Do you think the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18?

I watched a program on this about a year ago, I think, and the people who were for it had a really good argument.

- If you're old enough to enlist in the military and fight across seas for our country, when you're 18, then you should be able to sit down and have a beer if you want to.
- If 18 is considered an adult in the US, then you should be able to buy a beer.

What are your opinions?

I didn't see a thread for this but lock if duplicate.

I did a presentation on support of lowering the drinking age last year for English.

In many other countries around the world, they teach their kids how to drink responsibly at a young age. It's every common in religions too, like Judaism.

But those countries also have more severe penalties for drinking and driving. In some countries first time offenders get the death penalty.

I'm all for a lower drinking age but I think we need to teach kids to be more responsible first.

I agree with England's Dreaming you should be aloud be drink at 18 but we need to teach our kids how to do it responsibly.

Drinking is something that your not aloud to do and something you want to do so when you can do it you go overboard.

We need to stop making drinking and sex such big deals you would be surprised how much car crashes caused by drunk drivers would decreased if the age was lowered.

ScarletFire:

We need to stop making drinking and sex such big deals you would be surprised how much car crashes caused by drunk drivers would decreased if the age was lowered.

There is no way that road accidents would decrease if the drinking age was lowered. Making it legal to drive at the age of 18 will only be another excuse to drive under the influence.

If the age is to be lowered then we need to be making children aware of responsible drinking at a younger age, and follow this up long after they turn 18. Can't just simply change the age.

I have to say, I'm from Australia and the drinking age here is 18. In high school, some attempt is made to educate us on drinking, but it isn't intensive. Most of it doesn't really sink in. Most teenagers still experiment with alcohol before 18, whether it's just some of their parent's wine, or full on binges and everything in between.

I don't believe that any set age - whether it's 16, 18, 21, whatever - is going to stop people from drinking. If it was lowered to 18 over there, you'd have the same problem with underaged drinking. I believe it's inevitable.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if it were lowered, it wouldn't solve any problems, and it may not create any new problems either.

^ Yeah, I agree. The drinking age really isn't that effective anyway--I've tried beer several times, and many of my friends have tried alcohol at one point or another as well.

With that in mind, I don't see any reason that the drinking age shouldn't be lowered. It would make a lot more sense. Frankly, though, the very concept of a drinking age is stupid to me, since it can't be enforced. *steps off soapbox*

Bardot.:

I have to say, I'm from Australia and the drinking age here is 18. In high school, some attempt is made to educate us on drinking, but it isn't intensive. Most of it doesn't really sink in. Most teenagers still experiment with alcohol before 18, whether it's just some of their parent's wine, or full on binges and everything in between.

I don't believe that any set age - whether it's 16, 18, 21, whatever - is going to stop people from drinking. If it was lowered to 18 over there, you'd have the same problem with underaged drinking. I believe it's inevitable.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if it were lowered, it wouldn't solve any problems, and it may not create any new problems either.

I agree. It's 18 in England and there were a few scares that the Government wanted to raise the drinking age to 21 because of all the young people drinking. If 13 year olds get alcohol now they're always going to get it.

It must be weird to be an adult in America and not being able to drink though so they should lower it to 18 if you are considered an adult at 18.

We had a gruelling alcohol education. I couln't believe the mince that these folk believed.

As long as it's taboo, it will be attractive to teenagers. In continental Europe, they're introduced to alcohol relatively young. Compared to the very unhealthy relationship that we Scots have, it is just better.

I'm not much of a drinker myself. I prefer braising beef in wine than drinking the stuff.

I think we should lower it to 18. Like the first post said, if you're old enough to get enlisted in the military and die for your country, you should be old enough to enjoy a beer.

I think it should be lowered.

Mainly because when kids go off to college, they just let loose and get all stupid and crazy with alcohol. If it's lowered to 18, they can drink around mom and dad, and learn to do it in a more responsible manner. That way, there wouldn't be a lot of stupid freshmen breaking their legs because they were drunk and fell out of their loft.

According to my P.E teachers, the legal age has been chosen for a specific reason. The brain is said to be still developing around until a person is in their early twenties. Now, from what I've heard, exposing a developing brain to repeated instances of wilful damage (which is what alcohol basically does- kills braincells) is likely to increase a person's chance of long term brain damage. So I guess it's meant to be protective. But of course, that's completely ignoring that the majority of what we humans do for pleasure can be life-threatening...

