the legal age of drinking will have no effect on whether or not people drink. if the drinking age were raised to 25, people younger than that would still drink, often to excess; if the drinking age were lowered to 18, it would likely not change anything. if alcohol were prohibited altogether, everyone who would drink would still do so. as time and current events have shown, people generally lack any measure of responsibility. in that respect, perhaps we are more hedonistic than we care to admit as we endeavour to do what we please. why would alcohol (or other drugs) be any different??

the three year gap between the age of legal responsibility (18) and the legal drinking age (21) has never made sense to me. at 18, a person is considered an adult. he/she can choose government/civic leaders. he/she can choose whether or not to fight and die for his/her country. he/she would be held accountable in a court of law for crimes commited and damages incurred. why is it that 18 year olds cannot drink?? this seems to be a mixed message–you are old enough for the weightier matters of responsibility, but you are too young to determine whether .

the crux of this debate seems to lie in one capacity to be responsible. the central question, therefore is this–are 18 year olds responsible enough to drink?? the question that should be examined is this–what determines one’s accountability?? is it age?? if it is, which criteria are considered to establish a responsible age??

personally, i believe that 18 is too young. i have yet to meet an 18 year-old with a functional concept of responsibility. with the exception of very few, 18 year-olds are still learning their place in society. they are inexperienced professionally and practically. it often takes two or three years of college and being out on their own to develop this concept. the same is true for many 19, 20, and 21 year olds. current events are replete with people who have no sense of accountability as we tend to disregard the consequences of our actions. responsibility and accountability, therefore, are virtues that must be taught and practiced. they do not magically appear when someone turns 18, 21, 25, or 92.

however, for the sake of this arguement, it matters not if the drinking age is lowered to 18. the bottom line of this issue is that people will do what they will. the only thing that can be done to foment more responsible behaviour is to hold people accountable for their actions, regardless of age. lower the drinking age. police would no longer have to worry whether or not college freshmen are drinking in dorm rooms. it seems to me that their energies can be better focused elsewhere, but that is another discussion….

I am from Germany where the drinking age is 16 and 18 for hard liquor. In germany, I noticed, there is less \’binge drinking\’ on weekends, and less alcohol related accidents. In America, however, binge drinking is a common practice among highschoolers and college students alike. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen, it can be certain that the fun of alcohol will be not as fun as it used to be. There will certainly be a drop in the amount of binge drinking and alcohol related deaths. I am totally for the drinking age to be lowered to eighteen.

I am all for the drinking age being lowered to 18. People are in most, if not all other cases considered legally an adult. You can vote, you can buy cigarettes, you can be shipped off to war, you can buy a lighter, you can live on your own, heck, you can even sign your life away. By lowering the drinking age to 18, you will reduce the number of college kids binge drinking in their basement. All over Europe, kids are aloud to drink, some countries have no drinking age, and they are just taught responsible drinking habits. And most are let to over drink once, so they know what it\’s like, and most of them will never do it again. Now, I’m not saying that we should get rid of the drinking age, but I don’t have any problem with lowering to to 18.

I think that 18 year olds should be able to drink. If you are thought to be mature enough to die for your country at 18 than ehy wouldn\’t you be mature wnough to drink. Between the ages 18 and 21 not much really changes. People are always going to do what they want, and kids want exitement. If drinking is illegal than they will just do more of it. My only real fear is that if the drinking age is lowered that kids will still want to do what they aaren\’t aloud to, wich would be drugs.

The idea of 3 years between adulthood and drinking gives a person time to mature outside school. Usually in that time, a student can be out of school and out on their own. Once they realize that getting drunk is pure folly, they will be able to drink socially and not in excess, and still be able to go to work or church the next day.

