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I come from latin america and my family let me drink at family events under supervision at 16. Around 17-18 I went out to parties and never came back home super wasted. Nowadays I barely drink.

Seems to me if you treat your kid with respect and guide them they can be responsible adults.

Also mind you that the legal smoking age in the US is 18 and pretty much everyone agrees that it is much worse than drinking.

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I think the differences between Latin America drinking cultures and Untied States is much bigger than just the legal drinking age. Changing that one variable won't make a big impact IMO.

The best thing that could ever happen to the cigarette business would be increasing the legal smoking age to 21. That puts them in the 'illicit cool things adults do' category. Dropping the age lower to 16 would put it in the realm of childish things.

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