Coming from strict moralist North America, it is hard to imagine just to what extent alcohol is a normal part of life in Europe. I mean, we have it and we appreciate the hell out of it in North America, don't get me wrong, but drinking and alcoholic substances are so heavily regulated, and public intoxication so heavily penalized and critiqued, that it's sometimes almost not worth it. After all, in the US you can't even legally purchase alcohol until you are 21, and the lowest drinking age in any part of North America is 18. Obviously, teenagers being teenagers, kids still get hold of alcohol way before that point, but the fact remains that drinking in general, and especially binge drinking, is seen as a very serious issue across the Atlantic.
Not so in the Netherlands. Here, the legal drinking age is 16 if you are looking to buy beer or wine, and 18 only if you are in the market for hard liquor. Moreover, public drunkenness and drinking in general is, for better or for worse, much less of an issue.
Enter the zuipkeet, or (as google translate puts it) the "booze shack." For all those of you not in the know, a zuipkeet is basically a shed in a rural area where teens, often underage, are encouraged to drink and have fun within the confines of their peer group. Usually the keet is a converted shack in someone's back yard, although many are often built by the individuals themselves (so you know it's safe!) Teens go there to drink beer and premixed cocktails and, in the absence of adult supervision, often do so to excess. Around 30% percent of local authority zones in the Netherlands are home to at least one keet.
Zuipkeeten are, according to both officials and public opinion, at least partially responsible for the high rates of binge drinking among Dutch teens. In fact, ministers are actively seeking local councils to clamp down on the booze dens in an effort to reduce both underage and binge drinking. In a slightly more controversial move, an elementary school in Achterhoek has made a decision to teach grade 5 and 6 kids about the evils of binge drinking by letting them set up an alcohol free keets of their own, supposedly in an effort to educate them on how to run one safely. I know I am not really in a position to judge (I had my first drink on my 19th birthday, the legal drinking age of my home province - boring, I know), but I don't know if this is really the best method to discourage underage intoxication. What do you think?
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