h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Louisiana, it is legal to buy beer or spirits at age 18.
In a few states (Oregon is one), it is legal to buy beer or wine only at age 18, and spirits at 21.
In the rest of the states, 21 is the minimum for any alcohol.

In Texas, it is legal to have an open container in the car. Of course, the driver is still forbidden to drink, but this means the passengers can chug one on the road. In all other states, having an open alcohol container in the car is illegal, even if it was an old whiskey bottle that got shoved under the seat and forgotten. Texas also has the only drive-through liquor stores.

Most states have a limit on the hours alcohol can be sold. In Hawaii, for instance, it is illegal to sell alcohol from a store after midnight, but the clubs can sell until 2:00 am.

This is a good article, but the North America part seemed a little misleading. First you were naming Canadian provinces, and then US states without making it clear that they are in two different countries. I don't know about Canada, but beer is easy to get in the US. And although the laws are more rigid than Ireland and Scotland, there are plenty of people who will sell to teenagers, although probably not 14 year olds like you mentioned in British resturaunts. No teenage party in America is complete without booze, and it isn't very hard to get.

Open bottle laws are different. Get caught with that and you will be fined at best, even if you weren't drinking. Drunk driving is a serious problem in the United States, and at one point in history the statistics were so high that Congress decided they had to do something. In our Constitution all powers not expressed to the national government are reserved to the states. The Constitution doesn't mention anything about regulating alcohol. Therefore Congress couldn't order the states to change their minimum drinking age laws. So they made a "recommendation" to change the min drinking age to 21, and they backed it up with a threat. They said, you can make the drinking age whatever the hell you want, but we won't give you any highway funding. One of the states brought this to court. I think it was South Carolina, but I'm not sure. They called it blackmail, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Congress, and practically all of the states adhered, rather than lose their funding. And so the minimum drinking age is 21, but that doesn't really mean anything, because anyone who wants to drink, will. And that includes most people ages 16-20.

The US has some issues with regard to drinking law.

Under 21 (except in mentioned states) you can't drink, but EVERYBODY does. I know from my experience at a small high school that party = alcohol, without fail. Every single time.

Females don't even need to look 21. I've been offered beverages not legal for me many a time (like, say, tonight) and I am definitely not 21. It's the stick-out-your-chest-and-march-past-the-bouncer approach, and it works every time. Every single time.

Then, of course, there's the question of "why are cigarettes most legal, then alcohol, then pot, while cigareetes are most unhealthy, then alcohol, then pot." Oh well.

In Oklahoma we have strange liquor laws as well.

First, all beer sold in supermarkets or convience stores has to be 3.2. I'm not sure if this is alcohol% or what, all I know is that you have to drink twice as much to get the same effect.

The only places that can serve anything over that are bars, resturants, and liquor stores.

Liquor stores cannot sell refridgerated beer, refridgerated anything for that matter. And they close at 9pm. Bars and resturants can keep serving 6+ point beer and liquor until 2am. Liquor stores are also closed on Sundays.

I've had to explain this 'liquor store beer' phenomena to many an out of town band, so they'll buy some before they close. I've also been to other states and getting strange looks for using the term, 'liquor store beer'.

This whole thing is very frustrating to people here who like to drink good beer. Minors can still get alcohol, and people still drive drunk, so obviously these laws aren't helping.

Oh yeah, you have to be 21 to drink in OK.

Now here's another oddity, in Wisconsin you can be in a bar or tavern at any age if you are with your parents and you can drink(if they okay it with the bar staff of course).
As for hours of operation I've found it varies widely in the US compared with the uniform hours of operation in England. Again in Wisconsin, each city or town can set its own hours, however most go with the state's hours, which allows taverns to open at 6am and stay open until 2am every day except Saturday and Sunday when they are allowed to stay open until 2:30am(that's Fri. and Sat. nights).
In neighboring Minnesota bars are only allowed to stay open until 1am so there is usually quite a bit of border crossing to get that last drink or two in.
Another oddity, in Wisconsin the bar staff is legally not supposed to serve anyone who appears to be intoxicated but the only time this is enforced is when a patron is being a pain in the ass and the staff decides to cut them off. The odd thing is, in comparison to the story in the original post, the staff is not responsible for what happens to a patron no matter how much they've had to drink. In Minnesota however the barstaff can be held legally responsible.
All of this goes to show why Wisconsin has such a reputation for a hard drinking state(which is well deserved I might add). I know this because I've bartended, bounced and managed bars there for 15 years.

Actually, it is ILLEGAL to buy alcohol at the age of 18 in Louisiana. You are no doubt referring to the infamous loophole in that state's liquor laws that allowed businesses to SELL alcohol to people over the age of 18 -- however it was still illegal to buy it (not that any liquor stores cared.....only cops and unfortunate 18 year olds that learned the finer points of the law the hard way cared). However, the loophole was fixed around 1995 by new legislation which prohibited the selling, purchasing, possession, or consumption of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21.

