Lower Drinking Age? Hell Yes

[manifold]

I'm all for lowering the drinking age and raising the age at which one can get a driver's license.

Stealing my ideas again eh?

 

[random3434]

Since we have apparently decided to draw a line somewhere lets go with 13. Anyone who is in their teens is an adult and can do anything.

Catherine, is that you?









(uh, that's my 13 yo daughter, thought she may be posting on here, sounds just like her sometimes............ )

 

[CA95380]

So what was the point in passing the law in the first place?

Drinking Alcohol Under Age of 21 (Underage Drinking) Not Prohibited in 33 U.S. States
All states in the U.S. prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages to anyone under the age of 21 as well as its purchase by such individuals. However, 33 states (two out of three) permit so-called underage persons to consume alcohol or to consume it under certain circumstances.

Drinking Alcohol Under Age of 21 (Underage Drinking) Not Prohibited in 33 U.S. States

 

[Anguille]

Stealing my ideas again eh?

Seeing as you are my sock puppet, how is it possible I could steal from me?

 

[Anguille]

Catherine, is that you?








(uh, that's my 13 yo daughter, thought she may be posting on here, sounds just like her sometimes............ )

I hope not. Dillo's kinda hot.

 

[manifold]

Seeing as you are my sock puppet, how is it possible I could steal from me?

Is that what we call the tail wagging the dog?

 

[busara]

Is that what we call the tail wagging the dog?

i swear half the people posting in this thread are drunk. many comments are just absurd

 

[AllieBaba]

What's even more frightening is they are probably at work as well!

 

[manifold]

i swear half the people posting in this thread are drunk. many comments are just absurd

thh!

Inside joke. I don't expect an outsider like you to get it.

 

[Anguille]

what's Even More Frightening Is They Are Probably At Work As Well!

Lol!!

 

[busara]

thh!

Inside joke. I don't expect an outsider like you to get it.

 

[Anguille]

Don't be sad.
It's really nothing more than just a shaggy dog story.

 

[random3434]

Some of the college presidents in Indiana like an earlier drinking age, some don't:


WTHR - Indianapolis News and Weather - IU leader backs lower drinking age, not petition

 

[Jon]

My only problem with lowering the drinking age is that it will put alcohol into the hands of too many high school students who can then allow even more high school students to drink.

Not that it's so hard to get alcohol at the age of 13 now, but still.

I really don't care how they decide, one way or another.

 

[axessterminated]

I'd say raise the drinking age. We need things to look forward to after the age of 21. The only other rite of passage in your entire American life will be retirement, and that just makes you feel old. We need to find more ways to give more things to you and let you do more things in between voting and retirement.

I hope you're kidding. Civil liberties is not the right place to start with "for the good of society" judgements. I don't think most 21yr olds are responsible enough to drink, vote, or live on their own. However, the law should not punish everyone for the few.

There is a quote that applies here: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer." - Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

This is still fundamentally the basis for American law. Honestly, I think alcohol, as a drug, should not be allowed in public, same with cigarettes and all other drugs/narcotics. However, all of them should be allowed on private property.

 

[morpheus]

It's worth mentioning that American culture has a much different approach to alcohol than German, French, or Italian cultures. People in these countries don't drink with the intention of getting drunk. Wine and beer are something that's always present at the dinner table when growing up. Kids don't regard these beverages as a way to rebel against their parents or society; it's just a drink to be had with dinner, or at family gatherings, or with friends at a cafe or pub. Hence drinking age in these countries is 16, and not really enforced. If you can see over the bar, you're old enough to have a drink.

