Latvia: Petition to Raise Legal Alcohol Age
10,000 Latvians have signed the proposal to increase the alcohol purchase and consumption age from 18 to 21 years, according to the online civic initiative site ManaBalss.lv.
In Latvia, 10 000 signatures are the threshold allowing a civic initiative to be accepted for debate in the national parliament.
Author of the initiative, Raivis Ieviņš refers to studies that have found that the human brain develops until the age of 25. Ieviņš underlines that alcohol can cause serious damage to brain development and young people are more likely to become addicted to alcohol.
The proposal is to amend the Latvian law in order to raise the legal age for buying and consuming alcohol from 18 to 21 years.
Mr Ieviņš used to be a member of LUAVIV, a Latvian member organization of the global IOGT movement and participated in European youth projects of IOGT International’s European youth movement.