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Legal drinking age?

What should the legal drinking age be?

  • Bring back Prohibition.

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Older than 21. Raise it even higher!

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Leave it at 21 (in the USA).

    Votes: 17 18.5%
  • 20

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 19

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • 18

    Votes: 44 47.8%
  • 17

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • 16

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Below 16.

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 15 16.3%

  • Total voters
    92
It really comes down to you thinking you have the right to be somebody else's mother, when you don't. An 18 year old is an adult, legally, and they have a right to do with their bodies as they please and make adult decisions.

If you want to be intellectually consistent you should want to have the legal adult age moved to 21 because you don't believe 18 year olds are adult enough to make their own decisions.

That depends on whether or not THEIR actions effect others in society.
 
The fact is that kids here in America like to party. In places like Russia where there is really no enforced drinking age, alcoholism is a HUGE problem.

And in other places where the drinking age is lower or there is no drinking age at all, but children are raised to drink responsibly, taught the dangers of alcohol, but still given supervised access to it, there is not nearly the problems we have, particularly with binge drinking or alcoholism.
 
That depends on whether or not THEIR actions effect others in society.

How does a 21 year old killing someone while drunk differ from an 18 year old killing someone while drunk? Drinking alcohol, in and of itself, does not harm anyone except potentially the user.

Why do you feel like you have the right to tell other adults what decisions to make with their body? Who are you exactly?
 
yes, it's about alcohol and the drinking age. I may have helped get it off track, so let's see if I can help get it back:

The age of adulthood is the issue, and the argument is that, if 18 is the magic age for voting, soldiering, gun ownership, then why not for alcohol as well?

How is it that a young person can drive at 16, buy cigarettes at 18, but not drink until 21? It is an interesting question, and the answers are not so much logical as they are political.

The answer? There isn't one, as not everyone matures at the same time. Personally, I'd keep the driving age where it is, but not allow an inexperienced driver to haul other youth around (based on how teens tend to act when with other teens), raise the age for tobacco to 21, along with alcohol, to discourage addiction and give the developing mind a few more years before being confronted by the choice of responsible vs. irresponsible drinking, but keep the age for soldiering at 18, as they are more moldable than are older people.
As for voting, sometimes I think five year olds could do a better job of it that we adults have, but that's yet another issue.

I agree with raising the age across the board. Why so many people FIGHT against that, I have no clue. Whether they like it or not, children today are NOT like they were 50 or 100 years ago. With advancements in technology, life has become easier, and that is reflected in the fact that children remain children for much longer than in the past because there is no NEED to hurry up and become an adult and start a family, and drinking and things like that a lot of times will interfere in their development.

That statistics show that teens and young adults are the most risky group when it comes to car accidents to an incredible degree. They make up less than 10% of the driving population yet are responsible for more than 30% of all car accidents. I can't see those numbers improving when you add alcohol.
 
And in other places where the drinking age is lower or there is no drinking age at all, but children are raised to drink responsibly, taught the dangers of alcohol, but still given supervised access to it, there is not nearly the problems we have, particularly with binge drinking or alcoholism.

Obviously, you missed my link about the problems in Russia which are NOT new. Fifteen year old children dying from alcohol-related deaths?
 
Obviously, you missed my link about the problems in Russia which are NOT new. Fifteen year old children dying from alcohol-related deaths?

Why does anyone give a **** about Russia? Like we're anything like them? What about almost every country in Europe that has 16 for beer and wine and 18 for hard alcohol, yet still has dramatically less alcohol incidents than we do?
 
Why does anyone give a **** about Russia? Like we're anything like them? What about almost every country in Europe that has 16 for beer and wine and 18 for hard alcohol, yet still has dramatically less alcohol incidents than we do?

It shows the detrimental effects rampant alcoholism can have on a society. DERP. Our kids like to party. I don't know. Maybe you've been gone for a while, but I was a teenager who grew up here in the United States with firsthand experience with kids and alcohol and how they behave when they're drunk.
 
That stats work against you.

I simply know that it is better to teach through example or at least with a longer leash than it is to tell teens that they can't drink at all, up til they reach an age where they are already on their own. Most teens by 21 are in college or at least out of the house. It is much harder to teach someone who is not fully mature how to drink responsibly when you are no longer a major influence in their learning processes.
 
