Bad Sheriff skills run in the family–Emma was there drinking with 18 year old Ashley, later on, David violates Maine’s seat belt laws by piling dwarves in his pickup truck.
For my head canon, I’m thinking one of the following two things:
Pre-curse and pre-Emma, an 18 year old drinking might not have been weird in SB since Maine raised it to 21 in 1983, 2 years before they wrote the curse hitting and it looked like the town just didn’t keep up with the times. Emma of course, IS a bad Sheriff and probably didn’t think about it.
Ashely drank something but we don’t know what. She could have been drinking non-alcoholic stuff, as some bars will let people 18 and over in if not served liquor, especially those that function as dance or music club type places. It looked like liquor and Ruby says “Pace yourself” so that explanation seemed a little stretched to me, so I go with Bad Sheriff.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass