Poll: Drinking Ages

[Jobz]

That's not actually true. There is no Federal law in the U.S. on drinking--the Amendment repealing Prohibition gave back exclusive control of liquor consumption laws to the states, possibly even more control than they had originally under their Constitutional Police Powers.

Regardless of technicalities, the drinking age where I am is 21. If anyone under that age is caught drinking or attempting to purchase liquor they can be (I believe) arrested and charged with a misdemeanor.

 

[Lt. Sera]

Sucks to be an American i guess, 16 for Beer here, 18 for the more serious stuff. The age limitation has nearly no effect though, first time i was getting drunk was when i was 12, and it wasn't hard to get a hold of a couple of beers/bottle of liquor either.

I understand that the government has to draw a line somewhere, but 21 seems rather high.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I can agree with a couple of you. The "Forbidden Fruit" theory is a great one, unfortunately, the ability to buy alcohol in college where there is no supervision could be devastating for a couple years. To break it down no supervision + all the beer you can buy and not get arrested = bad news.

the laws regarding public intoxication would still be there, but they just couldn't be arrested for possession of it

At the same time, it was 18 for a long time when my parents were growing up and I would love to see if drunk driving deaths and death by alcohol went up or down.

would stay about the same with no real change

lowering the drinking age wouldn't be a bad thing, if anything it would be more helpful as bartenders can cut ppl off, tho the issue of binge drinking at frat parties would still be there

the biggest issue is changing society to stop regarding booze as a bad thing and teach kids to drink responsibly. this gets lumped into the same pile as abstinence only teaching for sex that kids recieve and then parents are shocked, shocked,SHOCKED i say when their precious little snow flakes get pregnant or some sort of nasty std

 

[Uszi]

Your poll seems flawed, obviously there is a wide range of possibilities between "Non existent" and "Only a little bit."

And I feel like we should specify what we're talking about here: We talk about binge drinking, in general, but your post only references kids in college. There are adults and alcoholics who will binge drink many years after they are 21.

So...
If we're only talking about reducing college binge drinking, I vote yes: It should reduce it considerably. Generally speaking, freshmen get onto their campus and they go buck-fucking-wild when they no longer have their parents over the shoulder and they have easy access. I think that the earlier and more frequent the exposure to moderate/light drinking, the less tempting binge drinking is.

Cause lets face it: Those of us at who binge engaged in binge drinking, till we puked, when we were 18, usually have much more moderate and mature attitudes towards the substance when we are 21. Maybe we still occasionally got shit faced, but a beer became something to enjoy at a restaraunt, not something to be scarfed down in 3 seconds.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

So no votes for prohibition?

I'm all for having the freedom to do what you want to your own body... but why is it the legal substances are also the most harmful? Tobacco, alcohol, certain perscription meds... I saw one, one of the possible side-effects was DEATH!

 

[BishopOfBattle]

There are adults and alcoholics who will binge drink many years after they are 21.

Its not binge drinking if you do it every night. ^_~

Given the college setting, binge drinking is a product of the social setting, not the age or an age restriction. Its perhaps less common, but binge drinking happens in high school too. And, as Uszi points out, binge drinking continues to happen after college.

Will lowering the drinking age decrease binge drinking? Not likely. Though that's not to say there aren't other reasons it should be lowered.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

Britain has a legal age for drinking at 18.

Germany has a legal age for drinking (non-spirits) at 16 (with spirits at 18). Please correct me if I am wrong and you are german.

Britain has a higher amount of "binge drinking" and a higher teenage-pregnancies statistic. Let's all gather round and think about where Mr Archaeology Hat stands on this issue

 

[PsykoDragon]

Britain has a legal age for drinking at 18.

Germany has a legal age for drinking (non-spirits) at 16 (with spirits at 18). Please correct me if I am wrong and you are german.

Britain has a higher amount of "binge drinking" and a higher teenage-pregnancies statistic. Let's all gather round and think about where Mr Archaeology Hat stands on this issue

I think that has more to do with the childrens' educations from both schools & parents, as well as Britain's culture, than the drinking. And teenage angst.

In the end, I say: Show a person what it's like to get drunk (by getting him/her drunk), &, while s/he may binge once in a while fofun, s/he'll soon learn how terrible it feels, & will learn him/herself to regulate the amount s/he drinks.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

It would change not a damn thing. Not in this country, anyway, drinking is our culture.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

It would change not a damn thing. Not in this country, anyway, drinking is our culture.

