The "Lower the Drinking Age" movement

[dipstik]

i agree entirely with the point. If you can go to war, you should be able to enjoy a cold one legally.

BUT, you have to consider why the law is in place in the US. Nowhere else in the world do be people rely desperately on cars for transportation. You need a car to go buy milk and eggs from the store. Most places everywhere else aren't like the US. You can walk out your door and walk to the local watering hole in most places. Teenagers aren't the most responisble people when it comes to making the right decision to not drink and drive. Not to say there aren't 21+ year olds that would make the same retarded wrong move. If it really does reduce the amount of people driving drunk, i'm for it. If not, drink up youngins. Being over 21 doesn't mean that much anyways friend, the only difference is that you're gonna drink less than you did when you were a reckless teenager. Enjoy these young years you have, it doesn't last long.

Agreed. America runs on 4 wheels.

I think the law is fine the way it is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Think of it from the perspective of a parent - Do you really think a lot of dad's would be thrilled with the idea that their 18 year old daughter is bar hopping on a Friday night? What about a mother having to deal with her 18 year old son going out and getting drunk at a titty bar with his friends on a school night?

Or what about high schools - you would inevitably end up with something ridiculous like a "no beer in the cafeteria" rule.

While having the drinking age @ 21 may be a bit arbitrary and hypocritical, is it really going to help anyone by lowering it to 18, or will it just create more problems?

[Jer]

Maybe we should just raise the killing age.

[Rydellen]

I went on a bustrip through colorado when in school. I live in Sweden and we have 18 as the limit. We spoke to some young girls about this and they told ous that you get more of a penalty if you drink underage than if your caught smoking weed. That to ous sounded just wrong...Im not saying alcohol is so much better than weed, but statistically speaking more people that smoke weed also try other drugs. People that are into drinking TEND (at least in sweden) to stick with the booze. Ofc Sweden is not at all free from drugs but we dont have the same smoking culture as lets say Canadian and many parts of the US.

I totally agree, if your allowed to kill people in war, just are damn entitled to drinking! The double-moral in US is somewhat for ous entertaining.

Guess it has something to do with the coservatives allways been running to country.

Im getting too deep now as I often tend to...

Anyways...By 18 the whole world except US (Canada 19) allows people to drink. Are US that scared to take after others example...

[Rydellen]

To ous who really has drinking as a culture, we see it as a way to get de-stressed. To ous its important to have some ways to relieve ourselfs from the everyday life...Sound bad that you would need "drugs" to do this but we just see it as a social thing. Maybe we need drinking to open up, we can be quite closed off and cold as people. As maybe someone of you guys have noticed?

[freshie247]

[QUOTE=Rydellen;1389969]That to ous sounded just wrong...Im not saying alcohol is so much better than weed, but statistically speaking more people that smoke weed also try other drugs. People that are into drinking TEND (at least in sweden) to stick with the booze. Ofc Sweden is not at all free from drugs but we dont have the same smoking culture as lets say Canadian and many parts of the US.QUOTE.

"Lies, statistics, & more damn lies." Such studies are fatuous at best & have zero consistancy when it comes to variables.These types of studies are funded by people with an agenda,& then are used to further that agenda,nothing more! Alcohol is a way more dangerous drug.So it's better to stick with one of the most dangerous drugs? I find that hard to agree with.

I find it interesting how people have come to classify drugs seperately from other addicitve drugs that are legal like alcohol, nicotine ,caffeine, as if legal drugs aren't drugs or deserve there own classifiction just because some corrupt political entity has put some arbitrary classification on them because they were paid money. Up until right after WW1, it was every US citizens right to take any drug they wanted .The harshness of the war changed people's attitudes about life:sex & drug use went up & that's how drugs were made illegal ,to be shortly followed by the very popular alcohol.

I'm all for lowering the drinking age to where it was 20 years ago.

[dirtybryan]

Agreed. America runs on 4 wheels.

Canada runs on four wheels just as much, and some how their country hasn't been torn apart yet with its 18-19 drinking age.

The argument that lowering the drinking age will encourage kids to start drinking earlier is bullshit. In fact I think it will discourage drug use in the younger ages. 11-12 year olds aren't going to start illegally drinking if we had a 18 yr old drinking age like 16-17 year olds drink with the 21 yr old drinking age. Why? Because 6th Graders don't have the independence that 16-17 year olds do in order to drink while they are not around parents. The lowered drinking age would curb drug use because face it, you don't need proof of age to buy shrooms, weed, or etc... You gotta get your buzz somewhere.

How do I know all this? Because I'm a 19 years old currently going to school in Canada after growing up in suburban Upstate NY. Having come back home this summer, the attitudes towards drinking by those who have just become legal to drink are much more mature then the attitudes I've come back home to where alcohol is a forbidden pleasure in which you need to drink all you can while its available.