Laws are good, and they\’re not there to boss you around. One cannot think, \

yeah, the drinking age should definitely NOT be put at age 18, and theres SO many reasons why, i think all the people who said “go ahead and do it” are ABSOLUTELY NUTS! (no offense :)) First off, lets play the “play out the made up situation” game. im 13 years old. my older brother is 18. normally, he wouldnt be able to buy alcohol for me for my 14th bday party, but now i give him a 50 bucks and he goes to the store and fills the trunk of his car with booze and gives it to us. everyones drunk, i steal my dads car, and BAM! You, the responsible sober person i hit, gets a large piece of metal from my car embeded in your skull. sounds pretty messed up, and believe me, as dumb as i made the situation sound, its more common than one would think. and u can tweak and adjust this situation as much as u want, make me older, give me a license, change my brother to a senior in my high school, it still plays out with you either dying or being in a generally unpleasant situation. heres the main point… I DONT CARE ABOUT THE KID GETTING DRUNK OR HIS LITTLE WASTED FRIENDS, THEYRE IRRESPONSIBLE, THERE LIFE IS FORFEITED. i care about wut would happen to the people around them as a result of it. THINK OF YOURSELF FIRST, i know i dont want to be scrunched up between the bent metal and broken glass of an accident because some dumb kid was given access to alcohol. and i dont think im being selfish, i think im being an average member of the human race
PS- for all the people who keep saying “you can vote, you can be in the military, you can marry”, none of those things could kill me or you directly, so i dont think theyre valid excuses.

I think that this is a great idea, that will lower drinking problems significantly. If you think about it most 18 year-olds are still in high school, and still live with their parents, also, most people tend to go wild with the drinking immediately when it becomes legal for them(21): however, if the drinking age were lowered to 18 any wild abuse of alcohol would happen in a place where parents are more likely to be, and this would provide a little more protection for any people who are new to drinking. Most parents will agree that they would rather have their children make mistakes while they can still help them out, rather than when they are off on their own.

The whole reason the drinking age was raised to 21 is because in 1982, when the Regean changed it, the voting age was 21. But just because the voting age has been lowered doesn’t mean the drinking age should be too. Statistics show (check out http://www.udetc.org) that the number of alcohol related deaths, accidents, and injuries have dramatically decreased since the 80s. I can even tell the higher age law has worked when i hear my parents talk about all their friends that have died because of alcohol compared with the people in my current community.

And you can actually drink if you’re in the military, as long as your commander permits it and is willing to take full responsibility of you. But here’s the thing: they know better.

In my state, parents are allowed to serve alcohol to THEIR OWN CHILD in THEIR OWN HOME which reduced the excitement of drinking for me. Of course this may not work with the less responsible parents, but i think its a lot better than lowering the drinking age.

I don’t think the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Why?-Obviously more destruction of teens and society will grow at least one percent everytime a teen gets into a car while intoxicated. If the teen is mature enough to get a ride from a friend/adult whoever is with them and sober then that will be a bypass.
It truly depends on the teen and his/her mentality… morals/values character etc.
I guess we’ll just see how society plays out…

I think that binge drinking is a matter of culture, rather than law. Whether the age is 18, 19 or 21, the fact is that it\’s a major part of our culture to drink. Although the arguments that lowering the drinking age will help to reduce the night-time thrill of illegal drinking are logical, I don\’t think that any significant statistical change will appear in the short-term. Perhaps over time, the level of underage drinking will decrease when the novelty of drinking has decreased. I live in a country where the legal drinking age is 18, and it doesn\’t make a flying difference whether it\’s 18 or 21…I started drinking when I was 16 and quickly became disillusioned by the supposed novelty of alcohol. I think it\’s more important to start a dialogue about drinking. Maybe lowering the age will help with that.

I was drinking at eighteen because it was legal then. See nothing happened to me, I am just a normal 48 year old spending my time on spark life. I am an example of what drunken american youth have the potential to become.

I truly believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 will have no effect on underage drinking. If you lower the drinking age, all it will do is open a door for more markets to target younger individuals and apply pressure through advertising. The reason that there is so much underage drinking going on in the United States is certain music and other media that broadcasts a message that drinking is cool and will make you really cool. That’s not true at all. I think that it’s really great that there’s a group of college staff that are acknowledging the problem and working to find a way to cap it, but this isn’t the solution. The solution would be to try and have parents talk to them before they are exposed through misleading media content

i think that alcohol should never have been invented. it has ruined plenty of people’s lives. including mine. my mom is a real bad alcoholic and it’s really hard to deal with. kids growing up these days shouldn’t have to deal with alcoholic parents

if i can die for my country at 18 i should be able to get drunk at 18 dang it there is no certain age where u will drink responsably cause i know 60 year olds who can’t hold their beer an i know 13 year olds who can

I dont think it should be lowered.

