Poll: Raising the drinking age

[Dylan Voyda]

You know I have a saying in America. At 18 I am old enough to vote, enlist, get drafted, drive, go to a strip club, watch porn, go to R rated movies, smoke, be tried as an Adult, Live on my own, get married, gamble, and incorporate a business, but damn if I ever touch alcohol they'll through me in prison. Never mind that America has the highest rate of drunk driving, and at most of my family has been drinking at home since they where 15.

Any law to raise the drinking age is stupid. Australia would would be smart not to.

 

[Hashime]

Nah. People are going to drink whenever, despite the legal age.

Agreed, even though I'm a very big exception to that rule. I'm turning 19 in November so then I can legally drink here. I've been able to legally drink in Alberta for sometime but I never felt like dishing out the money to go to Alberta just for a few drinks.

19 in Canada seems to be a pretty good age. Most of the people I know drink underage anyways, but my 19 year old buddies are defiantly responsible.

Not in Alberta it isn't. But I'm nice and responsible so I didn't go abusing my car privileges just to go get drunk with friends who get drunk anyway.

Is is 18 in Alberta, I meant Ontario when I wrote Canada, but considering it is the best province... I kid... I kid... It is though.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Nah. People are going to drink whenever, despite the legal age.

Agreed, even though I'm a very big exception to that rule. I'm turning 19 in November so then I can legally drink here. I've been able to legally drink in Alberta for sometime but I never felt like dishing out the money to go to Alberta just for a few drinks.

19 in Canada seems to be a pretty good age. Most of the people I know drink underage anyways, but my 19 year old buddies are defiantly responsible.

Not in Alberta it isn't. But I'm nice and responsible so I didn't go abusing my car privileges just to go get drunk with friends who get drunk anyway.

Is is 18 in Alberta, I meant Ontario when I wrote Canada, but considering it is the best province... I kid... I kid... It is though.

Um... There is a song you need to hear.

Spoiler: I love these guys

Saskatchewan has the best economy and it is my home province so I guess I'm obligated to say it is awesome. It is pretty cool but there are certain aspects about it that I hate.

 

[Hashime]

Nah. People are going to drink whenever, despite the legal age.

Agreed, even though I'm a very big exception to that rule. I'm turning 19 in November so then I can legally drink here. I've been able to legally drink in Alberta for sometime but I never felt like dishing out the money to go to Alberta just for a few drinks.

19 in Canada seems to be a pretty good age. Most of the people I know drink underage anyways, but my 19 year old buddies are defiantly responsible.

Not in Alberta it isn't. But I'm nice and responsible so I didn't go abusing my car privileges just to go get drunk with friends who get drunk anyway.

Is is 18 in Alberta, I meant Ontario when I wrote Canada, but considering it is the best province... I kid... I kid... It is though.

Um... There is a song you need to hear.

Spoiler: I love these guys

Saskatchewan has the best economy and it is my home province so I guess I'm obligated to say it is awesome. It is pretty cool but there are certain aspects about it that I hate.

In my eyes, Toronto wins, but Saskatchewan does have a favorable demographic.

 

[Tdc2182]

Nah. People are going to drink whenever, despite the legal age.

Agreed.

Funnily if you take the time to think about it, the higher the drinking age the more likely people are gonna disobey it.

I can think of about 4 or 5 Underage college students who have specialize beer fridges at the apartments right now.

Edit: this is the rule of introducing adult things at younger ages. In Italy the drinking age is 15, and from what I understand, there is barely a problem with alcohol there.

 

[zutagonecver]

Drinking alcohol is one of the dumbest activities man has created. It makes you stupid, aggressive and annoying... Not to mention, it f'ing kills you, slowly ... Lol

 

[Polaris19]

I've seen so many people my age (18-19) getting into accidents while under the influence of alcohol that it makes me wonder if even 21 is high enough. We can crack down all we want but in the end it only gets worse. IT doesn't matter from my POV. Whatever the age is, people will break it, and if we crack down, they'll just do it more.

Do you live in the US?

I ask this because the US drinking age is 21 but that DO NOT stop people from drinking underage in the least. People in high school can easily get alcohol. Honestly, I find that the higher the drinking age, the more likely people will drink UNDERage.
Here's my reasoning:
When you're young, you see things has being "the forbidden fruit". Drinking (for all of my friends) has been the forbidden fruit to them and trust me, they got smashed well under 21. Once they turned 21 I saw a big decrease in their drinking habits. Drinking was no longer this amazing thing they could get away with.

Yep I'm US.

Love your avatar by the way.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It is 21 here in Indiana, I turned 25 today, so I've been legal for sometime.

Before I was 21, the extent of my drinking was an occasional sip of wine, my mom let me have on special occasions like holidays.

Now I have had my share of beer, especially from grocery stories that have sampler containers where you look at the wall of beer and choose six of whatever you want to try and then and get it for 6 or 7 dollars, I don't remember exactly how much. I was on a Sam Adams kick for a little bit, so I tried to sample each flavor of theirs that I could find on the beer wall.

I've never been to a bar, and I have only been to a liquor store once. I look pretty young, so I was surprised I didn't get carded.

To describe how young I look, just last year, I got asked at a restaurant if I wanted a kids menu. The extremely funny thing about it was that I had half a beard grown in.

And today when my creative writing professor found out that I turned 25, he said that I look like I was 10 with a fake beard.