[concretejungle]

The only reason that I'm against lowering the drinking age is because I had to wait until I turned 21 to buy legally. Yes, it's hypocritical but kids these days need to show some initiative and get there booze illegally just like my friends and I had to.

[mavrick]

Im all for keeping the legal age at 21... kids are drinking/smoking/doing less than teens were 20 years ago... coincidence? maybe, but why change something when the rate of consumption is down compared to when 18 was the legal age..

Isnt there a study that shows Europeans are more likely to be alcoholics than americans? maybe i am dreaming, did a quick google search and cant find anything, but let me know if i am making stuff up or is there actually a study like that.

[dipstik]

Canada runs on four wheels just as much, and some how their country hasn't been torn apart yet with its 18-19 drinking age.

Canadian population: ~ 30 million
U.S. population: ~ 300 million

[Samwich]

I turn 21 on the 26th of this month. I think we should keep the law exactly the same so that all the bastards that are younger than I am have the same experiences that I did. It's valuable to have experience evading the police.

[hutash]

In the past when it has been lowered the number of drinking problems rose dramatically. Nearly every state that tried decided it was a failure, and rasied it back up. Some may have been pressured by MADD, but many just decided it didn't work.

Why does it work in Yurp? For one, I think euro teens are more responsible then American teens, present company excepted, of course. They have grown up drinking beer and wine as part of meals, so are less inclined to binge drinking. Laws are also stiffer in most places, and if you get caught drinking and drive you are not going to get out of it by hiring a good lawyer.

[cj001f]

Isnt there a study that shows Europeans are more likely to be alcoholics than americans?

the only ones I've seen show exactly the opposite



The reasoning that lowering the drinking age will somehow encourage drunk driving and therefore we shouldn't change it is retarded.

[Jer]

Im all for keeping the legal age at 21... kids are drinking/smoking/doing less than teens were 20 years ago... coincidence? maybe, but why change something when the rate of consumption is down compared to when 18 was the legal age.

I don't know where you live, but 20 years ago I was 18 and I still had three years to go before I was legal. The majority of my drinking was done between the ages of 17 and 21.

I also call BS on the whole "kids are doing less these days" thing.

[mountain_man]

Its a bitch to go to the us on trips and not be able to drink legally as i can in Australia. Lucky i got me a fakie. I cant see an overwhelmingly strong argument for 21 being the drinking age. That said i'm not bothering to quote any statistics on the topics because i cbfed.

[Bring On The Snow]

I'm into it, although now the drinking age is 21 and we all started when we were what...14 or 15? So if it were 18 would we have 11 year olds boozin?

I live in Canada and the drinking age here( or in bc anyways) is 19 and everyone starts drinking at like 14-15 so that doesnt really change it and to boot the fine for minor in possession is only like 50 bucks so kids are more afraid of there parents giving them shit than the cops

[mavrick]

I also call BS on the whole "kids are doing less these days" thing.

check out this link... illicit drug use and pot use is much lower than 20 years ago...

or this one for alcohol, illicit drugs, and pot all at lower usage rates compared to 20 or so years ago..


** as a note i didnt look into the studies they cited to check the validity, i will let you do that, i only made sure the info came from organizations and not joe schmoes .com**

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

Heh.

I just love the whole "cut & paste, link vs. link - the omnipotent internet proves all" discussion format.

So much for a good 'ol challenge of ideas these days.....

[gaijin]

Thinking of running in '08, my platform will be the decriminalization of marijuana, lowering the drinking age to 18 and raising the enlistment age to 21. Oh yeah and universal health care. Think I'll win?

Not to derail this thread, but you don't want universal health care. Nothing new in medicine ever came from a socialized system. Nothing. America does have the most expensive care, but it also the best. I currently live in japan, where non-emergency care is socialized. It sucks. severely. I know other americans who fly home for their prescriptions because what is offered here just plain sucks. When I'm home, I stock up on my inhalers because japanese inhalers suck. socialized medicine sucks. I hate it. But it's cheap. i just hope I never get sick.

As soon as you remove the profit from medicine, you remove the innovation. when I go to the clinic here in Japan, it's like I stepped into 1952.

[Chinaski]

Nobody has to join the military at age 18, it is something people choose to do. You join full well knowing you could kill or be killed. I don't see how choosing to join the military has anything to do with being legally allowed to drink.

I think they want you to be sober when you take the bullet.

[cj001f]

when I go to the clinic here in Japan, it's like I stepped into 1952.

It's really to bad the Japanese have no difference in life expectancy from the horrid conditions they endure.

I think they want you to be sober when you take the bullet.

Huh - warfare's changed over the past century I guess. No more whiskey to keep you awake.

[dirtybryan]

Canadian population: ~ 30 million
U.S. population: ~ 300 million

Population is indifferent if you were to think about the drinking age issue per capita.

[bc]

Amusing article in today's Times suggesting that perhaps parents shouldn't encourage alcohol at parties they throw for the 14-and-under crowd.