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What are your views on underage drinking? Do you support the drinking age of 21 or should they lower it to 18, when you become an "adult"?

To me the age is irrelevant. I've seen teenagers drink responsibly and I've seen teenagers drink irresponsibly and do dangerous things. I've seen 30, 40, 50 year olds drink responsibly and I've seen 30, 40, 50 year olds drink irresponsibly and do dangerous things. As long as parents can teach their kids how to drink responsibly instead of just "don't touch it at all costs until you're 21" it will be okay. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Kids will experiment regardless of whether the parent says "don't" or not (look at frat parties), so I think it's the adult's responsibility to level with the kid and let them know what to expect.

When I was a teenager I had a standing invitation from my mom to experiment with alcohol or marijuana AT HOME (but only at home). Her rationale was that if I wanted to try that stuff she insisted that I do it in a safe, controlled environment. I can't claim that that would work for every parent/child, but it worked for us.

Long story short, I'd be fine with lowering the drinking age to 18. I'd be fine with raising it to 30. Irresponsibility is not age-specific. Many countries have lower drinking ages than the US and fewer drinking problems. It's the college drinking culture that mainly worries me ("binge-drinking") as I think it is largely out-of-control and irresponsible.

I would agree with Hostrauser; there are always going to be people who drink responsibly and irresponsibly. whether they are of age to drink legally or not. My biggest problem with our current drinking age is that according to the laws, 18 year olds are old enough to be drafted in a time of war and sent to die for our country, but are too young to make the decision to drink responsibly. If anything, I believe active-duty servicemen and women should be allowed to drink on base, provided they complete a course on alcohol and drug abuse and its longterm effects.

i say keep the legal age the same. if it was to be lowered, college culture would go down the toilet. the popular belief in today's youth is that you need to break rules in order to be cool (heh, doing what everyone else is doing sounds more like FOLLOWING the rules if anything). with that said, the excitement of going to college would be nonexistant within the majority of high schoolers and instead it would lead to more middle school drinkers who can't wait to make friends with that one legal senior in high school. it seems like the frats move down to high school status. high school drinkers are already flat out stupid, the thought of millions of middle school drinkers is pretty scary to me. and since middle/high schoolers today are already moving further and further away from individualism and more towards conformist ideas, the results of them underage drinking would lead to a higher teen/pre-teen death toll and perhaps another nazi army (yes i said it).

well hey don't take my word for it, cultures and traditions are never meant to last.....yet it seems people keep wanting to bring them back.

just my 2 cents: if you're already a crazy, insane, weird individual as i am, heavy drinking will NOT make you any crazier. most normal people will drink a lot because that's the only way they'll have a good time. i think they're jealous of the crazy people. i still manage to keep my sanity when "under the influence" because i seriously can't get much crazier. that makes it easier for me to keep my "responsibility meter" dead even.

or at least i think it does.....

i saw a segment on tv about this...this one family...their daughter drinks at the table at 16 years old and her parents' view is that if you let them drink at the table and in moderation...they will be controlled and not go on wild drinking sprees.

and i think that's true

I'm pretty pessimestic about this subject... I guess, does it really matter what age limit you put on alcohol???? People are still going to do it anyway, but then again if you lower it to 18, more people will drink. Chances are a lot of younger people are irresponsible drinkers. I"m fien w/ those who are responsible. but yeah, it'll probably lead to more accidents and stuff

I don't think the drinking age should be lowered at all. Maturity is too often not fully developed at early adulthood and too many people do not fully appreciate the consequences of drinking. Getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated in any way transforms the vehicle into a potentially lethal weapon. As someone who gigs in clubs every weekend I see young adults get completely hammered way too often. The judgement of those even younger is even less developed for many. These are blanket statements that don't apply to everyone but they do apply to very many and the risk and consequences of hurting/killing yourself or someone else is does not merit the whole "since your and adult at 18 you can drink legally.

Just my thoughts

I think it's fine where it is. I personally have no interest in getting drunk but going to SDSU and all I'm pretty exposed to it.

