Would you vote for a measure to lower the drinking age to 18?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I think the drinking age is both goofy and arbitrary, for many of the reasons stated…

And I also remember many harrowing stories from my friends (I was a pathetically good kid) about drinking into oblivion on weekends, or whenever it was available, just b/c every time a minor drinks, they have to drink like it’s the last time because they don’t know when they’re gonna get it again. And they don’t know what they’re drinking, so they have no idea what the effects will be; any booze is guzzled booze. Laws that forbid the sale of alcohol to a minor don’t prevent minors from drinking; they just make the kids go underground, without any supervision.

Personally, I think letting them drink in public, whenever they like, vs. binging in parking-lots/the woods/at the beach/wherever, would encourage less reckless behavior.

I know I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as drunk as I did in college if it had been legal and accessible for me to drink any time…and honestly, once you take the “forbidden” aspect of it away, most people don’t drink as much once they’re legal as they did when they were minors.

I just don’t get what the Big Huge Deal is.

42

Agreed. I lived in Texas and turned 19 when the drinking age was 19. When I was 20, the legal drinking age changed to 21. WTF? It felt pretty arbitrary at the time.

43

Here, here!

When you realise you’re not immortal you can start taking lessons.

I have not real problem with 18 year olds enjoying a beer, but is there anyway we can control the amount they drink? When does the “okay, I think I’ve had enough thanks” gene develop? When does passing out, throwing up, blacking out, etc stop being fun? That’ the age I recommend.

44

Against.

45

I went to college in Louisiana when it was the ONLY state in the U.S. where the drinking age was 18. Sure, for the first month or so of Freshman year people went a bit overboard- this was a brand new freedom for all the students who came from other states. But after the first month things tapered off. No one planned their social time based on where and when they might be able to drink- we could drink wherever and whenever we wanted so it wasn’t a big deal. Also, being allowed to drink made us feel more grown-up so it quickly became very uncool to get one’s self all sloppy.
Comparing stories with my highschool friends, all of whom went to college in States where the drinking age was 21, I found that they were getting into some much scarier situations. At any opportunity to drink they would drink as much as they possibly could because they didn’t know when they would get the chance again. Also, because what they were doing was considered “taboo” they were more prone to breaking other taboos and not in the frame of mind to make safe choices.
In addition to all that, my college freinds and I did much cooler things than college kids in “21” states. We didn’t spend every Friday and Saturday night at a kegger. Keggers were no big deal, we could drink anywhere, so might as well go hear a band or check out an art gallery. Much cooler to have some wine at an art opening than to get wasted at a frat house.

46

Way to go, West Virginia! Who says stereotypes can’t be fun? (Have her marry your nephew and we’ve got all bases covered!)

47

I must be about a year older than you. I was always just one step ahead of the law, I think I must have been 20 when it went to 19, and was 21+ when it went to 21. At the time I thought it was funny, cause the guys a couple of years younger than me got cut off. I’m one of the ones who could legally buy alcohol in the last couple of months of my senior year of HS. Heady days.

48

Okay, how about we keep it at 21, but if you join the military, you can drink at 18. Or college sanctioned bars within the dorms. Only students can drink there and nobody drives.

And, I don’t think 18 year olds should be drinking while voting, it just isn’t right.

49

I like that. I bet it would be a great recruiting tool for the military. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t do much for our military capabilities, having all those drunk 18-year-olds out there on the front lines.

50

Yes.

51

I think that changing the drinking age still doesn’t change the taboo. Even if they’re allowed by law it doesn’t mean they are allowed by their family. The same people would still be able to binge drink, only they would be able to go anywhere and do it.

I would be all for abolishing a drinking age or setting a much lower limit if you could take away how our society treats drinking in the first place. Also if you could make things more accessible by public transit too. I’d rather some one learn their drinking limit first than start driving than doing it the other way around.

Maybe it’s just where I live that makes me feel this way. These are the same people that got voted the # 1 party school a few years back and were proud of it.

52

They don’t drink on the front lines. Unlike those lucky Brits, we don’t get alcohol allotments at the front.

We make up for it while on-base, though. From what I’ve heard, the 82nd Airborne is made up of the most in-shape alcoholics in the Army.
At any rate, I’m for it. I admit that my perspective is skewed, though, because I took my time with everything when I was young. I didn’t have sex until I was 17, didn’t get my driver’s liscence until I was 17 1/2, and didn’t have my first real drink until I was 20. All through my own decisions.

