High school students would drive a couple of hours to get drunk at bars in Wisconsin and drive home drunk, Schur said. Livia Theodoro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, freshman, said there were just too many rules about alcohol in the United States. Although the legal drinking age is 18 in Brazil, no one enforces it, and bars and liquor stores do not check IDs, Theodoro said. She said drinking was much more acceptable at home, and young people would often have a glass of wine with dinner. American students approach drinking differently than people from home, Theodoro said.
Students here drink to get wasted.
Brazilians socially drink. But he said Americans drank too much. Growing up, he spent several summers in Europe, and became accustomed to their lax alcohol laws. He had never been carded until he came to the United States. It took him about a year to adjust to the laws on alcohol.