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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
Threegoofs said:
Everything you ingest and has pharmacological action is literally a poison.

The dose makes the poison.
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Come on! Everything you ingest is NOT like alcohol. That is why there are laws. :roll:

I HATE intellectual dishonesty!
 
Prohibition. No need for consumable alcohol.
 
Let's face it. Even though many of you would like to see 18-year-olds as adults, in reality most of them are not adults. In our modernized and technologically advanced culture, kids don't have to grow up as fast and they don't. They are kids for a longer time now than in the past and that is due to technology and advances in medical science for the most part. If anything, we should probably raise the age on everything.

Also, the newest data about teens shows evidence that their brains are not yet fully developed and are different from the brains of adults. With these new findings, it sounds counterproductive to decrease the drinking age.
 
ChrisL said:
Come on! Everything you ingest is NOT like alcohol. That is why there are laws. :roll:

I HATE intellectual dishonesty!
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Did I say that?

I said everything you ingest is a poison. It depends upon dose.

As for intellectual dishonesty, take that up with Paracelsus. That's where I learned it.
 
ChrisL said:
Let's face it. Even though many of you would like to see 18-year-olds as adults, in reality most of them are not adults. In our modernized and technologically advanced culture, kids don't have to grow up as fast and they don't. They are kids for a longer time now than in the past and that is due to technology and advances in medical science for the most part. If anything, we should probably raise the age on everything.

Also, the newest data about teens shows evidence that their brains are not yet fully developed and are different from the brains of adults. With these new findings, it sounds counterproductive to decrease the drinking age.
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This is why the debate continues on raising the driving age. A 16-year old doesn't have the brain of an 18-year old just as an 18-year old doesn't have the brain of a 21-year old. I don't see this happening, but some of the stats are provocative.
 
Threegoofs said:
Did I say that?

I said everything you ingest is a poison. It depends upon dose.

As for intellectual dishonesty, take that up with Paracelsus. That's where I learned it.
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Whatever. I call it like I see it. You injected it into the discussion when you know full well that alcohol is much easier to poison yourself than other normally harmless substances. Not to mention it's addictive properties.
 
nota bene said:
This is why the debate continues on raising the driving age. A 16-year old doesn't have the brain of an 18-year old just as an 18-year old doesn't have the brain of a 21-year old. I don't see this happening, but some of the stats are provocative.
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Going by the stats, 16-year-old drivers are a menace on the roads.
 
Durin said:
The current legal age to purchase alcohol in each state is 21, some states ban consumption of alcohol by those under 21, while others allow it to be consumed with parental permission. Either way I think it should be lowered to 18. Nobody should be able to risk dying for this country and be denied a beer. If you think people are too immature at 18 to drink, they are too immature to join the military or handle weapons. Either we need to increase the age to join the military, or lower the drinking age.
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There should be NO relationship between dieing for one's nation and the "legal" drinking age...
Allow the states to set the ages and then learn from them ...as to what works and what does not.
The key is "learn" .
I voted "other"..
Having the same age for both beer and whiskey is not good either.
What is good, is PA's state stores....marajuana can also be sold at these state stores.
Drugs do need to be properly controlled....as do the people...
We need laws that accomplish things positive , NOT simply repress...
We need moral education...on a "perfection" level NO drugs are good, BUT , we are NOT perfect..
 
ChrisL said:
Going by the stats, 16-year-old drivers are a menace on the roads.
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This may be....
We do need to greatly improve driver training...
far less emphasis on silly trivial knowledge and much, much more on attitude..
a system to weed out those who are "semi-insane" or too immature.
This , today, may be impossible, and certainly imperfect.
The key is psychoanalysis , and its improvement..
 
ChrisL said:
Going by the stats, 16-year-old drivers are a menace on the roads.
Click to expand...

I remember an ABC (?) documentary 5-6 years ago on the physiological differences between 16 and 18. This may have been produced in Georgia. Anyway, families agreed to have a camera installed in the vehicle, and the teens knew it was there, and yet this one girl blazed right through a stop sign because she was gabbing with her girlfriends. And if I recall correctly, this was in a school zone.
 
earthworm said:
This may be....
We do need to greatly improve driver training...
far less emphasis on silly trivial knowledge and much, much more on attitude..
a system to weed out those who are "semi-insane" or too immature.
This , today, may be impossible, and certainly imperfect.
The key is psychoanalysis , and its improvement..
Click to expand...

The problem is that its not feasible to psychoanalyze every single potential driver. Therefore, you look at that particular segment of the population in general terms, and generally they are a menace, regardless of their drivers education, and that is because of their age and their lack of fear and critical-thinking skills. They are just immature children and not adults, as many would like you to believe.
 
nota bene said:
I remember an ABC (?) documentary 5-6 years ago on the physiological differences between 16 and 18. This may have been produced in Georgia. Anyway, families agreed to have a camera installed in the vehicle, and the teens knew it was there, and yet this one girl blazed right through a stop sign because she was gabbing with her girlfriends. And if I recall correctly, this was in a school zone.
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Lots of 40 year olds blaze right through stop signs while gabbing with their friends, too.
 
