Should America's legal drinking age be lowered to 18?

[UpsideDownFlag]

the way i see it, if you're allowed to vote, and be considered legally responsible as an adult, you should be allowed to drink.

[JohnKleeb]

1. no

;) of-fucking-course

[Kathy in Cambridge]

2. Yes, and the driving age should be raised to 21

like some European countries. You youngins between 18 and 25 are what make our insurance rates so high.

But I think if you can die for your country, vote, and get married, you should be able to have a frickin' beer!

[Cozmosis]

17. I like this idea nt

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

25. I'd say eighteen for both...

unless we suddenly develop much more efficient and convenient systems of mass transit.

[rbnyc]

31. I was going to say the exact same thing!

Great minds...

;-)

[MAlibdem]

43. dont worry rose...

i can already have a beer...muahahaha

*opens bottle of guinness*

[Placebo]

3. If you can go DIE IN IRAQ, you are OLD ENOUGH TO DRINK A FUCKING BEER!

end of story

[NamVetsWeeLass]

16. ::Nods Muchly::

Give me a few drinks, I will then really tell you what I think of the war.... Hmm give me one more on top of that and I will be laying on the floor singing show tunes... Sadly, I really only know two and one is kinda questionable as show tune status... I feel pretty and the Time Warp.....

[RivetJoint]

29. Troops stationed overseas in countries where the drinking age

is under 21 (like in the UK for instance) CAN legally drink at the age set by the host country. We had tons of 18 year olds drinking on base and in pubs in the UK.

[Guy Fawkes]

4. f*ck that. I'm all for prohibition!

[JohnKleeb]

5. you puritan

but hey, that means more Guinness for me, woohoo!

[Columbia]

6. No

It should be eliminated completely.

[NightTrain]

7. Either that, or make it illegal to join the military until you're 21.

[Jokinomx]

8. I respectfully disagree....

They lowered the drinking age in Michigan to 18 during the early 70s.

What happened is that there were to many 18 year olds still in H.S.

It was just made it very easy for 16 and 17 year old friends to join in.

If they join the service ... or are drafted... then let drinking occur on military bases, where they aren't supplying to underage classmates.

That is my humble opinion..

I couldn't vote no... since I wouldn't degrade my self by saying I am a freeper.

:dem:

[UpsideDownFlag]

9. yes, i thought the poll was nicely stacked. nt

[Book Lover]

11. I understand that, but

I think the unintended consequence of your suggestion that you can drink if you sign up is too powerful a recruiting tool: "I can drink if I sign up? Sign me up!" Besides, of age or not, I'd bet anything any soldier can get a drink when they want (not that I have anything against that).

Also, 21 is college age, and if you let a 21-year-old drink, then it's so easy for them to get drinks for their 20-year-old friends, and so on... I vote for drinking becoming a normal part of people's lives. Maybe instead, we should change it so that you can drink at any age, but you can only get drunk after age 18 or 21.

[Jokinomx]

20. Valid Points Book Lover....

I can't say your comments aren't true....especially the one about letting anyone drink. The more you suppress, the more you create the desire. Nothing indicates that truth more than the legalization of pot in the Netherlands. Over the next twenty years following legaliztion... the use of weed among the populace went DOWN. Just think how much money their society saved.... focusing on education and not suppression.

I base my feelings about this subject(the drinking age) from my own experiences. I was one of the 18 year old seniors at my H.S. I was in sports and Student Government, so I didn't partake of alcohol but I knew many that did.

We would also have to hope that those that would be under 21...in college, the 18 thru 20 year olds, would be just a little bit more mature. I know it is a stretch to think ALL college students act responsibly when partaking of alcohol..... but I know high school teenagers don't.

So unless we do as you say... and eliminate laws completely on drinking... then I have to lean with the you have to be 21 years old.

My Humble Opinion

[Biased Liberal Media]

14. Same here

[Jokinomx]

21. Welcome to the Underground BLM....:-)

I hope you enjoy your time here!