If you wanted to teach responsible drinking young (rather then encouraging illegal binge drinking among the under aged) you could lower the age to 14 but with a licence which they would lose for the smallest drink related offense (E.G even if they pass out in the street without endangering anyone else, or are too noisy etc). This will create peer pressure to drink responsibly. Which teenager would want to be the only person in their peer group not allowed in a bar? Treat people like adults and they will respond in kind, infantalising 18-21 year olds has only made the problem worse.
 
I simply know that it is better to teach through example or at least with a longer leash than it is to tell teens that they can't drink at all, up til they reach an age where they are already on their own. Most teens by 21 are in college or at least out of the house. It is much harder to teach someone who is not fully mature how to drink responsibly when you are no longer a major influence in their learning processes.

This is not true at ALL in a lot of cases. I knew plenty of kids who's parents allowed them to drink and do drugs, and they got into loads of trouble, and one of my girlfriends was killed in a car accident at 15 years old while a passenger in the car of another teen who was drunk. They hit a pole and snapped it right in half. They were going probably 60 miles per hour and they were all drunk and partying it up. I'm just lucky I wasn't in that car.

I hung out with a LOT of partiers in high school, and I know what I'm talking about. When teenagers drink, they become completely out of control in most instances.
 
I agree with raising the age across the board. Why so many people FIGHT against that, I have no clue. Whether they like it or not, children today are NOT like they were 50 or 100 years ago. With advancements in technology, life has become easier, and that is reflected in the fact that children remain children for much longer than in the past because there is no NEED to hurry up and become an adult and start a family, and drinking and things like that a lot of times will interfere in their development.

That statistics show that teens and young adults are the most risky group when it comes to car accidents to an incredible degree. They make up less than 10% of the driving population yet are responsible for more than 30% of all car accidents. I can't see those numbers improving when you add alcohol.

Adding alcohol to inexperienced drivers is definitely a bad idea.
As for the incidence of accidents among teens, it does make one wonder whether teens have more accidents because they are teens, or because they are the least experienced drivers. I'm not sure we know the answer to that question right now. It's possible that, should the driving age be raised to 21 (causing huge inconvenience for parents and teens alike) it still would be the most youthful drivers having the most accidents.
 
Well you're a plethora of information...where were you 25 years ago when I needed ya...:lol:

In grade school.

Although, I had already sipped my first beer by then. I grew up in backwoods NC. I remember my first taste of beer. I was 4 and it was while sitting in the lap of my grandfather's friend, in the front seat of my grandfather's truck (no seatbelts or any safety devices for that matter). I think we were parked at a gas station, but there had definitely been open beer in the truck while driving (my grandfather never drank around us though, if he ever drank at all after my mother told him that if he ever wanted to see his grandchildren, he would not be drunk/drinking in front of us because he drank heavily before that). I took a sip from the proffered can and promptly spit it out the window. I can very vividly remember thinking that beer was the worst tasting thing on the planet.
 
Adding alcohol to inexperienced drivers is definitely a bad idea.
As for the incidence of accidents among teens, it does make one wonder whether teens have more accidents because they are teens, or because they are the least experienced drivers. I'm not sure we know the answer to that question right now. It's possible that, should the driving age be raised to 21 (causing huge inconvenience for parents and teens alike) it still would be the most youthful drivers having the most accidents.

I think it's both. To deny that teen behavior is more risky than adults means you must be wearing blinders though. They are NOT adults. Far from it. Anyone with any kind of experience with typical American teenagers knows this. We aren't talking about your 1 out of 10 nerd kids who's world revolves around school and getting good grades who would drink responsibly and probably never get behind the wheel if they had too many. We are talking about the MAJORITY of teens and how they behave. Those are the guidelines we have to go by because it is impossible to test everyone's maturity level.
 
This is not true at ALL in a lot of cases. I knew plenty of kids who's parents allowed them to drink and do drugs, and they got into loads of trouble, and one of my girlfriends was killed in a car accident at 15 years old while a passenger in the car of another teen who was drunk. They hit a pole and snapped it right in half. They were going probably 60 miles per hour and they were all drunk and partying it up. I'm just lucky I wasn't in that car.

I hung out with a LOT of partiers in high school, and I know what I'm talking about. When teenagers drink, they become completely out of control in most instances.

