drinking age be increased or decreased?

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Replies

  • macpatti
    macpatti Posts: 4,280 Member
    Really though I think we should at least TRY to find a way to emulate Europe on this one. They're doing it better. We say we have a drinking age to keep the kids off alcohol, well they don't have a drinking age and do a better job of it than we are. Clearly something isn't working.
    Well, as someone else mentioned, teens in Europe don't own and drive cars nearly as much as American teens.
  • SeaChele77
    SeaChele77 Posts: 1,103 Member
    I go by one rule on this one. The military/draft. If 18 is old enough to fight and die for your country it's old enough to have a beer. Period.

    Agree!!!

    and I also think Europe has something - if kids are allowed a small glass of wine at dinner or a sip of beer with their dad...no biggie. Taboo causes curiousity and therefore more kids drink too early and too much!!
  • chazsucks
    chazsucks Posts: 170
    Well in the UK it's 18 and that's still too high in my opinion, if people were allowed to do something they wouldn't be so desperate to do it all the time, especially at the rate they do.

    The binge drinking culture here in England is absolutely disgusting, the high streets near me you literally cannot walk down in the evenings (thurs-sun) without having to step around bodies in the gutter vomitting etc

    And as someone above pointed out the minimum drinking age is the same as most university entrants age so the experience may be 'fun' but so many students could have such a better education if they knew how to drink responsibly (speaking as someone who is currently at university, but as a 'mature' student'
  • ket_the_jet
    ket_the_jet Posts: 1,257 Member
    My husband had friends whose parents let them drink and smoke pot. They ended up having raging parties all the time, were constantly binge drinking and doing drugs. The pot led them to try hard drugs and my husband almost died of heart failure from doing cocaine.
    Both sides need to save the anecdotal evidence for...actually, let's just trash anecdotal evidence. Science and logic are all that matter, and as it stands, a 21-year old drinking age in the States makes the most sense.

    Someone go start a "getting drafted age be increased or decreased" thread.
    -wtk
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    Age does not necessarily coincide with responsibility.

    I don't believe that the drinking age should be lowered and, in many individual cases it should by raised or the privilege revoked altogether.
  • sexforjaffacakes
    sexforjaffacakes Posts: 1,001 Member
    As someone already mentioned, drink driving incidents are a big factor.
    I think it's crazy that 14/15/16 year old kids have bloody cars, but then I also think it's crazy you have to be like properly grown up to be allowed to drink.
    That is insane.

    I mean, I've been drinking since I was 13, which was bad, I'd say the socially acceptable age in the UK is 16/17 (legally 18), and I know we have a problem with binge drinking in our country, but it's cultural. In mainland Europe they have a much more casual attitude towards everything - booze, drugs, sex, and they don't have the problems America or the UK (which is very similar to America sadly) have.

    Funnily enough we often have the same argument here; should the drinking/voting age be lowered from 18?
    I mean especially in Scotland, kids in their very early teens or even pre teens are drinking huge amounts. My parents saw the amount of booze I'm taking to a festival this weekend and they were shocked, while I'm not even sure it'll be enough!

    A big difference between older and younger generations I've noticed is that my generation DRINK TO GET DRUNK.
    Adults like the buzz, but they deffo don't go out with the aim of "let's get wasted!!!" which was pretty much my idea of drinking from ages 13-17/18. That's why alcopops etc are so popular, they don't taste like alcohol!

    But yeah as for America, I just think it's really weird that after you've finished highschool you still can't drink. I mean you spend the first 3 years of college sober if you follow the law? wtf? alcohol, like it or not, healthy or not, is an important part of college/Uni
  • Il_DaniD_lI
    Il_DaniD_lI Posts: 1,593 Member
    It's 18 where I live..although I had a fake I.D. and started going when I was 15. Now that I'm older I think it should be changed to 21.
  • IronPlayground
    IronPlayground Posts: 1,594 Member
    I go by one rule on this one. The military/draft. If 18 is old enough to fight and die for your country it's old enough to have a beer. Period.

    BOOM!
  • sexforjaffacakes
    sexforjaffacakes Posts: 1,001 Member
    I think it deffo calms down when it's legal.
    My biggest periods of drinking were when I was 13/14 and it was new, again when I was 16 and my parents gave me a lot more freedom (16 legally an adult/old enough to have sex/army/buy house/leave school/etc etc), then my last spike was when I just turned 18 and could legally hit the clubs.
    After turning 18 the novelty wore off very quickly, and I believe if it had never been a novelty in the first place, and I hadn't had to hide it from my parents, I'd have got bored much earlier.


    I think a huuuuge reason for binge drinking in the UK/USA is because kids have to hide it. I always had to be home by 10pm, so I would go up town at like 1/2, get a jakey to bus us booze, get wasted as fast as possible because I only had limited time, and then try to sober up over an hour or two.
    Since kids in Europe don't have to hide drinking, they can just chill, take it slow, have casual beers with pals. In a culture like ours where you have to hide it and rush it, binging becomes more of a necessity, and eventually a habit.

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