Legal at 18

So, here it is... Another feature from the Booze Fusers.

This time we're tackling the lower age limit controversy, whether this country would be better were the drinking age requirement 18 instead of 21.

The ramifications go for such a change would be detrimental, and certainly a test to a culture of eager partygoers vying to outdo each other.

At the Web site Amethyst Initiative, a list of college presidents across the nation have begun a petition to lower the drinking age. The Web site lists multiple debates and references to the heated topic.

The Belgian Beer Pioneer

And here we go!

This is our first feature for Booze Fuse, and we definitely hope everyone enjoys.

Please check out the photo slideshow done by John DuBois and David MacNeal (myself).

Read about the man who brought Belgian Beer to the West Coast!

by David MacNeal with Christine Hutt

Beer ads on youth programs

Between 2001 to 2007, beer advertisements aired on television programs aimed at the 12 to 20 age range increased by 38 percent. The study was conducted by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University in Washington as they are concerned with many issues surrounding it, like the fact that 5,000 underage drinkers die every year.

The legal limit is 21, and the current debate of whether to lower that age to diffuse future binge drinking has become a hot topic.

We at Booze Fuse will be posting a feature on the pros and cons of making the legal age 18. Expect to see it in full video podcast form later this November. :)

Hispanic Youth and Alcohol

Have you ever noticed that so many beer advertisments

are targeted towards Hispanics? With beer companies such

as Tecate, Corona, Pacifico, and Dos Equis, Latinos are drawn

into Mexican beers. Although the beer ads are overhyped, they

are over glamorized and also one dimensional. The ads associate

alcohol as being cool and fun, not as addicting and harmful to ones

health. The ads also dont show the numbers of sexual assults, job

losses and broken families due to the mistreatmentof alcohol.

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Texas

and Florida State University, Alcohol advertising is heavier

around schools with 20% or more Hispanic students, than

schools with a smaller Hispanic population. Katherine Culliton

of the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention,

says that Latino Youth are drinking more than the white or

the black youth. Some tips for cracking down on greedy alcohol

advertisers:Parents need to unite and pressure advertisers to

stop putting ads up in Hispanic communities.More alcohol

awarness programs need to be established to educate the

Hispanic youth.