53

When you hit 18, you’re expected to be an adult. Go off to college, be responsible, get a job, vote, be an independent human being. Here is a new set of responsibilities - you’re all grown-up now, make us proud.
But Dad can have a Bud and you can’t. :eek:
It doesn’t make sense to me that they are deemed capable of handling every other aspect of their lives as adults, but they can’t be trusted to drink responsibly.

Besides, reducing the legal age to 18 might cut down on the numbers of drunk Boston (AND Vermont, and NH - the Boston ones are just louder and therefore more noticeable! :slight_smile: ) kids reeling through the streets of Montreal every summer.

54

Well, at the risk of hijacking the thread, I’ll expand. I’m bothered by a couple of trends – first of all, the fact that college in the US is rapidly becoming an extension of high school, something that middle- and upper-class 18-year-olds are expected to do without thinking harder about when and why they want to go to college. Also, the increasing number of general ed requirements at many colleges means that students are often into their second or third year before they have to make a single independent decision regarding their education. (BTW, I teach two of those required freshman courses, and I’m well aware that I’m arguing myself out of a job here – but I do feel strongly that we ought to trust students to make intelligent decisions about courses if we’re going to admit them to college at all.)

The other trend that concerns me is the tendency of colleges to treat students, especially young women, as if they were incapable of making the most basic decisions about their social lives. (The most egregious example I’ve come across was a recent news article about a report by the Duke University Women’s Initiative which advised, among other things, that the university administration should improve the lot of female students by encouraging the development of a formal dating culture rather than a casual “hooking-up” culture; even if it were possible to impose such a change from above, I doubt very much that the current social situation at Duke was foisted on female students without their consent.) The push toward “dry campuses” and more restrictive alcohol regulations also falls into this category, IMO.

55

I think that, at age 18, a person should be able to apply for a drivers license and/or a drinking license after passing the appropriate exam.

56

If you’re old enough to die for this country, then you’re old enough to get legally drunk, too.

57

Would those of you who wouldn’t lower the drinking age support making parents legally responsible for their children until age 21? SnoopyFan has already mentioned that she would raise the voting age. If you’re not old enough to have a beer, how can you be considered old enough to sign a contract, join the military, get married, etc?

Like Fretful Porpentine, I’ve noticed the trend toward treating young adults, particularly college students, as minors. It seems like the action of baby boomers who want to artificially prolong their children’s childhood. It’s also pretty damn condescending to the countless 18-20-year-olds who hold down jobs, serve in the military, have children, put themselves through school, and so on. I suspect that the end result will be a lot of awfully immature 21-year-olds.

58

I’d vote for it. In fact, I’d show up the minute the polls opened to vote for it, even though I usually vote absentee.

Not because of a discrepancy between the voting age and the drinking age–raising the voting age is a step in the wrong direction–but because 21 is just too damn high. If 18 or lower is good enough for every other civilized country, it’s good enough for us.

59

I’ve thought about this before. I believe that people have to learn to handle drinking. During the initial years, people are pretty irresponsible with it, but I think a lot of that is because they have to learn to respect it. My biggest problem with the drinking age is that when someone is 21, they already take driving for granted. I think it should be the opposite. They should already know how to drink when they learn how to drive.

I think the drinking age should be lowered and the driving age raised.

60

I’m Australian, but I’m guessing American teens are much the same as Australian teens.

The legal drinking age here is 18, which I think is fine. I think 21 is too high. 18 is when you become an adult, there shouldn’t be any sort of semi-adult status. I’m 19, and so I’ve been allowed to drink in public for a year. It would feel really, really weird going to America and not being able to go have a drink in a pub. I wouldn’t be happy. It would feel like I was being treated as a child.

Most people in Australia are out of school by the time they turn 18, so that isn’t an issue here. But, I think, teens who want alcohol would find some way of getting it, however hard it was.

Most schoolies are under 18. Many bring tons of alcohol from home, get drunk in their hotel rooms, then go out. Or, they stay in their hotel rooms and keep drinking there all week.

From my experience, most schoolies don’t have an awfully good time. They go expecting to get laid every night, when all that happens is they get drunk and wander the streets bored. Then they get up at 12 the next day with a hangover and their belongings gone and start drinking again.

I went to the coast during schoolies week, but we didn’t stay at Surfers. we stayed down the coast a bit more where it was really quiet. Great week off. :slight_smile: But we did go up to Surfers one night but we left after half an hour because all it was was drunk teenagers wandering around being stupid. No atmosphere whatsoever.

Anyway, that’s my irrelevant schoolies rant. :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree with this completely. I also think a lot of teens think it’s “cool” to get blind drunk because it is illegal.

Are people in America allowed to gamble at 18? What about go into nightclubs?