About Alcoholism - Alcoholism Information, Research and Treatment

All 10 provinces and two territories [of Canada] have lowered the legal imbibing age within the past four years--half of them to 18, half to 19--and there's no significant pressure to rescind those laws anywhere in the country. Well-controlled studies to determine what effect this has had on the drinking habits of the young are rare. In Metropolitan Toronto in 1970, before the age was reduced from 21 to 18, 48 charges of impaired driving were laid against drivers aged 18 to 20. In only the second half of 1971, after the change, this had soared to 259, and in 1972 it had almost doubled to 457.