The drinking age is as enforced as the Powers that Be want it to be. Pretty much every teen-ager knows where to get alcohol and I can't think of anything that those laws have done except drive immature drinking underground, where there are many more incidents of dangerous stupid behavior. Kids don't learn how to drink responsibly and the law causes more problems than it solves, IMO.

We don't have pubs here, at least not in the way that Brits do. We have cafes. ;-)