If they are being allowed to do drugs as well, then it isn't likely that they are being taught to drink responsibly but rather being given free rein over their decisions. Bad idea. There is a difference between being allowed to teach your children to drink responsibly and just letting them run wild. Parents who would be most likely to teach their children to drink responsibly are also the ones most likely to obey the law and not allow them access to alcohol, hoping that talking about it would do the job. Those who aren't going to teach their children to drink responsibly aren't likely to care if they are breaking the law about it either.
 
If they are being allowed to do drugs as well, then it isn't likely that they are being taught to drink responsibly but rather being given free rein over their decisions. Bad idea. There is a difference between being allowed to teach your children to drink responsibly and just letting them run wild. Parents who would be most likely to teach their children to drink responsibly are also the ones most likely to obey the law and not allow them access to alcohol, hoping that talking about it would do the job. Those who aren't going to teach their children to drink responsibly aren't likely to care if they are breaking the law about it either.

Look, this is a pipe dream. MOST parents are not about teaching their kids to DRINK at all. Why would you want to introduce that into your young child's life to begin with? Some people are genetically predisposed to have addictive personalities. It doesn't matter how much you TEACH them.
 
Look, this is a pipe dream. MOST parents are not about teaching their kids to DRINK at all. Why would you want to introduce that into your young child's life to begin with? Some people are genetically predisposed to have addictive personalities. It doesn't matter how much you TEACH them.

My parents taught me to drink responsibly. I was allowed to drink wine coolers at 17. I was restricted to drinking them under supervision of an adult my parents trusted. I was limited in how many I could have. My siblings and I should have all the genetic predisposition for alcoholism, since both my grandfathers were alcoholics, and many of my uncles were (all but the mentally disabled one in fact). My father only avoided alcohol while he was married to my mom after coming home drunk one night before I was born and being left passed out in the living room. The next morning, he asked what she would have done had it been the front lawn, and she said she would have left him there too. It scared him into not drinking. None of us are alcoholics.
 
My parents taught me to drink responsibly. I was allowed to drink wine coolers at 17. I was restricted to drinking them under supervision of an adult my parents trusted. I was limited in how many I could have. My siblings and I should have all the genetic predisposition for alcoholism, since both my grandfathers were alcoholics, and many of my uncles were (all but the mentally disabled one in fact). My father only avoided alcohol while he was married to my mom after coming home drunk one night before I was born and being left passed out in the living room. The next morning, he asked what she would have done had it been the front lawn, and she said she would have left him there too. It scared him into not drinking. None of us are alcoholics.

My father was a severe alcoholic who drank himself to death literally.
 
Lowering the drinking age does absolutely NOTHING to help society. In fact, it has much more potential to make things worse. Why anyone would support that is beyond my comprehension.
 
My grandfather came to this country from Eastern Europe at the age of 17. At 17 he already knew how to make wine. It was part of his upbringing. He continued to do so and part of our family tradition before drinking age wine was served with special meals. He was quite the little ole winemaker.
 
My father was a severe alcoholic who drank himself to death literally.

And that sucks but it should not be used to justify denying others a right to teach their children about alcohol and drinking responsibly or denying access to alcohol to adults (18 year olds are legal adults). My great grandmother drank a glass of wine or a beer every day of her adult life (at least) until she died in her 90s.
 
And that sucks but it should not be used to justify denying others a right to teach their children about alcohol and drinking responsibly or denying access to alcohol to adults (18 year olds are legal adults). My great grandmother drank a glass of wine or a beer every day of her adult life (at least) until she died in her 90s.

You have it backwards. Your experience is NOT the norm. A lot of parents are NOT responsible. Your suggestion is irresponsible.
 
Lowering the drinking age does absolutely NOTHING to help society. In fact, it has much more potential to make things worse. Why anyone would support that is beyond my comprehension.

Because the drinking age doesn't just affect when a person can drink. You haven't had to face the humility of not being able to enter a restaurant just because you were under 21 but not accompanied by parents apparently. I have. In fact, it sucks. I had no intention to drink, yet I couldn't go in because they are too concerned with the law that says those under 21 cannot drink to recognize that 18-20 year olds live on their own, in fact, live in their own apartments and have jobs.
 
Oh and BTW, there is NO such right that children should be able to drink alcohol. That is incredibly . . . I don't even know what. I can't even believe people would suggest such a thing. It's retarded IMO.
 
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