Poll: Should The US Drinking Age Be Lowered?

[Knonsense]

I voted yes, but that's just my whole "laws suck" instinct talking. People don't seem to have much trouble finding alcohol when they're 18 anyway. If you made more reasonable expectations when you made laws, you might be able to enforce them sometimes.

Also, MADD makes me angry, and this would spite them.

 

[gentleben]

I think a more powerful argument, rather than the military service one, would be "How can you trust someone enough to let them have a say in how the country is run, and yet not trust them to be responsible enough to have a drink?"

It's shit like this that gets Rick Astley elected president.

For the record, I'm not an American citizen.

Also, look at countries in Europe where the drinking age is lower than 18 (I swear to god, in Italy it must be like 12 or something judging by the number of infants I saw drinking wine in trattorias), they have a better culture of drinking than many Commonwealth countries (UK, Australia, NZ, Canada) and the US where it has become common place to drink to get drunk. In Europe this isn't the case, people drink for the flavour of the wine or apertivo or liquor that they are drinking, which is in my opinion what alcohol is for, not the side effects that come with excess.

 

[demmalition1]

A teen went into the army on his 18th birthday, and was shipped to Iraq. While there, his platoon was ambushed by an IED; he was a paraplegic for the rest of his life. He comes home to a heroes welcome and goes to a bar to get a drink. The lady looks at his license and says, "Sorry but your too young to drink, it's the law." To this the kid replys, "I've been to the other side of the world to do one thing, to protect a fledgling democracy by killing the people who oppose it. I had my legs blasted off in a blazing hell storm that you could never imagine. I'm old enough to serve, but not old enough to be served"

My opinion: he should be allowed to drink at 18 like his parents were trusted to do.

 

[Finnboghi]

Nah, we Canadians behaved ourselves so mom let us drink at 18, but you Americans are really bad and stupid, so you have to wait longer.

 

[Cekil1]

I picked maybe but what could it really change. In the end, teens will drink regardless of the law.

 

[WilliamWhite1]

Of course I'd say yes, and for the same arguments which you have already seen.

 

[flare09]

Unless you take away the law all together, there will always be underage drinking. So it doesn't matter if it's lowered or not. People are still going to do it underage. There is just going to be a few less that do it.

 

[RebelRising]

No, but I do think that social drinking should be introduced earlier as a familial concept. Parents should share a glass of wine with their teenagers every weekend, rather than restrict them entirely or just not give a crap and let them drink with their friends by themselves. The results would be:

1. Drinking isn't as "cool" because your parents do it too.

2. Familiarity breeds moderation; as such, kids won't overdo like they would if they got their very first sip and 21.

3. A context is provided for teenagers to drink responsible; few people overeat with home-cooked meals, the same should apply to alcohol.

 

[zoozilla]

Lower it.

All your arguments against are invalid, as they are all unproven by experience in Europe.

Yes, but that's Europe. This is America.

 

[Susano]

Lower it.

All your arguments against are invalid, as they are all unproven by experience in Europe.

I agree with lowering the drinking age, but I don't think this is true. Look at Ireland, our whole culture is basically built around drink, and teens get smashed every weekend. However if you compare France, you never see drunk kids because they are more familiar with it.

 

[Major_Sam]

No I don't think so. In Australia it is 18 which I feel is too young. The amount of alcohol related accidents which involve teenages is increasing. Sure there are responsible drinkers but to maybe save the lives of a few teens, I'd be willing to let them wait 3 years.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Ohh god no, for every 1 responsible 18 year old there 20 retards who are just gonna kill themselves.

 

[Nmil-ek]

Sure, I was amazed at how lightweight an American friend of my mate was when he came over here utterly rediculous alittle alchohol isnt a bad thing he drank like an amature gulping down shit too strong for him, had no idea how to just take his time and enjoy it. Europe and the UK have a drinking culture alot of families let their kids try stuff at a young age a few glasses of wine sips of stuff, helps build a tolerance and teaches to drink reasonably dont mix, take drinks of water in between etc tabooing just makes american newbies into vomiting messes at the end of the night.

 

[TxMxRonin]

That's one of those weird situation where it could or couldn't work. The only reason why there's underage drinking is because there's such a taboo about drinking before you're 21 and that's why kids do it. Lowing the age limit to 18 would cut out a significant portion of that mentality but at the same time can you give any good reason as to why people should drink in the first place?

 

[UltimatheChosen]

Plus the 18 --> go to war argument is iffy because if you're a student you're excused.

Not anymore, actually (assuming we're talking about the US). They got rid of that after the Vietnam War.

As far as the poll goes, I'd say... fuck no. For every person who can drink responsibly, there's a dozen fuckwads who would kill themselves. High school is full of enough morons without them having massive hangovers every day.

 

[slevin8989]

Yes because if you're old enough to help elect you're country's Leader you should be old enough to choose to drink or not.