Should the legal drinking age in America be 18?

[Wintahs]

In belgium(and most of Europe) it's 16+ for beer and other non-heavy drinks and 18+ for heavy drinks like whiskey and vodka,or atleast that's how it should be. I'm 15 and I can easily buy a bottle of 40° Vodka.

 

[mokes310]

Yes, if you can vote, buy tobacco, purchase lottery tickets and die for your country, you should be able to buy a beer.

 

[Iron Mal]

Many of the laws surround age limits don't really make a lot of sense in all honesty.

For example, here in the UK the legal age of consent for hetrosexual intercourse is 16 yet the legal age for the viewing of pornography is 18, in other words, when you're 16 you are allowed to have sex but you can't watch it (makes perfect sense, right?).

In my opinion we shouldn't have age restrictions, a person's age does not always reflect on their maturity or responsability as an adult/teenager (you can be 21 yet posess the common sense of a six year old), we should opt for a system that measures a person's better judgement (okay, it would be difficult to impliment but the results would be well worth it).

 

[titoisme]

well, if you're able to be recruited into the army and fire off m-16's, then you should be able to drink...but people are so dumb, i'd probably leave it at 21...lol

 

[NDWolfwood5268]

And

My bias is that people drink illegally because they aren't allowed. People want what they can't have. If we got rid of the law[or lowered it], no one would care to drink because it's no longer a rebellious thing.

As many have said and many will say, "Why can I choose to die for my country, yet not be allowed to drink?"

I agree with this. The legal drinking age in Germany is 16, and you don't hear about any problems coming out of it.

Mass transit in Germany is much, much better than it is in America. That's why you don't hear of as many problems: the drinking age was raised because of the number of traffic accidents related to alcohol and young drivers, and Americans live in much less dense settlement patterns than the people of Germany.

Bull. Mass transit has nothing to do with it. Canada is much, MUCH less densely populated than the U.S., yet they get along fine being able to drink at 18.

The fact of the matter is that almost every other country gets along just fine with the drinking age at less than 21, and even less than 18 in some cases. Even with the higher age limit here, our teens are still the ones stereotyped for stupid behavior worldwide. It teaches adolescents to chug/mainline/funnel their alcohol so they don't get caught with any, thereby enforcing really bad drinking habits.

I agree that lowering it now would cause a few months (3? 6? a year?) of insanity, but the novelty would wear off quickly. The rest of the world isn't going to fall in behind our "stellar" example, so why are we still punishing our teens?

Exactly. My idea has been for some time that other countries do fine. The ONLY excuse for the US to be different is if we conceded to being bigger morons and douchebags (which I am inclined to agree too, unfortunately >.>).

Now, to make my point, this is how my view was solidified: I was working as a busboy in a restraunt and the waitress, just barely 19, was talking with me. I mentioned how they were considering lowering the age limit, she responded "No! What the hell, then it'd be no fun!". And she was serious...

 

[Overlord_Dave]

From what I think I know about drinking in America (which not being American isn't much) is that it seems when people turn 21 they go crazy, have massive street parties, and generally drink far too much.

In the UK, when you turn 18, you might go out and get smashed with your mates, but that's it.

It seems that people having to wait till they're 21 makes them so eager to start that they go over the top.

This is of course ignoring the fact that, in the UK at least, nobody waits until they're 18 to start drinking. Unless they just don't want to drink in general. Drinking underage isn't really a big deal in the UK.

 

[EdwinMDA]

18 is just fine, in all honest truth all ages old or young are dangerous if drunk
so 18 shouldnt make any difference, plus people already drink

 

[Virus017]

I'm gonna quote wikipedia on this.

"An individual 18 years of age or older may purchase a rifle or shotgun from a federally licensed dealer in any state."

So your allowed to buy a tool DESIGNED to kill people 3 years younger than your allowed to drink alcohol? I think the people that set these age regulations were a bit drunk themselves when they made them.

 

[Rassan]

I think by 18 people will be drinking by they hopefully won't be smart enough to drive around drunk in fear of being caught, so 21 is fine and hopefully 18 year olds will mature by then to be smart. But usally... that isn't the case. I think drunk people are fun to use a play of words with. Lol.

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. I don't have the energy or thick enough skin to be the full argument here but basically, people do illegally anyways and aren't going to suddenly stop if the law changes. Changing the law will just add more people who will feel that its okay to do it. This will lead to more drinking, not less. More drinking will cause more problems. Changing the law removes the taboo but that just makes kids say, hey its not illegal so I'll do it. Your basically saying its okay to drink and its not okay because young people drinking statically causes more problems then older people drinking.

 

[TheCheryl]

around 21 your brain finally is done developing but go ahead and lower it to 18...

...It'll cut down on underage drinking.

 

[Jamanticus]

Why do you think I care about what you want?

I was asking a question, Cheeze. Now, please get off of your high horse; my neck's beginning to get a bit strained.

I ask you a question, and you respond by saying, in effect, 'Why on earth should I answer your question?'

I understand we're both users on a forum in the middle of the internet, but still.....This is the Off-Topic Discussion forum, after all, and you're unwilling to have a discussion.

Fine, I suppose I have over-reacted to your post, but even you must see that it is glib, terse, and completely unhelpful...I just was wondering if you could clarify what you meant about you not minding substance abuse, that's all.

 

[StickManRampage]

They should just make on universal age for everything to happen. I mean when you are 17 you can drive, at 18 you can vote and join the military, at 19 you can smoke, and then finally at 21 you can drink. What I don't understand is why at 18 you can join the army and go kill people, but you can't legally have a beer... I think they should just get rid of the drinking/smoking age entirely, let anyone do it and keep it under control, don't let drunk people out of bars and only allow bars to sell alcohol. Smoking is just dumb anyway so let people do it in a place like a bar, hell create some sort of smoking bar. Let people fuck up their own lives and make sure they only harm themselves.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Statistics show that countries with lower drinking ages have lower rates of binge drinking and drinking related deaths. This is because when teens are allowed to drink legally, they don't try to cram it all into several binges, but instead go with the "glass of wine with dinner" or "a beer while watching TV". A lower drinking age results in more responsible drinking, So I am all for it.