In Baguio, doctors back raising drinking age to 23

Agence France-presse file photo BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The next “happy hour” in the summer capital may no longer accommodate young adults should a new liquor code that was guided by the unhealthy effects of intoxication becomes a city ordinance. Baguio’s medical community is supporting a new liquor code that raises the legal drinking age from the current 18 to 23, or even 25, in order to spare 46,000 youth as of this year—as well as the projected 197,000 age 23 and below by 2050—from medical and social ailments attributed to alcohol consumption. Article continues after this advertisement Dr. Donnabel Tubera Panes, Baguio’s chief epidemiologist, said providing the youth of this “legal protection” would stave off very early indoctrination to beer or wine, allow the brains of adolescents and young adults to biologically mature, and discourage a lifestyle that would give them chronic ailments associated with alcohol by the time they reach 65. READ: Curb access of underaged, people with mental issues to booze – lawmakers Health measure Panes charted both medical cases attributed to alcohol, and accidents triggered by intoxication in Baguio, when she and fellow doctors and alcohol-addiction experts supported a proposal to elevate the Baguio drinking age during this week’s city council session. The council has been deliberating on a new liquor ordinance that prioritizes the health impact of drinking alcohol in how it would regulate the sale and the social consumption of alcoholic beverages. READ: Our drinking culture is killing us Article continues after this advertisement Councilor Paolo Salvosa, a lawyer who chairs the committee on laws, said the proposed changes to the liquor code started out as a regulatory measure that would rationalize the restrictions imposed on all establishments offering alcohol by Baguio City Ordinance No. 1 series of 1990. Many of these businesses have not been able to secure licenses because of strict regulations. But Proposed Ordinance No. 0023-20, or the draft revision of the liquor code, evolved into a health measure after fellow lawyer, Councilor Elmer Datuin, chair of the committee on health, urged the council to consider the health impact of imbibing alcohol, and pushed for a higher drinking age in a privilege speech he gave on May 18. Article continues after this advertisement The World Health Organization (WHO) backed this Baguio initiative in June. Dr. Florante Trinidad, national professional officer of the WHO country office in the Philippines, said prevailing medical research on the neurosciences has established that parts of the brain that weighs risky behavior is still developing even at the age of 25. But some lawyers in the council, like Councilor Edison Bilog, said requiring young adults to be older than 23 or 25 before they can drink beer may simply push early age drinking further in the shadows. “The brain does not grow or develop all at once … Think of an 18-year-old’s brain as a brand-new motorcycle where the accelerator is the part of the brain that feels emotions, excitement and peer pressure, and is completely finished,” said addiction specialist Dr. Rafael Legaspi of the Philippine General Hospital when he addressed the council this week. “But the brakes on the left side of the brain that plans for the future and senses danger are still being installed. So in fact, science shows us that the brakes of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, are not fully wired or developed until the age of 25,” he said. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. Without these brakes, an adolescent brain is flooded by instant gratification, which explains why alcohol has been an addictive substance, Legaspi told the council. /cb