drinking age be increased or decreased?

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  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,023 Member
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    i used to think the same way, till i though about High school.. would you really want a just turened 18 year old idiot buying booze for younger kids. i know it goes on im not dumb did it myself but was not easy. I say leave where it is.,.. i know it used to be 18 way before my time just feel that this generation, my generation is very irresponsible. wouldnt like to chance it

    I agree leave it where it is. people still buy it and drink in high school but I dont think we should make it easier to get alcohol
  • mslack01
    mslack01 Posts: 823 Member
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    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.

    not that it even matters to me anymore, but yeah...this ^^^^^
  • chachita7
    chachita7 Posts: 996 Member
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    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.

    AMEN!!!
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    Alcohol, especially in excess, causes serious damage to developing brains. At 18, a person's body and brain are still developing. Anything that can inhibit proper development is a bad idea.
  • BrettPGH
    BrettPGH Posts: 4,720 Member
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    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.
    Do you think the military/draft age should be increased? If it were 21, then you'd be okay with the drinking age at 21? I personally do not think an 18 year old should be able to join the military, either.

    I think it's one or the other. Because you simply can not say "You aren't mature enough to make responsible decisions like having a beer." and in the same breath say "Hey there young man! Wanna sign up for military service? It's the best decision you'll ever make!"

    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.
  • neverbythenumbers
    neverbythenumbers Posts: 4
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    Either it should be lowered to 18, or the age for purchasing tobacco products should be raised to 21. I've never understood why the drinking age in the USA is higher when (IMO) cigarettes are just as likely, if not more likely, to be abused by young people.
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,023 Member
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    In my house, I was allowed to drink at the age of 14. I was allowed to try wine, beer, strong spirits and I found that I hated the taste of all of them. I'm 27 and I hardly have a drink once a month. My younger brother is straight-edge (so no drinking, smoking or any type of drugs and he's in the music scene). My sister started college and has yet to want to take a sip of alcohol. All because my parents allowed us to drink at 14. I'm not saying all young people are like us, but maybe you'd have fewer people wanting the "forbidden juice" if it was available to them earlier.

    If parents want to allow their children to drink in their own home I think that is fine. But I dont think the drinking age should be changed because of the 18 yr old high school kids would be buying it for their friends and drinking whereever and then possibly driving. My mom always told us I dont really want you drinking but if you do dont drive call me and I will come get you no questions asked.
  • Hellbent_Heidi
    Hellbent_Heidi Posts: 3,669 Member
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    I was binge-drinking FAR more before I was 21 and "legal" than I ever did afterward....

    Not sure it makes much difference really...if kids want to drink and smoke before 18 or 21, they're going to find a way.
  • adam1885282
    adam1885282 Posts: 135 Member
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    Maybe we should raise the draft age!

    That aside, I started drinking when I was 14 on a summer trip to Europe. It didn't do me any favors. I've been a drinker ever since, sometimes too heavily. I've taken time off here and there just to break the cycle. I'm not currently drinking while I try to lose weight.

    However, in the end, I prefer a libertarian approach to personal vice that doesn't have an immediate impact on others. 18 seems fair. There needs to be some regulation at least during the most important developmental stages.

    People will drink if they want to, just like they'll do drugs and smoke if they want to. There's never been an effective way to stop someone from engaging in a vice and it's a rather silly thing to try to regulate it.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    In my house, I was allowed to drink at the age of 14. I was allowed to try wine, beer, strong spirits and I found that I hated the taste of all of them. I'm 27 and I hardly have a drink once a month. My younger brother is straight-edge (so no drinking, smoking or any type of drugs and he's in the music scene). My sister started college and has yet to want to take a sip of alcohol. All because my parents allowed us to drink at 14. I'm not saying all young people are like us, but maybe you'd have fewer people wanting the "forbidden juice" if it was available to them earlier.

    If parents want to allow their children to drink in their own home I think that is fine. But I dont think the drinking age should be changed because of the 18 yr old high school kids would be buying it for their friends and drinking whereever and then possibly driving. My mom always told us I dont really want you drinking but if you do dont drive call me and I will come get you no questions asked.

    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.
  • macpatti
    macpatti Posts: 4,280 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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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