Poll of the Day > How do you feel about the legal drinking age being 21?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zeus posted...

faramir77 posted...

It's 18 here. That's completely fine. It recognizes that alcohol is a considerable part of university culture and trying to prevent that age from drinking is completely pointless.

Which is a silly argument, since 15 y/os frequently drink. Given that it's a part of their youth culture and hard to prevent, does that mean we should allow it? The fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law doesn't mean we should abandon the law, or we might as well get rid of laws regarding speeding and piracy.

It encourages unhealthy binge drinking behavior. It's better to lower the drinking age and make it more of a sales law that allows parents to teach their kids moderation. The way it works now its illegal to sell, its illegal drink, it's illegal for parents to let the kid drink. So yeah it's no wonder we have such unhealthy drinking habits in the US. I pretty much stopped drinking heavily after 21 and cared fare less about alcohol in general at that point.
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I think it's actually legal to drink at your parents' house or something (if they let you), but I pretty much agree with that post. I already made a post on why I think the current laws just encourage binge drinking.

I don't really know that many people who drank when they were 15. There were a few, but at that age most kids don't drink much because they live with their parents (making for both a bad place to host a party and a bad place to go home drunk from). I wasn't really interested in until I was in college since you have more freedom, and most people are 18 by college, so 18 seems like a reasonable age.

AllstarSniper32 posted...

The legal drinking age could be 50+ and there would still be people that would use it in stupid ways.

The body sustains harm through consumption at earlier ages and, broadly speaking, kids are reckless enough. They don't need to be drunk to do something stupid.

chaosbowser posted...

Zeus posted...

faramir77 posted...

It's 18 here. That's completely fine. It recognizes that alcohol is a considerable part of university culture and trying to prevent that age from drinking is completely pointless.

Which is a silly argument, since 15 y/os frequently drink. Given that it's a part of their youth culture and hard to prevent, does that mean we should allow it? The fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law doesn't mean we should abandon the law, or we might as well get rid of laws regarding speeding and piracy.

It encourages unhealthy binge drinking behavior. It's better to lower the drinking age and make it more of a sales law that allows parents to teach their kids moderation. The way it works now its illegal to sell, its illegal drink, it's illegal for parents to let the kid drink. So yeah it's no wonder we have such unhealthy drinking habits in the US. I pretty much stopped drinking heavily after 21 and cared fare less about alcohol in general at that point.

Except it doesn't encourage unhealthy binge drinking behavior. The average alcohol consumption was much higher before we established a minimum drinking age. Prior to reforms, people drank just about every fucking meal. The only thing that curbed this was a long series of legislation, which is why consumption is far less today.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31741615

And, while you're going to bring up your anecdotal evidence again, I will once again point out that my anecdotes contradict that. I had relatives who started drinking at age 8 and they not only enjoyed a drink at dinner, but at lunch, breakfast, etc, etc. The idea that starting them out young will reduce a behavior is laughable. You have kids who start smoking as young as 3 in some countries. And what's the overall use like in those counties? Among the highest in the world. The idea that forbidden is cool or that you gain some additional chances to moderate the culture is bullshit.

And all of that is on top of the fact that we KNOW the damage that alcohol, cigarettes, etc, do to children and why they're more harmful to kids than adults.
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Teenagers annoy me and I don't want them in bars. Because they're annoying. If the drinking age was lowered, they'd be in bars, annoying me.

Increase the drinking age to 25.
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In my country it's 18 in public, wihich I find suitable.
There's no lower age in private homes.
It's up to the parents to decide.

GeneralFatman posted...

Teenagers annoy me and I don't want them in bars. Because they're annoying. If the drinking age was lowered, they'd be in bars, annoying me.

Increase the drinking age to 25.

You can lower the drinking age without lowering the purchase age.
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Zeus posted...

AllstarSniper32 posted...

The legal drinking age could be 50+ and there would still be people that would use it in stupid ways.

The body sustains harm through consumption at earlier ages and, broadly speaking, kids are reckless enough. They don't need to be drunk to do something stupid.

Neither do adults.
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Make the drinking age 13 and make marijuana legal for all ages.

I don't drink or smoke myself but I want to see what would happen.
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Zeus posted...

faramir77 posted...

It's 18 here. That's completely fine. It recognizes that alcohol is a considerable part of university culture and trying to prevent that age from drinking is completely pointless.

Which is a silly argument, since 15 y/os frequently drink. Given that it's a part of their youth culture and hard to prevent, does that mean we should allow it? The fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law doesn't mean we should abandon the law, or we might as well get rid of laws regarding speeding and piracy.

Teen drinking isn't even close to being as prevalent as college drinking in the US. Also, alcohol has a negative effect on brain development, and by 18 the brain is developed enough that casual drinking won't have a considerable effect. Furthermore, responsible decision making skills aren't developed in the average person until about 18.

And actually, the fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law is entirely justifiable reason to scrap the law so long as the negative social impacts of legalization are minimal. I'm not going to look for any numbers, but I doubt Alberta's alcoholism rate for 18 to 21 year olds with their drinking age of 18 is any worse than the US's alcoholism rate with their drinking age of 21.
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faramir77 posted...

Zeus posted...

faramir77 posted...

It's 18 here. That's completely fine. It recognizes that alcohol is a considerable part of university culture and trying to prevent that age from drinking is completely pointless.

Which is a silly argument, since 15 y/os frequently drink. Given that it's a part of their youth culture and hard to prevent, does that mean we should allow it? The fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law doesn't mean we should abandon the law, or we might as well get rid of laws regarding speeding and piracy.

Teen drinking isn't even close to being as prevalent as college drinking in the US. Also, alcohol has a negative effect on brain development, and by 18 the brain is developed enough that casual drinking won't have a considerable effect. Furthermore, responsible decision making skills aren't developed in the average person until about 18.

And actually, the fact that a country sucks at enforcing a law is entirely justifiable reason to scrap the law so long as the negative social impacts of legalization are minimal. I'm not going to look for any numbers, but I doubt Alberta's alcoholism rate for 18 to 21 year olds with their drinking age of 18 is any worse than the US's alcoholism rate with their drinking age of 21.

Actually, studies have shown that development occurs much later than that -- supposedly into the mid-20s -- so the damage potential is comparable whether it's 15 or 18. As for the issue of prevalence for teen vs college drinking, it's actually reasonably close among socially active teens (and bearing in mind that 18 is also still a teen). In the US, the kids who get blotto every weekend in college are usually the same ones who were getting wasted during high school. And, personally, I can tell you that my middle school frequently had kids showing up drunk.

As for the issue of enforcement vs social impact, clearly damage is occurring. I know kids who are in their 20s with minor amounts of liver damage. More importantly, the lackluster approach to limiting consumption has helped to foster an alcohol culture which normalizes and glorifies overconsumption. Given that alcohol is very closely linked to crime -- some government reports show that as many as 40% of violent offenders were intoxicated at the time of their arrest -- and spousal abuse, it's a very serious concern.
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