Maybe the Drinking Age in the US should be Lowered?

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I don't think changing the drinking age to 18 will help one bit.

The legal age for smoking is 18, and kids still smoke underage. And they smoke when they're legal. Lots.

People are going to binge drink in college regardless of whether the legal age is 18 or 21. If the legal age is changed to 18, college students will just be binge drinking legally instead of illegally.

 
Originally Posted by Darla_G /img/forum/go_quote.gif But you see Jinx that's probably the wrong approach. Binge drinking for underage people is worse today (based on medical statistics about alchohol related visits) than prior to the raising of drinking ages and also worse than those countries that have a younger drinking age.
Changing the drinking age upward would only exacerbate the problem.

What would lowering it do?Just make it legal for younger people to drink; people that are still in high school, people that barely have a driver's license.

I am not saying there is ANY solution, but lowering the age is definitely not going to help.

If you have 18 year olds who can buy alcohol, then you will have 15-16 friends of 18 year olds who will have then have more access to the alcohol. A 15-16 year with access has friends who are 14 and even 13.

Lowering the age won't help.

Not glamorizing alcohol will; taking the mystery and therefore the excitment out of it will.

 
Originally Posted by pinksugar /img/forum/go_quote.gif In Europe (france and italy particularly) the attitude is that wine and other alcoholic beverages are a part of a meal, and children much younger than 21 or 18 drink with dinner. I have to say, I was brought up in the same way, when i was 10 or 11 I was allowed to drink watered down wine at Christmas or special functions - and I believe I have a healthy attitude toward drinking. I consider it part of a meal, and I think this is the best approach to introducing kids to alcohol - in a safe environment, with their parents, where they can learn to appreciate it as an addition to a nice meal, rather than something 'naughty' or 'bad' that one can only enjoy as an 'adult'. I second this, until not so long ago, a glass of wine would accompany lunch and dinner, plus the usual "aperitif" before those two meals.
My parents hate drinkers more than anything, my mom worked in my grandfather's café, and my dad is a cop, prone to be on the field after a car accident.

As a teenager i was allowed a small glass of wine, just a few mouthfuls to taste it. It is okay, in my family, to open a bottle of wine when friends are invited or on special occasions. We enjoy it, and we know the rarer the better. Even during those occasions, you will see me reach for water as i don't particularly like the taste of wine.

Coming from France, where the big difference lies in the number 18, i always found it strange if i was to visit London i would only get a lemonade.

If you're old enough to vote, imo you should also be old enough to be allowed to drink, actually to be allowed to make your choice, to drink or not to drink.

I notice lots of you talk about the youngsters' attitude, and how they will drink, like it's a fact you can't escape. Let's make a difference between those who will not drink (because i think they exist
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), those who will have one glass, every once in a while, and stop at that, and those who will abuse it. There lies the danger. Let's not be so desperate about the college students.

Also, while we're talking about what the youngsters do and don't, don't forget it is an age we all like to the "test" the rules, and what's illegal tastes better. Lowering the drinking age limit would have that effect that legal at 18, some might think it's not worth it.

 
I disagree .. mind u I despise alcohol

what it does to a person etc

I totally agree

Originally Posted by Jinx /img/forum/go_quote.gif What would lowering it do?Just make it legal for younger people to drink; people that are still in high school, people that barely have a driver's license.

I am not saying there is ANY solution, but lowering the age is definitely not going to help.

If you have 18 year olds who can buy alcohol, then you will have 15-16 friends of 18 year olds who will have then have more access to the alcohol. A 15-16 year with access has friends who are 14 and even 13.

Lowering the age won't help.

Not glamorizing alcohol will; taking the mystery and therefore the excitment out of it will.

Originally Posted by StereoXGirl /img/forum/go_quote.gif People are going to binge drink in college regardless of whether the legal age is 18 or 21. If the legal age is changed to 18, college students will just be binge drinking legally instead of illegally.

Exactly
 
I think that the age of majority in the US should be 21. Be an adult, drink and vote at the same birthday. I don't think 18 year old people in the main are mature enough to make adult decisions. Medical/brain research supports this. See, for example Dartmouth News - Brain changes significantly after age 18, says Dartmouth research - 02/06/06

In my criminal practice I see the results of 18 year olds making immature choices resulting in a serious criminal records and going to jail when they should have treatment. Just my point of view. I was 18 when the law was changed to allow drinking and I was over 21 when it went back up to 21. I did a lot of drinking in college-a lifetime's worth. I'm not sure that making it easier for people to drink is the answer. I don't know what the answer is...

 
i am one of those who drank before 18, very few times &n' mostly behaved until i turned 21 &n' i still don't drink as often as my peers have or still do.

i agree for sure, as someone who hangs with a bunch of 21 yr olds that when at the age, the appeal of alcohol isn't so great as it was when it was illegal. i see my younger friends &n' alcohol is like god to them.

my british friends though, i feel are more responsible &n' aren't they extremely strict over there with drivving? that's the thing... my ex, he still doesn't have a permit or anything &n' has been doin driving courses still &n' he's gunna be 20 yrs old. it took me some months when i was 16 to get mines &n' i took the behind the wheel once &n' im done with my driving lessons. so that could play a part why drunk driving happens so frequently here... its handed to us easily. &n' they're use to driving buses &n' depending on taxis while for us its not the norm. we rely on the most sober person to drive us home!

a lot of factors play into it. i believe the age for drinkin should be lowered &n' driving lessons should be more strict... once you have that ability to drink whenever you want at a younger age, the feelings of wanting it goes away more quickly &n' doesn't become such "taboo"

 
I sort of knew this would be controversial which is why I posted it. We need to stir things up on occasion as long as we respect the right for everyone to have an opinion.

