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Given rates of alcoholism and alcohol related disease and injury in the UK, I’d say that’s not working.

Wouldn't the more relevant statistic be the relative rates compared to the US?

Approximately 9.6 per 100,000 alcohol related deaths in the US per year, and approximately 14.3 per 100,000 per year in the UK circa 2014. This fits with WHO data from 2003-2005 showing that Americans on average consumed between 7.5-9.9 liters of pure alcohol while on average people in the UK consumed more than 12.5. It also fits with much higher rates of cirrhosis of the liver per capita in the UK, as well as hospital admissions related to alcohol (which are on the rise in the UK).

I was always told that the evidence was against this theory.

Current UK advice is to not give your children alcohol until they're 18.

But they say this is because almost everyone who has an alcohol use disorder started drinking before they were 18.

I'm not sure they've got the causal direction correct.

By 18 I was pretty bored with booze, I'd done my "going crazy" phase from 15-18. Good times. (UK btw)