Poll: Should parents be allowed to buy their (18+) kids alcohol in public?

[sextus the crazy]

Age has nothing to do with how responsible you are with alcohol. If you're only 10, but raised by a family that treats alcohol as something to be enjoyed in moderation with dinner or friends, you're going to be more responsible with the alcohol than your average 18 or 21 year old whose never had experience with alcohol.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Actually you're not supposed to give your kid alcohol at home underage either, so that's a bad argument.

Once someone turns 18 they are on there own and very few items tie them to their parents (notably insurance, college financial aid, stuff like that). i think if we want to cement the idea that 18 is the legal age of independence then we shouldn't be fucking around with parents involvement. if you want 18 year-olds to have alcohol, then just call for a bill to lower the drinking age and don't pussy foot around with this half bill.

That said, I don't support lower the drinking age. (I don't support the use of alcohol at all but I especially don't support lowering the drinking age.)

Don't states get funding from the federal government for keeping the legal age at 21 or something? I thought that was one of those laws.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

If it were Australia and the law was trying to allow parents to buy alcohol for their 15-year-old children, I'd be slightly more dubious, but I think it's fine. Actually, as far as I'm concerned parents should be allowed to buy alcohol for their children of any age because parents know the effects, and let's face it, if they were planning to take advantage of this law they would be buying it already anyway.

 

[MagunBFP]

I still have no idea why the drinking age is 21 in the US...

You can drive a tonne of metal in public places at 16, but you can't purchase alcohol until 5 years after that? Crazy

Probably because driving a car doesn't inherently cause brain damage or developmental disorders. There is such a thing as too much freedom, and this is something that is inherently understood, because very few (if any) rational people seriously advocate anarchy.

On the other hand, I never understood why anyone ever drank or smoked anyway, so whatever.

Neither does alcohol, in moderation.

And anarchy? Nobody else in the developed world has such a high drinking age, and they seem to get along just fine.

Really? Now the "No one else in the developed world..." reasoning can be used? If we can't use it to point out that you have too many guns I call bullshit on you being able to use it to justify drinking at a younger age. Saying America should have something because everyone else has it is really lazy logic.

Personally I agree that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Needing to be 21 before you can drink is draconian and overbearing. If you're mature enough to join the army, drive, vote and shoot at 18 then it doesn't make sense to say that you're too immature to handle your alcohol. With that in mind though no one ever became an alcoholic or abused alcohol by not drinking.

Also just like cigarettes even in moderation a little alcohol does damage, you just don't notice it.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I still have no idea why the drinking age is 21 in the US...

You can drive a tonne of metal in public places at 16, but you can't purchase alcohol until 5 years after that? Crazy

Probably because driving a car doesn't inherently cause brain damage or developmental disorders. There is such a thing as too much freedom, and this is something that is inherently understood, because very few (if any) rational people seriously advocate anarchy.

On the other hand, I never understood why anyone ever drank or smoked anyway, so whatever.

Neither does alcohol, in moderation.

And anarchy? Nobody else in the developed world has such a high drinking age, and they seem to get along just fine.

Really? Now the "No one else in the developed world..." reasoning can be used? If we can't use it to point out that you have too many guns I call bullshit on you being able to use it to justify drinking at a younger age. Saying America should have something because everyone else has it is really lazy logic.

Personally I agree that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Needing to be 21 before you can drink is draconian and overbearing. If you're mature enough to join the army, drive, vote and shoot at 18 then it doesn't make sense to say that you're too immature to handle your alcohol. With that in mind though no one ever became an alcoholic or abused alcohol by not drinking.

Also just like cigarettes even in moderation a little alcohol does damage, you just don't notice it.

Merely pointing out that that other nations have a lower drinking age and haven't devolved into anarchy, like the person I quoted had suggested.

Please don't take my shit out of context

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

*snip*

you do know that if the legal age was lowered in the US, canada would lose quite a bit of money >_> _>. Dont mean that in a hostile way, just saying im surprised you would endorse it.

