<p>soccer guy, it depends on the state. in CA, having alcohol in your system if you're under 21 is not illegal. possessing alcohol and being underage is illegal, being publicly intoxicated is, so is serving, selling, buying, and attempting to buy. but consuming it is not (at least in CA). and in some states (again, like the Golden state and most progressive and intelligent with drug laws) it's legal to drink at home with family if you're underage.</p>
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If you take cough medicine or Listerine, you will blow positive numbers. So that method doesn't really make any sense.
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<p>Tell that to the police. NC has some of the toughest alcohol laws in the country and enforces them very harshly as well. IIRC if you tell an officer that you just used cough medicine or Listerine he will wait 15 minutes and then test you again.</p>
<p>alpearson - i agree</p>
<p>punkdudeus - there will be no police in that situation. What if you drink at home with family (or "family") and get wasted and get the cops called on the house? I don't think "I was drinking with my family before I <em>insert stupid action resulting in cops being called</em> would be a valid defense.</p>
<p>1of42 - I cannot produce documentation. However, I would say being drunk is a good sign of possession. I mean, it's in your body.</p>
<p>no dood, i'm absolutely sure of this. drinking with family is legal if you're under 21, under 18 is probably different.
that's california tho...we've got some what better drug policy laws.</p>
<p>It's all state laws, you can't argue with each other. In FL the legal limit for under 21 is .02. You can also posses alcohol as long as the containers aren't open. Go find your own state's laws...</p>
<p>You have to know how to balance drinking.. i know its fun and doing it once in a while is okey.. but you have to elarn and differenciate when its time to get serious and whernt its time to PARTY!!!</p>
<p>There are rules for dinking because there are people that dont know hoe to control themselves. Some people have an excess of alcohol and problems may occure. Many accidents and not only car accidents are caused because of alcohol and not knowing to say no. This is a huge problem because even though parents teach their kids how responsible actions should be taken with alcohol the responsible holds in the kids. To help kids the government makes laws to be able to have a safer and more responsible community.</p>