AzhlackDMPiccolo wrote:I'm pretty pessimestic about this subject... I guess, does it really matter what age limit you put on alcohol???? People are still going to do it anyway, but then again if you lower it to 18, more people will drink. Chances are a lot of younger people are irresponsible drinkers. I"m fien w/ those who are responsible. but yeah, it'll probably lead to more accidents and stuff

If you don't put an age limit, any kid can go to a store and purchase alcohol as if it were a sports drink. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a study that says the human body is not "ready" to deal with alcohol until the age of 21?

Flying bird wrote:

AzhlackDMPiccolo wrote:I'm pretty pessimestic about this subject... I guess, does it really matter what age limit you put on alcohol???? People are still going to do it anyway, but then again if you lower it to 18, more people will drink. Chances are a lot of younger people are irresponsible drinkers. I"m fien w/ those who are responsible. but yeah, it'll probably lead to more accidents and stuff

If you don't put an age limit, any kid can go to a store and purchase alcohol as if it were a sports drink. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a study that says the human body is not "ready" to deal with alcohol until the age of 21?

That is true. But they still get the alcohol somehow... this will just make it more convenietn for them to get it. Well alcohol is bad in general: Damages the frontal lobe, causes vitamin defficiancy (basically te body wont be ableto absorb vitamin B-1 which causes impairment in memory), and it causes an overal reduction of brain size and the ventricles enlarge...
but then again, there is the good side of alcohol for a certain age since it provides older people with anti-oxidants..

Nope i dont think it should be lowered. The argument of. "Well people will just do it anyway" is ridiculous to me. So does that mean we shouldnt have ANY restrictions? There will always be some rule or law that people will break but that doesnt mean we shouldnt have them.

As for parents who let their children drink underage. All they're doing is telling their child "As long as you behave, its ok to bend the rule". Sorry... that doesnt work for me.

I would even raise the age of becoming a legal adult to the age of 21 also. I dont think ANY kid at 18 is mature enough to be considered an adult. But i know there are many reasons why this is necessary.

Anybody up for a game of beer pong?

ErinF wrote:Nope i dont think it should be lowered. The argument of. "Well people will just do it anyway" is ridiculous to me. So does that mean we shouldnt have ANY restrictions? There will always be some rule or law that people will break but that doesnt mean we shouldnt have them.

As for parents who let their children drink underage. All they're doing is telling their child "As long as you behave, its ok to bend the rule". Sorry... that doesnt work for me.

I would even raise the age of becoming a legal adult to the age of 21 also. I dont think ANY kid at 18 is mature enough to be considered an adult. But i know there are many reasons why this is necessary.

"Well, people will do it anyway..." is not an argument, it's just a statement. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a restriction on age drinking, I'm saying that there will be those who will drink no matter what and those who will wait 'til they are 21 or those who will never drink at all. The age limit just reduces the amount of people drinking.

People drink no matter what the law is. However, in keeping alcohol sales restricted to people 21 and up, it somewhat regulates who has access to it and whatnot. There are too many people under 21 drinking irresponsibly as it is. To lower the drinking age would only facilitate their behavior.

Why shouldn't 18 year olds be able to drink, they are legally adults at that age. Once 18 you can enter the military and put your life in danger for the country, at the age of 18 if you commit a crime you are charged as an adult. At 18 you are old enough (in most states) to purchase cigarettes and pornography. If you are old enough to be treated as adult in society, then why aren't you old enough to decide if you want to drink. Besides, it's not like anyone waits until they are 21 to drink anyways. People don't realize how strict the laws concerning alcohol are here in the U.S. We have the HIGHEST national purchasing age of ANY country (except parts of India where the law's rarely enforced). There are also a few countries where alcohol is completely illegal, usually do to religious law. I believe most of our alcohol problems stem from a society that so fiercely fights against alcoholism historically. Rather than teaching responsible drinking from a young age, Americans are just told "no, no, no" until they age about 16 or 17 and decide to just go hog wild and screw authority, resulting in irresponsible drinking. It's the same problem we have with the War on Drugs and high teen pregnancy rates. So yes, the purchasing age should be lowered to 18.