I don't think it would cause a major economic concern, and the way I see it, I endorse freedom, the united states is a pretty... unfree place in a lot of ways, some things like making people wait 'til 21 to drink are just brain fuckingly stupid, it just makes sense to change it is all.

 

[saoirse13]

The age limit should be lowered in America. The idea that someone can join the army at 18 and die during war for their country, but not consume alcohol is completely ridiculous. Also as someone else mentioned above, being too strict about such things can be more dangerous.
The legal age in Ireland is 18 and though to be honest i started going out to pubs and bars at 15 and taking the occasional drink (behind my parents back. Now i started drinking at 15, and may have over-stepped the mark on one or two occasions where i came home pretty drunk. by the time i was 18 the idea of going out or drinking at a party never made me go nuts. Yes both when i was younger than 18 and older i drank but never to the point that i didn't know what i was doing. my parents when they eventually found out, decided to let me go out on the condition that i never drank too much and was sensible. which i was. Now (and I'm only 23) I'm not a big drinker. I'll have the odd drink on a night out or a few drinks at a party or special occasion.

But I have a friend that was the opposite to me. Her parents never let her touch alcohol, nore go out anywhere that served alcohol. when she turned 18 he parents proceeded to maintain this strict ban on alcohol until she was 20. when she moved out to go to university her life changed. she drank everynight to the point of hospitalisation, had her stomache pumped numerous times and eventually lost everything she had. Now she is the same age as me and an alcoholic.

Now I'm all for the age in any country to be 18 but people and especially parents or those in power need to understand that by banning something from someone and becoming so strict about something is not always the best choice. If people were more relaxed about alcohol their may be less problems with it.Im not saying we should give kids at 13/14 alcohol but a more relaxed environment would make it less of an opportunity to rebel against authority. If people are denied something for so long and not let have an open mind about it then when that person finally gets freedom they go made with it.

 

[saoirse13]

The age limit should be lowered in America. The idea that someone can join the army at 18 and die during war for their country, but not consume alcohol is completely ridiculous. Also as someone else mentioned above, being too strict about such things can be more dangerous.
The legal age in Ireland is 18 and though to be honest i started going out to pubs and bars at 15 and taking the occasional drink (behind my parents back. Now i started drinking at 15, and may have over-stepped the mark on one or two occasions where i came home pretty drunk. by the time i was 18 the idea of going out or drinking at a party never made me go nuts. Yes both when i was younger than 18 and older i drank but never to the point that i didn't know what i was doing. my parents when they eventually found out, decided to let me go out on the condition that i never drank too much and was sensible. which i was. Now (and I'm only 23) I'm not a big drinker. I'll have the odd drink on a night out or a few drinks at a party or special occasion.

But I have a friend that was the opposite to me. Her parents never let her touch alcohol, nore go out anywhere that served alcohol. when she turned 18 he parents proceeded to maintain this strict ban on alcohol until she was 20. when she moved out to go to university her life changed. she drank everynight to the point of hospitalisation, had her stomache pumped numerous times and eventually lost everything she had. Now she is the same age as me and an alcoholic.

Now I'm all for the age in any country to be 18 but people and especially parents or those in power need to understand that by banning something from someone and becoming so strict about something is not always the best choice. If people were more relaxed about alcohol their may be less problems with it.Im not saying we should give kids at 13/14 alcohol but a more relaxed environment would make it less of an opportunity to rebel against authority. If people are denied something for so long and not let have an open mind about it then when that person finally gets freedom they go made with it.

 

[devotedsniper]

Can't really say it will make much difference, here in the uk 18 year olds have been able to buy alcohol for as long as i can remember.

 

[SquidVicious]

I'm originally from Canada and was living there when I was 19, which is the legal drinking age in my province and while I did see a lot of binge drinking from fellow 19 year olds, it was nothing to the degree I see when I was living close to a college campus in the US. I don't know if it was just a different environment (with most of my drinking in Canada in bars) but I also noticed a difference of about 2 years between my Canadian and US friends of the same age where the idea of getting smashed every Friday night started to wane. Honestly I don't see much of a problem with lowering the age to 19 in the US as it gives young adults a sense of maturity and respect that I don't think many of them get to feel until they turn 21.