious hangover but it was shit even for that

      • Ricaz@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The result of this is that all drinking Swedes just have a huge storage of alcohol at home though.

        They also frequently drive all the way to Germany (through Denmark) to shop duty-free drinks in bulk.

        Scandinavian countries have “pant” on bottles and cans, meaning you pay extra for the container, but get the money back when you return it empty.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Same in Iceland. Was wandering around the supermarket looking for some, and the wife eventually said “no, it’s from a special shop”. Which was closed. Because why would anybody want to buy alcohol after 5pm?

        Went there the next day, the four-pack seemed about the right price so went to buy that, and the wife again went, “no, that’s per can”. The special shop just splits multipacks.

        I can only assume all the alcoholics get their booze via dodgy sources, because there’s no way they’d be able to afford to be perma-twatted at those prices.

          • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            I was in Ísafjörður and theirs was open most days for a normal working day.

            Either Ísafjörður has more drunks than most towns, or Seyðisfjörður is like the Icelandic equivalent of the village in The Wicker Man.

  • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Clever meme. The drink in hand works so well that you wonder whether the caption came before the image or vice versa.

      • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?

        Btw, this meme is 14 years old. Get off my lawn

    • bug@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      ass covering

      Does that mean covering it with a picture of your own bum or is that just how I make my memes?

  • lorez@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I remember being 14 and having friends of the same age order beer here in Italy, get drunk, nobody cared.

    • Mr_Buscemi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Funny story about that.

      When I was a kid, 15+ years ago, my parents told me about somebody that did that here in Texas with their son.

      The father took his underage son to a restaurant and was able to get him a beer. During the meal, the father went to the bathroom and the son took a drink of his beer. A cop was sitting nearby and arrested the kid for underage drinking because the father wasn’t in the presence of the son so it was no longer “supervised”.

  • Radioactive Radio@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Waiting for 21 was well worth is tbh. I’m more responsible and don’t have to get sloshed to show people that’s I’m a grown up.