I have read all the posts and a few things hit me.

  • Why does there seem to be a disparity between how alcohol is dealt with between the US and a good part of the rest of the world.
  • How do other countries "educate" their youth about alcohol?
  • Why can't the traffic laws that are on the books be more effectively enforced?
 
to answer one of the questions, Darla: educating the youth about alcohol or other drugs doesn´t really exist in Austria. We also don´t have sex ed (biology classes cover the scientific areas of sexuality, but that´s about it), yet the teen pregnancy rates aren´t very high.

What I´m getting to is that things like that aren´t seen as a taboo in Europe.

We all know things that are taboo are much more appealing to young people, whether it be premarital sex, drinking alcohol, doing drugs etc

Nobody will tell you drinking when you haven´t reached the legal drinking age yet is morally wrong, it´s being written off as young people experimenting. Breaking those laws isn´t seen as a big deal, unless you end up in the hospital with alcohol intoxication or hurt other people by driving drunk.

I´m not saying this is right, I just think the society in the US is very strict on the youth and pushes a lot of morals upon them. Personally, I´d feel suffocated and I´d wanna do exactly what they don´t want me to do lol

 
Originally Posted by CellyCell /img/forum/go_quote.gif &n' you wanna live here, anders? pfft.i don't see the appeal in america, haha.

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Hmm...I don't know, I was never tempted to drink when I was told not to. But, then again, my friends didn't drink either.

My parents drink a glass of wine a day, and I won't let them near me with it because just the smell alone makes me feel like vomiting. lol!

 
Andi has a point, though. Drinking isn't taboo in itself, abuse is, so if you end at the hospital or kill someone while driving drunk, you're just a person who couldn't control herself. In France we also have many advertising campaigns against driving drunk. The alcohol tests are available quite easily, so everything is made, i think, to minimize the drinking instead of a total forbidding.

 
Originally Posted by magosienne /img/forum/go_quote.gif Andi has a point, though. Drinking isn't taboo in itself, abuse is, so if you end at the hospital or kill someone while driving drunk, you're just a person who couldn't control herself. In France we also have many advertising campaigns against driving drunk. The alcohol tests are available quite easily, so everything is made, i think, to minimize the drinking instead of a total forbidding. we have that too, at outdoor festivals and in clubbing areas in the bigger cities there are these people walking around offering alcohol tests. You pay like $5 and they test your level (breath test). Not sure how accurate they are, but I still think it´s a good idea.
And a lot of towns here have night bus systems, so you can take the bus home from the bar if a taxi is too expensive.

 
We also have the nightbus system, plus special schedules on weekends for the buses and metro.

The breath tests are not the most accurate, it only tells you if you're drunk or not, which i think is already a good indicator. The cops have also the electronic version, which is much more precise and gives us a number (grams of alcohol per blood liter).

 
Originally Posted by Andi /img/forum/go_quote.gif we have that too, at outdoor festivals and in clubbing areas in the bigger cities there are these people walking around offering alcohol tests. You pay like $5 and they test your level (breath test). Not sure how accurate they are, but I still think it´s a good idea.
And a lot of towns here have night bus systems, so you can take the bus home from the bar if a taxi is too expensive.

about the testing. i bet in the US there would be idiots that would see how high a score they could get!
 
Originally Posted by Andi /img/forum/go_quote.gif we have that too, at outdoor festivals and in clubbing areas in the bigger cities there are these people walking around offering alcohol tests. You pay like $5 and they test your level (breath test). Not sure how accurate they are, but I still think it´s a good idea.
And a lot of towns here have night bus systems, so you can take the bus home from the bar if a taxi is too expensive.

We have bars here that have automated breath testers; I wouldn't depend on them if my life depended on them (and it would, I guess); if the state police have problems with properly calibrated breathalyzers then how on earth could a non regulated one be accurate? Especially in a bar with drunks bumping into it all night.You can even buy your own My Personal Breathalyzer

Breathalyzer.net: Consumer Breathalyzers / Personal Breath Alcohol Testers

which I have never used and don't know how accurate it is but might be willing to try it as opposed to the ones mounted in bars.

 
I don't know if I really believe the drinking age should be lowered for the general population. But I definitely believe our soldiers should be able to legally drink. My husband has signed his life over to the government to fight for their asses, and he can't even buy beer.

 

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