United States Drinking age?

[gervaso81]

19 year old living in the United States. Wondering if any of you believe that the drinking age should remain at 21. Consider the following.

At the age of 18, this country believes that we are mature enough to kill someone (with the military), sign legally binding contracts, get married, drive a car, buy property, and even RAISE A CHILD, but we lack the maturity needed to drink a beer?

I am a 19 year old college student and I can say that today's youth has ZERO respect for this law. And I literally mean zero. Of my freshman class at school, at least 85% of the class drank on a semi regular basis and almost everyone that I know is in possession of false identification. If someone does not drink, it is rarely because it's illegal but more of a personal decision.

Can anyone explain this?

I understand that the only argument for keeping it where it is is that highway deaths have decreased. What about an increase in youth alcoholism, deaths due to overdose in alcohol, and unnecessary arrests that give children a criminal record for only doing what almost all of their peers are doing? What about the simple fact that this country thinks it takes more maturity to drink a beer than it does to raise a child. what does that say about our values as a country?

My solution: I think that in a transition, we should look to what Germany does with this issue. 18 beer and wine, 21 anything over 40 proof.

Thoughts?

[cumhea]

19 year old living in the United States. Wondering if any of you believe that the drinking age should remain at 21. Consider the following.

At the age of 18, this country believes that we are mature enough to kill someone (with the military), sign legally binding contracts, get married, drive a car, buy property, and even RAISE A CHILD, but we lack the maturity needed to drink a beer?

I am a 19 year old college student and I can say that today's youth has ZERO respect for this law. And I literally mean zero. Of my freshman class at school, at least 85% of the class drank on a semi regular basis and almost everyone that I know is in possession of false identification. If someone does not drink, it is rarely because it's illegal but more of a personal decision.

Can anyone explain this?

I understand that the only argument for keeping it where it is is that highway deaths have decreased. What about an increase in youth alcoholism, deaths due to overdose in alcohol, and unnecessary arrests that give children a criminal record for only doing what almost all of their peers are doing? What about the simple fact that this country thinks it takes more maturity to drink a beer than it does to raise a child. what does that say about our values as a country?

My solution: I think that in a transition, we should look to what Germany does with this issue. 18 beer and wine, 21 anything over 40 proof.

Thoughts?

They tried it going on 40 years ago -- drinking related deaths of young people between 18 and 21 skyrocketed overnight. They literally couldn't change the drinking laws back to 21 fast enough, and all states had acquiesced within 5 years back to the old 21 standard.
It was a failed experiment.............. it will not happen again during your lifetime.

And, frankly, your generation's lack of child-raising skills are bringing all of that into serious question.
If you kids can't handle raising, and paying for, a child - you damned sure can't handle raising a child while drinking.


Additional Details:
What I'm saying is that if your generation proves their inability to control their sexual urges, and don't practice safe sex - and thus contribute to the every-growing number of unwed teen mothers (living off welfare, and their parents) - then you're showing you no more have the maturity to control your drinking any more than you do have the ability to control yourself sexually.

You see, your problem with your arguments is that they're full of conundrums totally lacking in any sort of logic.

Your generation has the highest incidences of alcohol and drug abuse of any generation on record (including highly additive narcotics and opiates) - and your answer is to make it legal for you to get your hands on alcohol. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Kids don't get in trouble with substance abuse because it's a "secret" -- because the evidence is OUT THERE. Your generation should be the most knowledgeable of all time, if for no other reason than everything on the Internet -- and yours is the one acting the most stupid and immature.

Any of you arguing for this must be seriously mentally flawed -- because if you'd do any research, at all, you'd know this was tried back in the 1970s. And the experiment FAILED EPIC-ally.


Additional Detaills (2):
Again, this is more flawed logic on your part.
The two countries with the highest instances of alcoholism, including teen alcohol abuse, are Germany, Italy, and Russia - three countries who've long overlooked underage drinking.

Again, the problem is that part of the responsibility of being an adult - and thus showing the ability to be responsible for one's actions - IS IN PAYING FOR IT YOURSELF. So relying on the government to provide educational programs, or your parents (or their insurance) to pay for your children you produce before being out on your own, is NOT being an adult.

You're just laying your problems, and what you want to do while suffering no recourse for your actions, at society's feet -- and you're not coming up with any ways to pay for it yourself. You're leaving it your parent's feet (since you still live at home and don't pay your own rent let alone your own health insurance), and my feet as a taxpayer (since you don't have a job, or at least one where you pay taxes, either)


BUT, the bottom line is, when you start paying your own way - then you get to have a say. Until then, you're just running your mouth with nothing to back it up.

