Throughout my life, I have been lucky enough to have traveled to countries such as England, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Costa Rica, as well as many others. Having participated in the night life in all of these places, I can tell you first hand that your editorial could not have been more correct about other countries' drinking habits.

Obviously, every country in the world has its citizens with drinking problems. From my experiences, however, I have seen that the overwhelming majority of blacked-out obnoxious drunks in these countries are in fact the America tourists who visit them. Why? Because we as a country have not been brought up to drink responsibly.

This country has done nothing but impose strict fines and penalties upon those who drink alcohol. They try to scare us away from it when we are young instead of properly educating us how to consume it safely. Our laws are based off of out-dated opinions, not facts. There is overwhelming empirical evidence showing these laws are ineffective, yet nothing is ever done about it.

Max Young

junior-psychology