I live in brazil, here the legal drinking age is 18. but the driving age is 18 as well. during the last 5 months, 3 people who were of my social circle died in drunk driving accidents. here, i see friends of my friends who are 13 and 12 and already start drinking, its ridiculous. younger teens, here, are starting a life at 13 what they should start doing at 18, 19.. then i ask myself, what will happen when they reach the age of 18? however there is someone to blame, the education and the government. here, little is enforced.. you could buy off a cop so they wont take you to prison.. now, a law was passed, where if you are caught drinking and driving, and your alcohol level is higher than 1,2, you are arrested and the crime is considered the same thing as murder. the thing is, many of my friends still drink and drive, and many still pay the cop so he ignores that they are drunk . if the drinking age is 18 instead of 21, the same problems will still exist, but i think that the problems will just start at a younger generation.

Ok, Im underage and I drink, I smoke stogies and I love to party. That DOES NOT mean im irresponsible, I get where im going to be for the night and i leave my keys on the counter. That is the problem with drinking, driving afterwards, if you are at a house and your going nowhere untill you have a good nights sleep, then there is no harm. You dont need to be 21 to do that, if people would just lighten up and get over the fact that their little baby is now knocking back brews, then we wouldnt be having this problem.

The reason we need to change the drinking age is because weve become to PC, If i get pulled over with beer in the car I get an MIP, that screws up my chances for college, hurts my wallet on court fees and just gives me a headache I dont need. Back in the 70’s if a couple of kids got cought with beer(at least in Texas) the cops would take the beer home(free beer for the cops) or they would make you pour it out and go home…nobody’s life got turned upside down.

Get over it, stop being PC, and just live your own life.

yeah i think its pretty much bull shit if you can go to iraq and die for your country which i plan on doing (not dying, going to iraq) but i don’t see how you could spill your blood on foreign soil but not be allowed to drink if you were to leave an arm there

I think it should be lowered to eighteen. If you can serve your country you should be able to make a decision to drink a beer!!!! I think if your an adult at eighteen then the law should treat them like one.

If you can die for your country at the age of 18, than why not drink. Besides kids are going to drink any way. When you are 18 you drink just as much as you would when you are 21. The only difference is worring about getting screwed by the cops. So let kids drink cause their ganna do it no matter what the law says. Plus the drinking age in france is 16 and ours is 21. Now dont get me wrong I HATE the french but they deffienatly got 1 thing write.

I don’t understand how lowering the drinking age to 18 makes it “less stressful” for a college student. When I was 18 and in college, having a drink was the last thing on my mind causing me stress. I was worried about studying and getting my education more than what age I could be to legally go out and buy some alcohol!

True, at 18 you are allowed to vote, join the military, buy cigarettes, or be tried for crimes as an adult. However, none of those things cause cirrhosis of the liver. None of those things could lead you to possibly get behind the wheel of a car and kill someone’s child, brother, or loved one who didn’t deserve to die because you made a piss poor decision. I’ve never heard of someone going to jail or running over an innocent human for smoking a cigarette in their car, or for voting, or for being a member of the Army. What does a lowered drinking age have to do with some 18 year old kid having a “less stressful time” at college?

Do you really have to have that 12 pack of beer in your belly in order to function at the age of 18? 18 is too young to start developing alcoholism or getting dialysis treatment because your liver can’t function anymore, legal or not. The fact is, most 18 year olds are still not mature enough to understand you are behind the wheel of a moving weapon when you add alcohol to the mix of the situation of drinking and driving.

This may come off harsh but I feel no sympathy to the 18 year old kid who gets killed because they had a few too many to drink and thought they were okay to drive home and instead crashed into a tree. Or the 18 year old who is spending time in jail and has to live with it for the rest of his life that he killed someone’s family. They chose to swallow that last shot of vodka, wine, whatever… and chose to make a seriously stupid decision. Nobody force fed them that last beer and stuffed them behind the wheel of a car and said “go on with your bad self”… anyone who thinks the drinking age should be lowered has clearly not done their research on the consequences.

another thing is that what if i get married at 18, i can’t even take a drink of champane at my own wedding?!

Personally I think that parents should let their children have a sip every once in a while, they wouldn’t be more tempted to drink when their parents were away or not around. We just recently discussed this in my health class. I think it’s a good idea to lower the drinking age, but then again I think it’s a bad idea. There are both pro’s and con’s to this argument.

i think dat the drinking age should be 18 cus im readii to drink ….lolsz shiid we responsible……i wanna go to da club n get fucc’d up …….

Simply the fact that someone can go to war and die for the freedom and safety of the country is reason enough for people to able to drink at the age of 18. I think that drinking in high schools may increase because students often turn 18 during the course of thier senior year. However, I don’t think that this will have a trickle down effect and cause people to start at an earlier age. They would never take action to raise the enlistment age to 21, so why make the drinking age 21?