--------
On the drinking age thing. Doesn't matter what age is set, the kiddies are going to get the stuff some how.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

It won't really help anything. As stated before, people still drink who're underage. Why would that change with an increase in the drinking age?

 

[Bon_Clay]

In my eyes, Toronto wins, but Saskatchewan does have a favorable demographic.

Toronto itself is a bit of a smoggy craphole, its the surrounding areas that are more livable.

But OT, no raising the legal age will not help even a little bit. People are going to drink when they want to, the fact its not allowed yet only makes it seem more alluring to some people.

I'm 20 and legally allowed to, but I still don't drink. Anyone I know who drinks now did at least somewhat underage as well. Some responsibly as any adult, some not so much. Whether or not they do is up to the individual person, everyone matures at different ages.

 

[crudus]

No, speaking as a current college student I know 3 wasted people below 21 at any given time. On the weekends I know of 2-3 parties consisting of mostly minors(I have been to a few). Raising the age will do nothing but raise the number of arrests for underage drinking.

Drinking alcohol is one of the dumbest activities man has created. It makes you stupid, aggressive and annoying... Not to mention, it f'ing kills you, slowly ... Lol

However, it <a href=http://www.aina.org/ata/20060827151956.htm>literally made society happen. Also, it <a href=http://www.cracked.com/article_18651_the-6-most-surprising-ways-alcohol-actually-good-you.html>can actually be good for you. It is the lack of moderation that gets people killed.

 

[Devil's Due]

Just completely destroy alcohol in general. Would fix a lot of problems in this world.

Though for the drinking age, sure, why not raise it? Though I believe there's a few special occasions where someone under the age should be allowed to drink, such as a military member who's old enough to die for their country yet not old enough to drink. They want to gamble with their life with beer, why not let them? But other than that, destroy it. Simple.

 

[twistedheat15]

I'd say make the drinking age of a country w/o age a person and legally join the military and is considered an adult. It's fcking stupid that if you live in America at 18 your mature enough to joined the army and carry a M16 and granades, smoke although always being told they kill you, become a porn star and be bukkake girl of the month, or get a credit card and other loan putting you in a bunch of debt before you even realize what it actually does, Yet you aren't mature enough to drink 2 beers at a club because you simple mind might just implode on spot.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Oh the hilarity of them trying to change our legal drinking age. The idea of doing it to break the law is one of the most fucking retarded things anyone has ever come out with. Sure, there may be some teenagers that first try it for those reasons, but the vast majority of them drink to get wasted at parties. Raising the legal limit will make absolutely no difference as parents and older siblings will still be supplying the alcohol at parties.

I'm fine with raising it, or just banning alcohol in general. (I know the outrage this would cause, but it's my perfect world, okay?)

Your perfect world is my mortal enemy.

 

[Blind Sight]

Education is the trick here, not more laws. Children need to be taught that although drinking is fine once and awhile, having too much is a bad idea. Basically, parents, talk to your kids about drinking before the age of fourteen, because they really need some guidance in this.

Or even better, start drinking in front of your kid until you puke. THAT'LL make them think twice about it. Might emotionally scar them a little too, but meh.

19 in Canada seems to be a pretty good age. Most of the people I know drink underage anyways, but my 19 year old buddies are defiantly responsible.

In Canada it's provincially based, every province is a little different. For example, here, in Ontario, it's 19 and the provincial government holds a monopoly on alcoholic products, which they use as tax revenue and you can only purchase it from an LCBO or The Beer Store. Over the river in Quebec it's 18, cheaper, and most places can sell it, including grocery stores.

EDIT: My bad, just read your correction post.

My favourite part of Quebec are the booze warehouses. My God...just an entire massive building, like an Ikea, filled with booze...it's so beautiful...

 

[Dirty-Zombie]

It won't work.... they're thinking about doing it in New Zealand (but more to do with Drink driving. However studies have shown that 18-21 year olds isn't the problematic age group, that the people over that age tend to be involved in more alcohol related issues (this is not to say that 18-21 years old don't stupid stuff when drunk, just that they're not the overall problem). They should be looking towards changing attitudes and rather writing in Laws that aren't all that thought out or making particular age groups scapegoats for a larger societal problem.

 

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

Well I'm 19... I've been drinking since I was 15... Yeah that whole 18+ thing never stopped me, admittedly, now I'm 18 I have on occasion bought for minors (not random kids, but actual friends of mine) and if they put it up to 21 in the next 2 years before I turn it then it won't stop me at all from drinking, just inconvenience me.

Also if anything that will make the problem worse, sure when I was 15 I was immature and simply drank to get drunk, but in the last 8-12 months I've stopped that and started drinking purely for taste and entertainment. The same thing happened with quite a few of my friends. Raising the age won't help, you have to let kids mature themselves and they can't do that without the freedom to fuck themselves up a couple times and grow up.

 

[crazypsyko666]

If you want children to mature, you should treat them like adults. Raising the legal age to drink is simply going to teach them that it's some 'adults only' thing that they don't want you in on. We should be teaching people about responsible drinking, instead of talking about how dangerous it is. It comes across as hypocritical and a waste of time.

Minors who want to drink will just drink. You can't stop them all or make any reasonable impact on their decisions.

 

[Necrofudge]

It's a terrible idea. Either ban it altogether (and remember how well that went last time?) or stop complaining about it. Meanwhile... Why are cigarettes still legal?