The way I see it is that there's no real point. You put the limit to any age, you'll still have young people abusing alcohol. It's just something that can't be changed. Sure, in countries like France where they give fourteen year olds glasses of wine with their meal, teen alcohol abuse isn't as common. But it still happens. Like most things, laws can't completely eradicate the problem.

I'm from Australia, and I've heard that there's talk about raising it from age 18 to 21.
It doesn't stop people underage drinking of course; I know someone who first got drunk at 13 and apparently there's a binge drinking problem here (but I'm not sure if it's as bad as the media sometimes makes it out to be).

Whatever the age, as some posts above said, people are still going to find ways to drink.

If kids can get it aged 13 then they'll get it.

You have to make it so frumpy and uninteresting that they won't bother with it. :XD

What's weird is my sister loves going on the sauce. But ever since she's been "legal", she's not really drank at all. :XD

Edmund Blackadder.:

If kids can get it aged 13 then they'll get it.

You have to make it so frumpy and uninteresting that they won't bother with it. :XD

What's weird is my sister loves going on the sauce. But ever since she's been "legal", she's not really drank at all. :XD

Some of the appeal is doing it because you know it's wrong.

The continental European in me wonders how it's possible for somebody not to drink until they're 21. I mean, I don't even like drinking, I've just experienced it when I was, hmm, 13 or 14. I don't think the vast majority of young people here drink "because it's wrong", drinking is just associated with parties and once people enter high school they start throwing and attending parties, going to clubs, etc.

Being in Scotland, our legal drinking age is already 18, and like many others I've heard about it being put up to 21.
I might be biased here but I think that's a bad idea to raise it. I'm probably only saying this because I turn 18 in two days!
Plus if they did that now then they'd have to tell all the 18/19/20 year olds that they can now not get any alcohol and that wouldn't go down well.

I can't wait to be able to drink legally and go out and drink too. I was never one to go out underage and get rat-arsed in pubs and clubs [I've never actually been properly drunk] but now that I know I'm going to be 18 and be able to do it properly then I want to.

See, I think that nightclubs [since thats where most underagers get in and served alcohol] should have the think 25 policy like our supermarkets do, if you look under 25 then you need ID, since it's easier to decipher between an 18 year old and a 25 year old. That would decrease underage drinking. It would decrease their profits though so I guess that's why they don't do it. They may still get it from friends/siblings/parents but supermarkets try to stop that too.

At school our alcohol education was little and not very interesting. Students saw what it did but they didn't care because teachers were saying not to do it so they automatically wanted to. It's the same with drugs I suppose.

There is no way that road accidents would decrease if the drinking age was lowered. Making it legal to drive at the age of 18 will only be another excuse to drive under the influence.

If the age is to be lowered then we need to be making children aware of responsible drinking at a younger age, and follow this up long after they turn 18. Can't just simply change the age.If we lower the age it won't seem as taboo to teenagers, which will make it seem less interesting.

My eldest sister who my mother allowed a drink every now and then when she was younger, Now she is old enough to drink she tells me that it took all the fun out of it. She doesn't drink and drive or go out all night parting.

Personal experience has taught me that if we make it seem less taboo, people aren't going to spend all there time parting and drinking

Also I should have said in young people the crashes would decrease

^Well, that isn't really how it works here in Australia, where the drinking age is already 18. Kids still go out and party and binge drink and have road accidents because they're under the influence. Lowering it won't stop these problems, it will just be the same shit but younger people.

I think it should be legal to drink at age eighteen. If you're an adult at age eighteen, and if you can smoke and do virtually anything at that age, then why can't you drink? It's getting kids into a sticky situation, and it's getting kids kicked out of college. The kids that have to sneak around to get alcohol always end up in the worst situations: behind bars or with alcohol poisoning.

If we'd lower the drinking age and instill more information into our kids about how to drink responsibly, I think we wouldn't have such a problem with it as we do now.

I live in New Zealand, and the drinking age is 18 here.

I think that the drinking age in America, among other places, should be the same as it is in France. And by that, I mean... whatever theirs is. >_>

Anyway, they drink from an early age, which means they get used to it and learn to be responsible around alcohol and they don't make such a fuss of drinking, and therefore, they don't go overboard.

Also, the fact that you're an adult, yet can't legally make this decision for yourself is kind of unnerving.