Ppl may think otherwise but I think most everybody is responsible enough at 18 to be able to drink alcohol. There are however others who will just drink a box of beer if they could. Still, there are way less ppl like that than that would only drink a bottle or two. Just because some losers decide to get drunk and get into a car crash, doesnt mean that all of us should wait another 3 years.

soorry for the second post but
FYI- usa has the highest drinking age and the most problems… take the hint
its not that hard to figure out
and if im at a party and someone wants to toke up, and most want to drink, someones always sober with a car, kids arnt stupid we just want to enjoy ourselves
and its not that were all irresponsible and all 18 yearolds, or 15 like me.. were not idiots so STFU about that point ight?
but wha’d do i know im just canadian eh?

I live somewhere where the legal age is 18 and drink driving used to be a huge problem, but its not amongst young people anymore because theres a mentality there now that makes people lose respect for people who drink drive.
Its seen as a terrible thing to do. But people here don’t rely on cars as much as much as they do in America.

Yeah in Ireland loads of kids are drinking really young, but again, its the whole culture, its that its forbidden until its 18 and obviously kids are going to rebel against what they aren’t allowed. I think if you took away the whole forbidden thing and made it part of everyday life like parents educating kids about drink and making them see drinking as not a big deal, they’re wouldn be such a big problem! Lower it yeah, but educate that you don’t gotta get drunk when ya drink!

Then again, the irish always love the drink….:)

The legal drinking age is a limit assigned by governments to restrict the access of children and youth to alcoholic beverages. Legal drinking ages vary from country to country,and sometimes,within a particular country.In most countries the legal age to purchase alcohol is 18,but there are considerable variations:some countries do not recognize a drinking age;others outlaw drinking;and still others,like India,mandate a drinking age as high as 25 in some states.
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rosejenifar
DUI

Hey, if their going to drink their going to drink. Might as well make it legal!
It all depends on how one can hold their drink, and that depends on ur culture. America has no specific culture,, so…..Good luck kids!

I don’t think lowering the drinking age really matters. We’ve got 12 year olds smoking pot and having sex, and letting 18 year olds “get it out of their system” could just give America some more addicts. And young adults are still too stupid to call someone to take them home. Their good, not drunk, until they kill someone while under the influence. A friend of mine was hit by a drunk driver after a football game and was admitted into the ICU. They didn’t know if he was going to make it because of the extent of his injuries.

rrr

tru that all people want to do is have fun or hang with there buds and get hammerd if that happends the drinking & driveing will go down.!.

heck if the voting age is 18 then why isn’t the drinking age? i was born in the U.S. but part of my family is from Guatemala. the drinking age there is 18 and they have good drinking habits. one of MY family members said that they let my cousin get really drunk ONCE and they never drank that heavy again.

I think that it should stay at 21. As for when you turn 18, you can go fight and die for your country. Ya… that’s true but notice the word CAN.. the real question is… Do you? Did you sign up for the military? Did you go and sign up to be on the reserve at least?
If the answer is no than F*** no you shouldn’t be allowed to drink. Sorry to be strong but if your argument is that you have the choice to sign up so you should have a beer have little in common if you don’t have the balls to AT LEAST sign up for the reserve so when your country needs you you can go fight.
If you made it through BCT, then ya, I think you are responsible enough to drink. And if you weren’t responsible enough to drink before you went through BCT, you sure as hell are once you make it out.
I think, if you are serving or did serve for your country and your not 21 yet, you should have the right to drink. if not, you can wait till your 21. I bet we’d have lots more people lining up for the Armed Forces if we told them they could drink all they want if they joined. and we’d have a lot more disciplined people, and the US would be happy. Hey, that’s a win win situation, why they haven’t done that yet is beyond be.

No, I don’t think they should lower it. Reverse Psychology does not work in cases like this. It only reverses what you think will happen. If you serve in the military, you deserve a beer, if you didn’t, you should have to wait. trust me, the reason is the same we don’t let kids become an adult at 16 just because we give them the right to drive. you gotta give it gradually to them (me included). If not, we have the same effect if you put a fish from cold water to warm water, or if you put something really hot on ice. it dies, cracks, shatters. Why? because it got too much of something too quickly. Same goes with responsibilities. you get to much at one time, you don’t know what to do with yourself, and you crack (mentally). Trust me, you need that time to adjust.