I work in a pub, I've had around 5 bottles thrown at me from accross the street at people angry at me... one dude come at me with a bottle to smash in on my head / neck area, and tended to three people who have had their necks and heads smashed with bottles... honestly, it's not the glasses, it's the fucking bottles, they are easier to hold and smash people with.
I got ridiculously lucky with the guy who came at me with a bottle, my boss crash tackled him from the side and the coppers were accross the street watching, didn't do anything until my boss tackled him

... then told my boss to calm down in future... ah well.
EDIT: dunno why, but with the DFRS and VT thing I forgot about the initial question. I'm almost 20, so I don't know what it was like in the 'good old days', but working with people who came from working class backgrounds, the aussies started drinking around 14-15, the kiwis who actually drink started around the 12-13 mark... and the turks only drink on special occasions... These guys are aged from around 30 - 45. One guy who came from south africa didn't drink at all until he came to australia, on his 21st birthday he got smashed for the first time.
Me, I started drinking at 15, along with smoking pot and cigarettes. Weed those days was far superior, cheaper, and no hangovers!
These days I still love weed, but it's almost an every day thing, as opposed to a special occasion thing. Some of my friends started drinking properly (binge drinking) at around that age, but I went to a selective school, and some of the smarter people waited till they were 17/18.
Funny how i said drinking properly, instead of binge drinking... perhaps a sign of the way i, and probably a fair few of my mates view drinking >_<
EDIT again: with removing glass from pubs, if the bottles were made of re enforced plastic, along with the glasses, this would be a godsend... Most glassings are spur of the moment style things. One moment of anger, with a glass/bottle at hand, could mean a lifetime of agony for another person... One moment of anger without, could potentially mean just a fistfight (still dangerous, i know, but i think i'd rather a fistfight which can be intervened in time hopefully, rather than a bottle stabbing)