:toast:

[Endangered Specie]

10. Lower it to 13.

:)

[TSIAS]

12. Absolutely

And I'm not saying that just b/c I'm 20. :)

[jshafted]

13. 18 perhaps 19 like in Canada

18 19 and 20 year olds are physically and psychologically vastly different from 16 and 17 year olds. Current law forces these 18 19 and 20 year olds to do their drinking (which they WILL do) in secret, at house parties or college frat parties which charge admission. In any area where they are engaging in an already illegal act for profit, these party throwers have no incentive to keep out 16 or 17 year olds (especially girls, for what is a college party without women). Male adults tend to prey on younger women, if you want a reason for increasing sexualization of adolescent girls, I propose that forcing these Adults in to a situation where they are allowed to party with drunken adolescents is an invitation to predators.
The alternative situation where 18 year olds can drink in bars or college parties legally make an incentive for providers of alcohol to ID, because their main customers would be 18 and older.

[Kat45]

15. Yes. The drinking age was 18 when I was 18.

It was great and I don't think it caused any major problems. We were drinking before we were 18, and the drinking age was still 21 then. Kids were getting drafted and sent to Vietnam back then; that was one of the arguments made in favor of lowering the drinking age. Now that kids are dying in an unnecessary war again, we'll be hearing this argument again. I think the drinking age got raised back up to 21 due to the ol' federal govt tactic of holding highway funds hostage. I'm not sure, but MADD probably showed up back then too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. That's exactly what happened, and it made not one bit of difference

in the amount of drinking on college campuses.

Some students drank themselves sick when the age was 18 and continued to do so when it was raised to 21. Historical records indicate that this trend has held at least since the Middle Ages.

However, there was an important difference between the atmosphere before and after. With a drinking age of 21, younger students had to sneak around to drink. The object was to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible. With a drinking age of 18, campus restaurants and dorms held parties with booze available--out in public. In 1972 in upstate New York, I lived in a dorm that had a dinner with wine once a month. Resident faculty at Yale would invite students over for wine and cheese. The University of Wisconsin had a Rathskeller where beer was served. These types of activities could model responsible drinking.

With booze as a forbidden pleasure, students saw it more and more as something daring. My personal observation is that there was more binge drinking after the age was raised, not less.

Our attitudes toward young people and booze are like our attitudes toward young people and sex. We tell them not to indulge and give them no coping mechanisms except "just say no," but our whole popular culture tells them to "go for it."

I prefer the European approach in both these areas: admit that young people are going to want to drink and have sex and teach them to do so responsibly.

[TheMightyFavog]

23. They still sell beer at the Rathskeller.

We have a beer bar here at UWSP as well, they are real sticklers for ID checking. They even have a UV light under the counter so that ID authentication can be made easier.

[RivetJoint]

28. But, in Wisconsin kids of ANY AGE can legally drink

in a tavern as long as their parents are there and give approval.

http://www.madison.com/wisconsinstatejournal/local/55112.php

[onebigbadwulf]

19. Works fine here in New Zealand

Just make driving laws much more strict.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. You forgot a third option:

"The 21st Amendment was an act of Satan"

Because we know that's what many of them REALLY think.

[liontamer]

24. I don't see the point to even having a drinking age

My parent's always let me drink (heck for years I was forced champagne on new years even though I hated it) the end result is that I'm a responsible drinker. That's how they were raised too. I was never drunk till I went to college, and I had never sick from drinking. Yet on my 21st birthday I went out drinking to get drunk and couldn't get out of bed the whole next day.

Responsible drinking is learnt by drinking responsibly, and that's something we don't legally allow people to do until years after many people are already drinking.

[lil-petunia]

26. get rid of it completely

In europe, alcoholism is no where the problem as here, because they teach kids all the time, at meals,etc., that it enhances the taste and kills the fat. moderation.

here, we glorify it and make it forbidden, rather than teach proper use. Ooooh Weeee, we got BEEER, let's party hardy! ! ! !

no wonder frats always kill one or two a year.

