Dear Editor,
It’s time to have a national debate on raising the legal age of drinking and purchasing alcohol to 21.
According to ProCon.org, of the 190 countries, the United States has one of the highest drinking ages which is 21 years old.
In Guyana, it is 18. Yet, none of these laws is enforced.
Growing up in Albouystown, in the 80s, I lived just a street from a rum shop where men and women would imbibe alcohol daily.
The first thing I remember purchasing in my life was alcohol. Starting at age 6, my aunts, uncles and both my parents would send me to purchase alcohol at the rum shop.
Fast forward to 2019, I never imagined that adults would still be sending their under-aged kids to buy alcohol. I also never imagined that the legal drinking age would only be 18 in Guyana.
At 18 in America, you can join the Army, go to war, but you can’t drink alcohol until 21. During the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, no American soldier was allowed to drink alcohol.
This is because the Americans know the danger of consuming alcohol among young people and soldiers during combat.
I never imagined that in 2019, sixteen-year-olds can go to a bar, nightclub or rum shop and drink alcohol, because the laws are not being enforced.
I never imagined that the legal age for drinking alcohol wouldn’t be 21.
I never imagined that when I talked with children from the top elite high schools in the country, I would have found that many of the 14-year-olds have already imbibed alcohol. I never imagined that parents would allow their children to drink alcohol before 21.
I never imagined that in 2019, neither the past nor present government has ever had a national conversation about underage drinking or having it in their respective manifestos.
I never imagined that the country’s leaders wouldn’t see this issue as a national epidemic.
Editor, I am hoping that the presidential candidates would make this issue paramount for the next general election.
I never imagined that in 2019, civil society and the religious community would not do more to condemn the selling of alcohol to children. I never imagined that the imbibing of alcohol among children would be so tolerated and accepted.
In Guyana, imbibing alcohol is no longer something people do to socialize, it has become a lifestyle.
Alcohol is to Guyanese as food is to Americans. Put differently, Guyanese love drinking alcohol and Americans love eating food.
I never imagined that in 2019, people can’t see the connection between alcohol abuse, homicides and auto accidents, domestic violence and suicides.
I never imagined that in 2019, I would have to write a letter to plead for the government to raise the legal age of drinking alcohol, buying alcohol, going into a bar, nightclub or rum shop to 21.
I could only imagine that someone reading this letter would say that raising the legal age of drinking will never happen. Because imbibing alcohol is a Guyanese way of life, it is embedded, enmeshed and encouraged in our culture.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz
