Obstensibly, the motive behind alcohol restrictions is twofold: 1) Really young kids risk significant health damage (developing brains and whatnot) 2) Younger adults don't know how to drink responsibly. Ignoring point 1, as I agree with it, point 2 is a misnomer. From the article (and many other sources) it's obvious older adults are no more likely to drink responsibly. Even if you assumed the age limit worked perfectly, binge drinking is still increasing and (through 2005) so was drunk driving. You argue that more 15-17 yr old kids will start drinking if the drinking age is lowered. I'd counter that there would be no change - those who want a drink will still find a way to get a drink. The age limit is immaterial to a 15-17 yr old, whether it's 21 or 18 - it's still illegal in either case. I truly think that education and alcohol-awareness would be more effective. In germany, I know kids who go out drinking at night at age 16. They bike home or call their parents to pick them up. The lack of taboo makes it socially acceptable to be responsible. You don't want young adults drinking and driving becaue you don't trust their ability to know "when to say enough?" - have designated under 21 drinking establishments that prohibit the indulgers from driving - you must get a ride home. The focus should be on those who abuse it. Blanket restrictions are ineffective - in fact, I'd argue that they ironically increase the allure of that which they prohibit.
That's fine, but AGAIN...how is lowering it going to HELP the problem? I don't understand the logic. See, now this is logic I can totally agree with.
Drinking beer was always the primary quest on a night out starting from driving age onward. Never hard to score it, either. The only times I really ran into trouble was at parties. Inevitably, TABC always showed up and I always seemed to have a beer in my hand getting busted right away every time. lol. I hated TABC growing up. Still do. The one time TABC didn't bust me was at the kegfest they threw in Galveston for seniors at Clear Lake High School. It was a yearly thing and TABC was always ready to pounce on it. When they arrived, my friend and I had taken a ride with a friend to the store. When we got back, TABC had busted the place and we avoided them. Must have been 15 kegs lost. Argh!!!!
the drinking age should be 18. the problem of drinking and driving stems largely from our lack of public transportation. fixing that will solve other problems as well.
No offense, but did you read the article in the first post? The jist of it is that binge drinking habits acquired in the late teens carries over in to the early and mid twenties, and the binge drinking habits are acquired because there is little-to-no reason for teens to drink responsibly. Now I don't think everyone should just blindly accept this, that would be ludicrous. But it is irritating when people just dismiss that there could be any benefit at all to lowering the drinking age and refuse to discuss the issue. Question to those opposed to even considering the idea: If it could be 100% without-a-doubt proven that fewer people would drive drunk (possibly more teens but fewer people in the mid 20's), would you be in favor of something like this?
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p0V0Et2owbI&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p0V0Et2owbI&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> cuz they dont make the good **** here
One of the reasons why the drinking age is 21 is a public health concern. Your liver is not fully developed until you are in your early twenties and teenagers really aren't able to process alcohol as well. Making alcohol illegal for people obviously isn't going to stop people from drinking but if the government has any role in the issue I don't think it should endorse a practice that is dangerous. They can at least try to make the difficult job of parenting a little easier. As for the trend towards binge drinking, this is largely a cultural problem. Our culture has changed enough that young people have learned that is how to drink "like a grown-up." Thi smay be because they see too many adults drink this way. Or perhaps they don't see responsible drinking at home, I don't know. In any case, raising or lowering the age isn't necessarily the answer to the binge drinking problem. Most people do start drinking before 21 andI remember recently reading an alarming statistic of how often children in the 14-16 year old range binge drink. I never had a problem getting alcohol as a minor but I hung out with a lot of adults (obviously, not the most responsible and law abiding adults). I think the problem would be compounded if most high school seniors could legal buy alcohol for their underage friends. A related problem that others have mentioned is the presence of minors in bars. Aside from the inconvenience (no offence to minors on this board) I think it would create a lot of opportunity for underage girls to meet and hook up with much older men. Not that they need that much more opportunity. But many European friends of ours have either been in this circumstance or been witness to it. When you are 17 (or even younger) you are generally allowed to be at least present in a bar if you aren't drinking. Even here I've actually been served by quite a number of bartenders who must have known I was under 18 at the time. But you are much more likely to be there if you are hanging out with older kids who can buy. And if you're spending time in a bar, obviously, you meet other people drinking there too and will be socializing with them. This might not concern many of you if you're looking to hook up with a minor but as a parent I'm not particularly thrilled with the idea of my daughters bringing home boyfriends older than I am. Of course this will happen when they are 21 just as much as when they are 18 but as a woman I would say that the allure is very different even with only a three year gap. An 18 year old girl is more likely to date an older man out of rebellion or to prove something to her classmates. A 21 year old girl is more likely to be a bit more practical and engage in early gold digging. Not to mention that older men attracted to 18 year olds probably would prefer even younger if they thought they could get away with it.
I had a party once crashed by the police. They went outside and looked around and walked right past our keg, but they questioned me about an O'douls bottle cap in the trash. It was freaking hilarious.
I seriously doubt you'd see the age requirements at establishments follow suit. I recall seeing a few 25 and up places in the 90's. Before the law went from 19 to 21 were all places "19 & up?" I'll see if I can find any info on it.
I feel like if you can get married, smoke, and even die for this country in battle, drinking should be included with reaching the age of 18. Most countries in the world have it lower than 21 and it's not like they have bigger drinking problems. I do not know a single 18 year old that cannot get alcohol within the hour. At 18, you are legally an adult, I see no reason why you should not be able to drink. As for people arguing about drunk drivers: there are plenty of terrible drivers who are 30+ who choose to drink an drive. Drinking and driving and changing the drinking age are completely different issues.
Look if the law is that you are an adult at 18, can go fight for your country, vote, get married, be tried as an adult, then you are an adult and should be entitled to all the same rights as other adults and that includes alcohol. There is no viable reason for the drinking age being 21, other than some appeasement of MADD.... The problem is not the drinking age, never has been the problem is driving drunk.....address the problem, don't go for appeasement that doesn't work. I have no issue with making it 19 to get it out of high schools etc....but 21 is ridiculously silly. So address that problem...that is exactly my point. DD
I can see both sides of this issue. I have had problems with drink since I was in my early twenties, and maybe one of the contributing factors is that my first real exposure to it I was in "Better drink all I can today, might not have access to it tomorrow" mode. On the other hand, if the drinking age is 18...then it's effectively 14, because there will always be several kids on any HS campus who want to be the cool guy by buying for anyone who asks (for popularity, or for a couple bucks toward his own 12-pack) If they do lower it to 18, they should limit it to those who have graduated HS (maybe have a special drivers license insignia)..for non HS graduates/GED holders the age remains 21. Sure it's discriminatory, but its another incentive to stay in school...and it prevents Sammy Senior from enticing Susie Sophomore back to his place when his folks aren't home with promises of wine coolers (sure it will still happen, but at least he will have to put some forethought into it). One positive thing about lowering the drinking age (or removing the prohibition on mj) is that it would force ostrich like parents to get their heads out of the sand about how easy it is for their kids to obtain drugs and alcohol, and maybe ask more questions...where are you going, and with who...you know, do some actual parenting.
And the UK represents the entire area of Europe? What I do not understand is how it is possible that kids are allowed to by GUNS but not alcohol. I did not read the article, just wanted to ad my thoughts. What actually helps solving the problem of drunk driving is making the legal age for drinking lower than the age people are allowed to drive. Because most kids have a phase in there lifes where they experiment with alcohol, and do not really know how much they can handle. And they act irresponsible. This phase usually is when they are allowed to drink (or a bit before that). If they are not old enough to drive at that time they cannot drive drunk. In the Netherlands they can drink at 16 and drive at 18. So the kids have had experience with alcohol for atleast 2 years before they can drive. So they know their limits much better. I agree that improving public transport also help against drunk driving. Ofcourse there will always be idiots who drunk drive, but it is a good idea to decrease the number of people who drive drunk.
I agree that it seems ridiculous that you're 18 and can fight in a war, get married, and everything else is legal except for drinking. I think lowering the age limit to 18 will make us re-evaluate our DUI education, laws, and penalties for the better. EDIT: Since there's so much focus here on the driving aspect in this thread, I'll also mention that it seems much harder to get a license in other countries (at least from talking w/ my European friends). Mandatory driving classes over a period of months and much harder/longer driving tests. On the other hand I drove around in a parking lot for 5 minutes and answered 20 questions and got my license just like that.
I've never been to a bar that had a higher age requirement than 21. Bars are so easily sued in the case of a drunk driving accident (of course, this depends on the state) that most of them are safer places to drink. They'll cut off if you've had enough and they have bouncers. When it comes to the bar issue I am less concerned about an increase in drunk driving than private parties run by people who have too few personal assets to take an interest in protecting themselves legally if they allow someone to drive home drunk (ie. teenagers). My concern with bars lowering the age requirement is more about the social dynamic. Given that Houston has the biggest drunk driving problem of any metropolitan area in the United States, I can understand that many of you have said that this is really the thing that needs to be addressed. Yes, drunk driving is a problem and it is not restricted to minors. But I grew up in cities with great public transportation and bars in walking distance of where I wanted to be. I still think there are other problems I earlier enumerated: 1. The increased health risk to people under 21 because their livers are not fully developed. 2. The increased availability of large quantities of alcohol to people under 18. 3. The increased risk of inappropriate relationships between minors and much older adults.
Of course, we could just raise the voting, fighting and marriage age instead. Technically, you can get married when you are younger than 18 if you have your parent's concent. But most parents seem to think that even 21 is a bit too young to be getting married these days.