The United States, Canada, and Britain have higher minimum drinking ages. Unlike the French, Germans, Italians, Austrians, Spaniards, Greeks, Swiss, or Belgians, people in the Anglo-Saxon world (as well as people in Nordic Europe: Sweden, Finland, etc) are more likely to drink with the specific intention of getting buzzed or drunk. Hence, minimum drinking ages are higher: For Britain it's 18 (slightly lower if you're with family), for the United States it's the infamous draconian 21, and in Canada it's 19 (except in non-Anglo Québec where it's 18). Despite the recent popularity of wine culture in America and a similar rise in beer snobbery, most Americans do not grow up with wine and beer at the dinner table, so it's still a bit of a novelty for most Americans. Most Americans will tell you that merlot is their favourite wine, because it's the only wine-related word that they know; you're not suposed to chug it like chocolate milk, or drink it in a coffee mug (yes I've seen this), nor does red wine go well with desserts, but these American "wine snobs" don't know that, so they brave out the conflict in taste and convince themselves they're "cultured". My point is, when Americans enter their teen years, or young adulthood, and come across alcohol at a party, they go crazy with it. It's new, it's rebellious, it's exciting.

Now, which begat which? Is Americans' abuse of alcohol the result of a higher drinking age? Or is the higher drinking age the result of a culture that abuses alcohol? Remember, that the drinking age was once lower in America, around 18 I believe, but then raised to 21. And that's not the first time that legislation was introduced to try and regulate alcohol usage. Remember the prohibition from your history school books? This was later repealed, but evidence that American society saw alcohol as a major problem in American culture, not once, but twice during the 20th century, and passed legislation to regulate it.

I'm not necessarily in favour of reducing the drinking age in the United States. I'm not sure if that's a great idea, given the culture; Americans' attitudes towards alcohol are inherited from the puritanical views of their parents who lock it up in the liqueur cabinet, and not from the laws. But I do think that the drinking age needs some revision. Maybe keep it illegal to sell alcohol to persons under 21 in stores, but allow persons aged 18, 19, or 20 to purchase a drink at a bar or pub in certain locations or controlled environments. For example -and this is going to require America to rethink her urban planning strategy as well- in cities where residents mostly walk rather than drive, like New York, Boston, or central Chicago, maybe bars and pubs can be a bit more liberal with the drinking age. Or, in highly pedestrian-friendly college towns where the students don't rely on cars to get around, they should implement policies that would lure students away from the frat houses, and into the bars. Unlike frat houses, bars/pubs are a controlled environment (there's security/bouncers, bartenders can refuse drinks, police can patrol the streets, etc), and bars/pubs can be located in a walkable central downtown area. The students will easily be able to walk from bar to bar, or to a 24-hour restaurant to sober up, and then walk back to their dorms, or -if it's a bit of a sprawling campus- take a free public bus back home. Maybe close off a few streets in the central downtown deistricts, close them off to automobile traffic on weekend evenings.

 

[TeachMe]

I hope you're kidding. Civil liberties is not the right place to start with "for the good of society" judgements. I don't think most 21yr olds are responsible enough to drink, vote, or live on their own. However, the law should not punish everyone for the few.

There is a quote that applies here: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer." - Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

This is still fundamentally the basis for American law. Honestly, I think alcohol, as a drug, should not be allowed in public, same with cigarettes and all other drugs/narcotics. However, all of them should be allowed on private property.

I'm not kidding. Our current system gives us nothing to look forward to from the ages of 25 do the age of 55+. There is just a big gap of drudgery. That is why people get old.

 

[random3434]

I'm not kidding. Our current system gives us nothing to look forward to from the ages of 25 do the age of 55+. There is just a big gap of drudgery. That is why people get old.

hmmmm, I don't wait on the government or anyone to "tell" me what to look forward to after age 21.

Let's see, after I turned 21 I looked forward to graduating from college.

Then, I looked forward to working for a real paycheck, not just tips.

Let's see, after I got pregnant I looked forward to my daughter being born.
Then, I look forward to the milestones in her life, and at age 13 there are many to go.


I look forward to one day marrying my fiancee, and being a teacher I ALWAYS look forward to summers!


Life is full of surprises, no matter what age you are.