German legal drinking age Credit: canadastock/Shutterstock.com

Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, is reportedly mulling a ban on supervised or accompanied drinking that allows 14- and 15-year-olds to consume alcohol.

Present German law states that 16-year-olds can consume beer and wine legally but that only those above 18 years of age can buy spirits. However, 14 and 15-year-olds can drink alcohol if supervised by a parent or guardian.

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Health minister Lauterbach told the German media channel, RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, that: “From a health policy perspective, there can be no two opinions on this issue. The presence of adults does not change the harmfulness of alcohol for children. That is why so-called supervised drinking should be prohibited.”

According to reports from local radio station, Radio Bamberg, a number of German health officials have also stated that they believe the consumption of alcohol by under-16s needs to be examined. These include Bavarian health minister Judith Gerlach, Lower Saxony health minister Andreas Philipp and the Berlin health senator Ina Czyborra.

The health ministers of state are said to have met last month to discuss the country’s federal ‘Youth Protection Laws’, in which legal ages for alcohol consumption are set. The conference decided that supervised alcohol consumption needed examination by experts.

The German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS) has previously advised that any adolescents under the age of 18 should refrain from alcohol consumption during what it called a “decisive phase of life”.

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In a paper, DHS wrote that: “In Germany, the consumption of alcohol is widespread and is generally appreciated and encouraged. Even where adolescents are concerned, the German population only regards the consumption of alcohol as problematic if it leads to severe alcohol intoxication or violent crimes.

“Experts, on the other hand, have been very concerned for years about the very prevalent alcohol consumption among children and adolescents which on average begins at age 14.”

Last year, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction warned that no level of alcohol consumption is without risk.

Its report concluded that if members of the public do wish to drink, they should consume no more than two drinks in any given week.

This represented a drastic drop from previous guidance, which argued for a maximum of ten drinks a week for women and 15 drinks for men.