When we went to New York (18 year-old) we bought beer at the local supermarket and was under strict orders to put it in a brown paper bag and to drink from that can INSIDE the paper bag.

When I went to the States again (this time in an off-licence in Oaklohoma) the beer was, again, put into a brown paper bag and completely covered up. We were only putting it in our car (and yes, I did put it in the trunk/boot).

Why is it covered in this way?

Minors aren't permitted to have alcohol except in extenuating circumstances, ie for religious purposes. So when legally posessing alcohol in a public place, it must be concealed. I'm not quite sure what purpose this serves...

Religious purposes? I guess that's why they call it the Holy "Spirit"!

Everybody in the country knows that if you're drinking something wrapped in a paper bag, that something is alcohol. It's a good way to conceal it...if you want to get caught. A better way is to go into a 7-11 store, or a like place that carries fountain drinks. Buy a soda for just over a buck, and dump out the contents, unless you wanted to use the soda for a mixer. Or you can make screwdrivers in the orange juice container. I've even known people to drop food coloring into alcohol and pour it into an empty mouthwash bottle.

BTW...thanks for the correction above on the Louisiana thing. I heard it straight from a real Cajun, but that was back in '93.

But then people will just think you're drinking mouthwash to get drunk.

Certain kinds of alcohol look like other things, for instance, Zima is clear. Buy some bottled water, and fill it with the Zima. I suppose you could do this with vodka as well, but it won't work as well, because the falling over and passing out associated with minors drinking vodka might arouse suspicion in those that you would hide the nature of your beverage from. I've never tried Black Velvet, but if you like that, it looks just like CocaCola, which conveniently comes in 40 oz bottles. A&W Cream Soda is golden in color, so you could fill a bottle of it with beer.

All the same, there's usually no need to conceal alcohol, unless you're going to walk down the street at day time drinking. Most teens (myself included) only drink at parties, and there's no point in trying to conceal anything there. Hard-core underage drinkers get fake IDs and go to bars. So it's really rather pointless in most (pardon the linguistic irony) cases.

Still, every now and then, it's fun to sneak some alcohol into the theater. Enhances the experience just a bit.

In fact, I'm pretty certain all the little exceptions for 18-21 year olds have been since changed. The fed government basically pushed this through; states had to change their legal drinking age to 21 or risk losing certain funding for road building and maintenance. I could be wrong on this, but I believe you'll find that in addition to the Louisiana change that in Oregon and other possible states where the age was different for beer and wine that is no longer the case.

I don't know about the concealing, really. I mean, if you bought cans of beer in large packs (a case of 12 or 24 is not uncommon) and carried them down the street it might look a bit strange but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. There may well be laws against having *open* containers in public places. In other words, you can't just wander around with an open beer/wine/liquor bottle/can just anywhere. And in most states if anyone in your car has an open container that's grounds for some sort of charge against the driver if you are stopped.

One time I drank in the movies and didn't have to hide it. I had a friend who worked at a dollar theater where they showed the new movies that they got for the employees and their friends at midnight. So we went to see Twister for free (thank Bob, I would have kicked myself if I had payed to see it ). We had a six of Red Stripe and got to drink it openly since they weren't open. Does anyone know how liberating that feels?

Do I sound like a freak because of that last sentence?

There's a theatre in Philly where you can do the "triple-feature" (pay for the first movie and stay for two more) Saturday nights. Most of the theatre people leave about halfway through the second, and if you bring what to drink in your backpack you can be drunk off your ass by the third movie. Or so I hear - I don't drink very often.

I've been to at least a couple theatres where you could drink. One was, oddly enough, in Salt Lake City! It was called Brewvies. I dunno if it's still there. Yah, here it is http://www.brewvies.com/ It's a second-run type theatre, so they show older films, but still. And the price for the movie was only 3 bucks. Beer, food, whatever you want, take it right into the theatre with you, real food, not "movie food". And they get around that Utah "private club" issue as well.

In Connecticut, all liquor stores must close by 8:00 PM Monday thru Saturday and they must be closed on Sunday. Grocery stores can only sell wine and beer during the same times as well.
I forgot, however, what the actual time is that bars have to close, but I think it was 11:30 PM or midnight.

No wonder they all go get plowed in Manhatten.

As a 33 year old Scot who recently moved to Detroit, I finding buying alcohol extremely annoying. Most places tend to use the following rule of thumb;

If you look as if you are under 40, you have to prove you are over 21.

A lot of places only accept a Michigan drivers licence as proof, a passport may be good enough for the rest of the planet, but not a six pack of Labatts from Kroger.