Drinking in Europe

So, for someone who grew up in the Bible Belt the social rules and laws concerning drinking over here in Europe strike me as a bit odd. First off beer here in Berlin and also in the Netherlands is cheaper than bottled water, this is not hyperbole, it is fact. Secondly alcoholic beverages are available every where you go. In the US we expect to see candy at the checkout in grocery stores but here in Berlin you find cigarettes and miniature bottles of liquor. Drinks at a bar are also remarkably cheap by US standards, I think this continent may run on alcohol. Here is where it gets really interesting though, in the time that I have been here, including spending a day at a fair, I haven't seen a single obviously drunk person. Not on the street and not in a bar.
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In the US people claim that if we teach sex education in schools our children will become sex fiends. Here nudity and sex are common on TV and sex education is not at all taboo in schools and yet then teen pregnancy rate and std rates are lower than in the US. We raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 in the US but here they seem to have fewer problems with drinking. The Netherlands allows the recreational use of marijuana and they have considerably lower rates of drug use and addiction than we suffer through in America.
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You can't say that adopting European ideals concerning these issues would produce the same results in the US, but since what we are currently doing isn't working maybe we should reconsider our tactics?