A 20-year-old woman named Lauren Hall has been formally banned from every liquor store and pub in Britian, the Daily Mail reports. She also can't carry an unsealed container or consuming alcohol in a public place.
Two things jumped out at me when I read this article ...
1) The British government can do that? I don't know if that would ever fly in America. I mean, it kinda sorta makes sense -- the government tells you when you're old enough to drink. In the U.S., drinking is seen as more as a right than a privilege.
Across the pond, it's becoming increasingly the other way around. Obviously, there's no way for them to keep you from drinking in your own home. But banning someone from every bar in the country? Sounds extreme and hard to enforce.
2) Hill is only 20, which makes her not even old enough to legally drink in America. I look at the drinking age the same way I look at the driving age -- to a certain extent, age does matter. Most people get more mature as they get older. But experience is just as -- if not more -- important. The more experience you have drinking or driving (but never at the same time), the more you're going to get the hang of it, and know your limits.
Anyway, what do you think of the country-wide ban? If she behaves, Hill could have it lifted in a year. To get banned, she comitted "a series of public order offences, and had flouted bans from pubs and clubs through local Pub-Watch schemes in her home town of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire."
Is banning someone from every pub better than sending that person to jail? And should the government have the right to do it?