Many people believe that alcohol abuse is less common in Western European
             countries such as Germany. They support this belief by explaining that
             teenagers are allowed to drink at a younger age, and that alcohol
             consumption is treated as a normal part of life and not as a big deal, and
             that this engenders healthy attitudes toward alcohol consumption. The
             implied suggestion in this argument is that the United States would also be
             better off if it eliminated age restrictions regarding alcohol consumption.
             However, a look at research on alcohol abuse among German youth suggests
             that German young people face many of the same problems that many young
             Americans do, and that problems stemming from alcohol consumption have not
             been eliminated in Germany by looser age rules. In Germany, 16 is the
             legal drinking age (Barnow et. al., 2002).
             In the United States, those who will develop the habit of drinking too
             much alcohol typically begin this pattern by late adolescence. This
             behavior often peaks in their early twenties, and often declines after
             that, although some people continue to exhibit problems with alcohol
             consumption throughout their lives (Muthen & Muthen, 2000). Both men and
             women follow this pattern although young women typically do not consume as
             much alcohol as young men of comparable ages (Muthen & Muthen, 2000).
             Those numbers do not demonstrate the level of alcohol consumption, nor the
             age at which it may begin, however. Some research shows that in the United
             States, by 10th grade, 80% of American teens had tried alcohol, and one-
             third had participated in heavy drinking in the month prior to being
             interviewed by the researchers (Barnow et. al., 2002). In another study,
             nearly one-third of the teens interviewed typically got drunk when they
             drank and acknowledged that their drinking was making problems for them
             Researchers found similar patterns among teens and...