[nann]

I one hundred percent agree with you. If you can hold a gun and have a child and live on your own you are "free" right? Wrong I guess. Germany has a very good plan but then again people are far more responsible there. But honestly people will still continue to drink underage even if they changed the age. There are children as young as 13 going to parties and drinking. No matter what you do there is going to be a significant amount of people breaking the law.

[wynn]

do you really believe that the law is keeping teens from drinking? as for the military, thats volunteer.

[weiford]

ya it is pretty dumb how you are old enough to kill people and go to war, like you are ending another person's life. like i would rather my future kids drink with their friends where they are safe at home once in awhile, like once a month or so rather then my kid going to war and ****. like im even surprised our society has not put an end to alcohol. honestly to fix the problem, outlaw it. there would probably be riots, but i mean our society is should just get rid of it or make the age to drink like 30. lets see your friends go into an lcbo or beer store then lol

[wattekinson86]

Lowering the drinking age would be very interesting. Thinking about how many high schoolers even drink here in Wisconsin is kind of mind blowing compared to the rest of the country. We started drinking the summer after 8th grade. My friends and I are all at 4 year universitys now and a couple of us attend UW-Madison. This does not go to say drinking is a positive thing, but when the drinking age was lower in the days of our parents, they seemed to handle it very nicely. The people who don't want to drink don't have to.

A thing that kind of bugs me is a lot of tickets for underage drinking are written out every year here in Wisconsin. In some 4 year schools, the kids have started to call the cops 2 year waunabees because the majority of the police force in small rural towns with 4 year institutions have 2 year police officer degrees. They are out patrolling the student areas off campus to catch students wearing backpacks and other alcohol transporting possobilities. They will stop you if you are wearing a backpack at the UW-Eau Claire off campus during the school year at night on the weekends. This is not fair to assume all people are drinking and feels like a waste of time to me. They are just in need of something to do it feels like and they take it out on the college students. Which has led to college students showing no respect for the police force. This is why college students usually are not happy to see a police officer patrolling their neighborhood at night. The larger worry on their mind is if they are going to get busted for drinking than if they are safe...

[karlitis]

There is plenty of evidence that reducing the drinking age results in a significant increase in traffic fatalities. I'm sure you're going to say how responsible you and your friends are but that doesn't change the fact that reducing the drinking age is going to get a lot of people killed.

Your argument about youth alcoholism and drug overdoses doesn't hold water. Those are a problem for the individual but they don't result in bystanders dying.

[werner72]

The argument that higher drinking age raises the likelihood of binge drinking or other problems is nonsense, and totally unsupported by the evidence.

Your argument about raising a child is meaningless, because no government does (and in most countries CAN NOT ) regulate the age at which someone becomes pregnant.

The truth is that there is no net benefit to lowering drinking age, and those advocating it typically do not vote, so the law will not change.

[lazaro94]

I actually did a speech for my english class on lowering the drinking age to 18!

There's too much of a 'obsessing over what you can't have' factor going on in colleges with underage drinking that is leading to so many binge drinking incidents. If the age was lowered would people still dangerously drink as much as possible once it was readily available to them?

There's always the argument of 'if I am considered a legal adult and can sign up to defend my country/can vote then why can't I drink?' The biggest opposition that I found while researching for my speech was MADD, which is understandable since there are a lot more teens on the road in the US compared to the UK where the legal drinking age is 18.

If the age would be up for discussion and could possibly be lowered then it would be up to the younger generation to prove themselves mature enough. People are drinking behind closed doors and some are being irresponsible about it and making the rest look the same. Would a generation be able to handle the accountability if the age was lowered?

[zacchaeus21]

Funny thing is that the law would let you raise a child at 14 if you were pregnant. We have yet to put laws on the book that anyone under 18 that has a child must have it taken away. Being able to raise a child is one of the DUMBEST points I've ever heard, since the law doesn't care one way or the other. Joining the military is silly, because that is volunteer and even though you have to sign up for Selective Services there isn't a draft and isn't going to be any time soon. If you think Germany is so much better as a nation then feel free to move there. Otherwise accept what you feel is bad with what you feel clearly outweighs it in the good. I went to College and sorry but I wasn't drinking and it was because it wasn't illegal. I'm sure people at my college did drink underage, and that's fine because it was their decision not mine. People smoke weed, it's their choice not mine. I guess since the majority feel it should be legal then the law should be struck down without the legal process for doing it. I'm sure you could find the majority to agree that you should be allowed to kill one person in your life, so we better make that a law too. What the majority says or ignores as law is meaningless. You can say they are unnecessary arrests and to a large degree you are right, I mean if people would follow a SIMPLE law and have PATIENCE then they wouldn't be arrested. Be honest MOST drink underage for the thrill. Look up how many drink LESS after 21, or stop totally. Do you think it's because they drank so much before? No it's because it's no longer a thrill.