Part of my country's culture too.
Though... probably not quite as much as it would be in your case...

 

[Easykill]

Dunno, but it just pisses me off that the age you're allowed to vote is before the age you're allowed to drink. If you're mature enough to make a decision that affects an entire city, you're mature enough to manage your consumption of alcohol.

 

[Captain Wes]

So no votes for prohibition?

I'm all for having the freedom to do what you want to your own body... but why is it the legal substances are also the most harmful? Tobacco, alcohol, certain perscription meds... I saw one, one of the possible side-effects was DEATH!

you honestly think tobacco is more dangerous than heroin or meth?

 

[Robert0288]

Canada has drinking laws set by individual provinces. For instance Ontario its 19 while in Quebec (on a 5 min drive away for me) the legal age is 18. Personally I think that since under the law you can vote, be sent to war, and by law your defined as an adult. You should have all the responsibilities and priviledges of an adult.

Drinking age doesn't effect what age you start drinking at, just and what age you can easily get it. What matters more is how you are raised.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Canada has drinking laws set by individual provinces. For instance Ontario its 19 while in Quebec (on a 5 min drive away for me) the legal age is 18.

that's to purchase alcohol, you are able to drink under age in ontario if it's in your house, you have a person there to supervise and you don't go anywhere

friend was 18 and had the cops come looking for him and he was drunk, cops said he was fine to drink as long as he didn't leave and there was someone of age to supervise

 

[N_of_the_dead]

drinking ages are just an imaginary line someone drew in the sand to placate paretns to get votes becuase parents dont want to believe its their fault that their kid got shit faced and got caught pissing in the middle of the street by the neighbors. im all for younger drinking age in the U.S. the only difference then now and if that happens is that i wont have to bother people i know who are 21 to get me beer and rum

 

[Corven]

I don't really understand age limits, there is no maturity difference for a teenager between the ages of 15 through 18 or 21 in this matter. people don't go through some meta-physical maturity experience when they turn 18 or 21 where they understand the consequences of what you can do at those ages, they're still the same person and will most likely make the same mistakes.

 

[Jamash]

Part of the reason the drinking age is at 18 & smoking age is 16, is that before that age our bodies are still growing, so smoking & drinking too young can irrevocably damage our bodies & stunt growth.

If anything, I think the age limit should be raised, 18 is quite an ambiguous looking age & under 18's can pass for 18, but if it was 21 or higher then it would probably be more difficult for teenagers to buy alcohol.

Also I think that the law should be changed, so that if any kid is arrested or found to be drinking, then they should be tried as an adult & fact adult punishments, I mean if they want to consume adult drinks then they should also have all the responsibilities which go with that.

 

[xitel]

Dunno, but it just pisses me off that the age you're allowed to vote is before the age you're allowed to drink. If you're mature enough to make a decision that affects an entire city, you're mature enough to manage your consumption of alcohol.

I find that the real problem with this is that most people who are 18-21 choose not to vote, so we can't elect people that would change the laws in our favor.

 

[Radelaide]

18 should be the golden age. For some odd reason, we can vote and shoot people the government tells to at 18, but we can't drink alcohol.

They want at least ONE sober person voting at elections.

 

[Jamanticus]

So my question to you, including the folks here that are non-American, is this: do you think that lowering the drinking age would lead to a decrease in binge-drinking in 18-21 year olds?

Possibly, but, the drinking age isn't about binge drinking, it's about drunk driving accidents. It hurts my alcoholic liver to say this, but, every statistic I've seen shows that there's a huge gain in safety to be had from the 21 years drinking age.

Where I am now for college however (The USA) the drinking age is 21

That's not actually true. There is no Federal law in the U.S. on drinking--the Amendment repealing Prohibition gave back exclusive control of liquor consumption laws to the states, possibly even more control than they had originally under their Constitutional Police Powers.

Now, there is a traffic safety law at the Federal level that withholds highway funds under the Spending Clause from states that do not set the alcohol purchasing age at 21.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act_of_1984


As for alcohol consumption laws, see this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Underage_consumption_map_2007.gif

................All 50 states in the US have the drinking age set at 21, so I do not see your point. I mean, it's an interesting thing that none of the states are actually required to set the legal drinking age at 21 (even though they have incentive to do so), but the fact is that all of them have 21 as the legal drinking age. I think Jobz's statement was completely true......