Drinking age lowered to 18?

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

it's true that's messed up but two wrongs don't make a right. There are already enough young drivers on the road getting into deadly accidents without alcohol being legalized for 18-21 year olds as it is. And there are still plenty of them drinking and driving as it is. Just imagine it when they can get their hands on alcohol legally. It was actually legalized for 18 year olds in the past for the reason you just mentioned, but it was almost immediately moved back up because the amount of deadly car crashes skyrocketed.

maybe they could make it legal for all soldiers in service but keep the drinking age at 21 otherwise...

The point remains that it's illogical to place an 18 year old in front of a bullet, but not in front of a bottle. The bottle can kill, but so can everything else in this world. And what about smoking? That's far more deadly than drinking and an 18 year old can do that.

P.S. Move to CT please...

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

In Canada it's 19 (and 18 in some provinces). And we don't have a ****load of car crashes or anything, or at least I haven't heard about it.

You could probably lower it to 19 or 18, doesn't really matter, it would stop people from driving over the border to drink, like devonin said, and driving back, posing a risk to everyone on the road at the time.

The solution to drinking and driving isn't raising the age - instead, it's presenting alcohol education and teaching kids about what happens to their bodies when they drink alcohol. HONESTLY, and unbiasedly. None of this DARE crap. And while they're at it, they could teach you about some other drugs as well.

Also, making alcohol illegal wouldn't be very productive, considering that you can inadvertently create alcohol by letting your grape juice box sit for a little too long.

[awein999]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

maybe you are right that I am mistaken, I can not say I have any first hand experience with the drinking age lowered. But I think drinking is a nasty thing in general and nothing good can come out of lowering it. Your brain doesn't stop developing until you hit around 25 as it is. It stops developing earlier with too much alcohol or drug intake before that age. Foilman is right that it should be raised to 25 (and definitely not lowered) but it can't be because the general American population would override the government.

[Shashakiro]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

I also feel the drinking age should be 18, and I detest alcohol.

On an ever so slightly related note, I believe that if anything should be limited to 21+, it's driving, not drinking. Cars are way, way, way, way, way more dangerous than alcohol.

To echo Rubix...will elaborate on either point if asked

[awein999]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

I also feel the drinking age should be 18, and I detest alcohol.

On an ever so slightly related note, I believe that if anything should be limited to 21+, it's driving, not drinking. Cars are way, way, way, way, way more dangerous than alcohol.

To echo Rubix...will elaborate on either point if asked

yea that's a good point and please Rubix elaborate

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

I disagree, Chrissi. All the anti-drug and anti-alcohol programs they force us to go through simply annoy me.

The one thing that will teach a person not to do drugs or drink more than anything else is personal experience. I don't really want to go far into this, but I will if I must.

[TheGiantChicken]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Drinking Age = 18 in Manitoba, Canada.

Number of drunk drivers ramming into police skyrocketing, drunken killing at bars skyrocketing,

So it said on the Winnipeg Sun newspaper this morning...

[MystictheHedgehog]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

The solution to drinking and driving isn't raising the age - instead, it's presenting alcohol education and teaching kids about what happens to their bodies when they drink alcohol. HONESTLY, and unbiasedly. None of this DARE crap. And while they're at it, they could teach you about some other drugs as well.

Yeah, but how can we do that when in a lot of areas a normal education can't even be provided? I stated it an earlier post, I don't know how the education is wherever you may live, but here in Memphis, no, in fact, here in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas, from where I have been, is absolutely crap. There is no funding for education, there is over-crowding in schools, and there is no money for new teachers or new schools. It got bad enough here, that one high school turned an elementary school into a freshman annex, and sent those elementary kids to different schools and then making them over-crowded.

Granted, it's all nice sounding when you say it your way, but the fact remains, in most of the south, there just isn't the funding to give a proper education period.

EDIT: Yeah, Shash and Rubix I would love for the both of you to elaborate.

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

maybe you are right that I am mistaken, I can not say I have any first hand experience with the drinking age lowered. But I think drinking is a nasty thing in general and nothing good can come out of lowering it.

Again, it will lower the rates of organized crime. Without as much people going around underground getting liquor there won't be as many people saying "hahe you came here with your money for my booze now I'm going to kill you and take your money."

Your brain doesn't stop developing until you hit around 25 as it is. It stops developing earlier with too much alcohol or drug intake before that age. Foilman is right that it should be raised to 25 (and definitely not lowered) but it can't be because the general American population would override the government.

And they don't now? I know more underage drinkers than I do overage drinkers. It doesn't matter if the drinking age is raised to 25, the people will still drink. And it doesn't matter if the drinking age is lowered to 18, the people will still drink. At least if its lowered less people will be cluttering the jail cells. If they're all out buying liquor they'll mess up their lives, legally, and learn from it. Like I said, this personal experience is the best way to learn.

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

I disagree, Chrissi. All the anti-drug and anti-alcohol programs they force us to go through simply annoy me.

The one thing that will teach a person not to do drugs or drink more than anything else is personal experience. I don't really want to go far into this, but I will if I must.

They don't teach you honestly (in most places). All you get is DARE or DARE-like crap that's just "SAY NO" education. It works in a similar way to sexual abstinence education, and what I mean by that is, IT DOESN'T work.

When they talk about alcohol, they just tell you about its toxicity at high doses, and it's bad to drive while drinking. And they'll make up stories to scare you out of drinking alcohol or doing drugs.

I hate the way drug education is setup right now, and I could go into a very, very long rant on it, but basically, I firmly believe that if they would be HONEST, the education would work. Somehow, the government and educational institutions think that by lying to kids they can get them not to do drugs. But kids aren't dumb. They'll try drugs, find out the school is lying, and never trust them again. Then they'll do REALLY bad drugs to excess because they assume it's all okay because they were wrong about some of them.

When you claim harmless substances are harmful, and group them in with harmful substances, you've got a huge problem when it comes to education. It only works if you scare kids so badly that they never try drugs at all. And even then, you're cutting them short.

[-Yukari-]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Ahahahahaha, I just can't stop laughing at all the hypocrits I see in this thread. I see people saying the drinking age should be raised to __, and yet they were already drinking at age 18 OR LOWER.

Pathetic.

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Ahahahahaha, I just can't stop laughing at all the hypocrits I see in this thread. I see people saying the drinking age should be raised to __, and yet they were already drinking at age 18 OR LOWER.

Pathetic.

"Hypocrites" are just those who have seen the error of their ways.

[foilman8805]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

"Hypocrites" are just those who have seen the error of their ways.

I really appreciate this comment a lot. There is no better way to say it, and thank you for saying it.

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Ahahahahaha, I just can't stop laughing at all the hypocrits I see in this thread. I see people saying the drinking age should be raised to __, and yet they were already drinking at age 18 OR LOWER.

Pathetic.

Proof of this is... Nonexistant?

P.S. Chrissi, I read your reply I just didn't have a rebuttal.

[-lolwut-]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Ahahahahaha, I just can't stop laughing at all the hypocrits I see in this thread. I see people saying the drinking age should be raised to __, and yet they were already drinking at age 18 OR LOWER.

Pathetic.

Well, i've never drank or done any drugs and never plan on doing so. If people are going to do it i really don't think most are mature enough to handle it until they're mid 20's.