[noonwitch]

27. No, but I'm not a freeper

We tried it before and it didn't work. Drunk driving accidents and deaths in the 18-21 age group went up beyond belief.

When I was in that age group, I never had any trouble getting hold of alcohol. I don't think that much has changed since then. Having the legal age at 21 ensures that the 18-21 year olds will be more careful when they do drink, for fear of getting caught.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Maybe if it was raised to 24

Drunk driving accidents and deaths in the 21-24 age group would also go down. Where do you draw the line?

Nanny state, in its worst form.

[Exultant Democracy]

32. It would be nice to have no drinking age

one problem that people always fail to address with this issue is that it allows our nations youth to become comfortable with casually breaking the law.

The fact of te matter is that teenagers are very good at getting drunk and having sex, they always have been and they always will be. Once you get over this fact then you can start to think of ways to keep them safe.

[HEyHEY]

34. Do the cops know about you?

"The fact of te matter is that teenagers are very good at getting drunk and having sex"

;-)

[Exultant Democracy]

42. Ha, well I had ment for them to be read as

two individual activities, but I guess they are connected often enough.

[RivetJoint]

39. Like in Wisconsin!

[HEyHEY]

33. 19 at least

[RivetJoint]

40. Why?

What's your rationale?

[VelmaD]

35. I still find it ridiculous...

that at age 18 I was old enough to vote in an election over whether my hometown would allow liquor sales, but I wasn't considered old enough to decide for myself whether or not to drink. :eyes:

[HEyHEY]

36. And old enough to die for you country

You can make THAT decision - but put that beer down!

[bif]

37. 19

Sounds good to me.

[ismnotwasm]

38. I asked my 23 year old son

First he said, "Not the way Rene drinks" (his girlfriend, I said, I'm sorry) Then he thought that it's a good idea, the old enough to vote, die in a war idea. Personally, I'm torn, I voted yes, 'cause freeper is an OBSCENE word,in fact, I have to go wash my typing fingers now. But I have seen so much tragedy because of drinking and driving. To lighten up one law, just to have to tighten down others, like DUI's, I dunno.
edited for lousy spelling

[Chovexani]

41. Yes.

If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to drink.

Anything else is ageism.

[Nikia]

44. I'd be inclined to say yes, but I am not sure its a good idea

It makes sense for me to have one age of adulthood, 18: right to vote, right to sign contracts, right to fight in war, and include right to drink alcohol. I have some concerns though. It has been my personal experience (yes, this is antedotal) that many people greatly increase their alcohol consumption when they first become legally able to drink. It is often tradition to consume large amounts of alcohol on your 21st birthday and new 21 year olds often frequent bars for a while when they first are able to. Do we really want new 18 year olds who are often still high school students engaging in this behavior? Do we want an increased alcohol consumption rate going on at high school anyway? As someone else said, high school seniors might be hosting alcohol parties, not that they don't anyway. Growing up in my home area, parties with alcohol were often held in the presence of parents on weekends. People were careful not to draw attention to themselves. Perhaps some people are right, the key is more education. Alcohol is not a harmless drug despite its legality and I don't always think that certain issues are presented correctly. For example, I was taught that alcohol is absorbed faster than water so I was under the mistaken presumption that since I was only feeling lightly drunk after 6 drinks in 15 minutes that it was safe to drink more since it should have all been absorbed.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

45. No.

Kids who are 18 are not responsible enough to drink. I can see it if they are soldiers. They earn it. Military ID required. 18 YOs really aren't mature enough to be able to drink legally.
Just my opinion.
Duckie

[Mr.Green93]

46. 18 to31

old people should not drink.

[Sympleesmshn]

47. Make it a buying age

Make the buying age like 17, then anyone can drink as long as they don't buy it but you have some control. Some parents don't care if their kids drink as long as they don't drive drunk. This would allow these kids to drink but the parents who don't want their kids to drink can have some control over it.