ChrisL said:
Come on! Everything you ingest is NOT like alcohol. That is why there are laws. :roll:

I HATE intellectual dishonesty!
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No, most things are not like alcohol. Alcohol tends to encourage over consumption, but over consumption of anything, even water, can do harm.
 
Dittohead not! said:
No, most things are not like alcohol. Alcohol tends to encourage over consumption, but over consumption of anything, even water, can do harm.
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Yes, and that is hyperbole. How many people die from over consumption of water as opposed to alcohol? It is just not a valid argument.
 
ChrisL said:
Yes, and that is hyperbole. How many people die from over consumption of water as opposed to alcohol? It is just not a valid argument.
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Lots of people die of over consumption of food, for example. The fact of the matter is that alcohol is not harmful to healthy adults when taken in moderation. There is evidence, in fact, that it prevents heart disease and some form of cancer.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Lots of people die of over consumption of food, for example. The fact of the matter is that alcohol is not harmful to healthy adults when taken in moderation. There is evidence, in fact, that it prevents heart disease and some form of cancer.
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Look, the thread is not about food or water or anything else. It's about alcohol and it's effects on young people and whether or not we should lower the drinking age. I say no, and I've posted evidence to back my opinion. Your post really doesn't address anything I've posted.
 
roguenuke said:
At least one has in the last 10 years. This woman died because this radio station was holding a contest "Hold your wee for a WII". She didn't even win and she died from "water intoxication".

Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill: Scientific American
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I remember that. And I think I read of a similar tragedy in the UK at the Daily Mail. But these stories made news because death from drinking too much water is so exceedingly rare. Deaths in which alcohol was a factor are all too common.
 
roguenuke said:
At least one has in the last 10 years. This woman died because this radio station was holding a contest "Hold your wee for a WII". She didn't even win and she died from "water intoxication".

Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill: Scientific American
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I never said it didn't happen. This is not what the thread is about. YOU guys are going off topic, and it's annoying. The topic is alcohol and it's effects on young people and whether or not we should lower the drinking AGAIN.

Not to mention, HOW many people die from water as opposed to alcohol? This argument is completely BOGUS!
 
ChrisL said:
I never said it didn't happen. This is not what the thread is about. YOU guys are going off topic, and it's annoying. The topic is alcohol and it's effects on young people and whether or not we should lower the drinking AGAIN.

Not to mention, HOW many people die from water as opposed to alcohol? This argument is completely BOGUS!
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Plenty of things affect young people negatively. But that is why we teach people to be responsible with those things. You cannot teach them to be responsible by completely restricting such things from them.

And yes, we should lower the drinking age because it is plain wrong to tell people they are old enough to do things that require a lot more maturity than drinking at a younger age. I learned to drink responsibly mainly because I was allowed to drink before I turned 18 even by my mother. I had enough influences both positive and negative in my life to show me that alcohol was not something that should be drank to excess but that a little bit was not bad for you either.
 
nota bene said:
I remember that. And I think I read of a similar tragedy in the UK at the Daily Mail. But these stories made news because death from drinking too much water is so exceedingly rare. Deaths in which alcohol was a factor are all too common.
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See, the problem is that every time alcohol is involved at all in the situation, we blame alcohol for the death, even if the facts show that it would have happened even without the alcohol in every likelihood. Alcohol has become a scapegoat for irresponsibility and very bad choices. A person who drinks a beer or a glass of wine or even a mixed drink who is responsible is not likely to lose control of themselves due to that alcohol and kill someone or beat someone because of the alcohol. It is the people that cannot control themselves to begin with that are doing those things when they drink too much alcohol. And it has little to do with age. I've seen plenty of adults who do stupid stuff while drinking.
 
ChrisL said:
I never said it didn't happen. This is not what the thread is about. YOU guys are going off topic, and it's annoying. The topic is alcohol and it's effects on young people and whether or not we should lower the drinking AGAIN.

Not to mention, HOW many people die from water as opposed to alcohol? This argument is completely BOGUS!
Click to expand...

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.
 
ChrisL said:
Look, the thread is not about food or water or anything else. It's about alcohol and it's effects on young people and whether or not we should lower the drinking age. I say no, and I've posted evidence to back my opinion. Your post really doesn't address anything I've posted.
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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.
 
roguenuke said:
Plenty of things affect young people negatively. But that is why we teach people to be responsible with those things. You cannot teach them to be responsible by completely restricting such things from them.

And yes, we should lower the drinking age because it is plain wrong to tell people they are old enough to do things that require a lot more maturity than drinking at a younger age. I learned to drink responsibly mainly because I was allowed to drink before I turned 18 even by my mother. I had enough influences both positive and negative in my life to show me that alcohol was not something that should be drank to excess but that a little bit was not bad for you either.
Click to expand...

That stats work against you.
 
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