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

Fitzwilliam Darcy:

Could you clarify what you believe my argument to be, before we proceed?

That it's harder for those younger than the drinking age to obtain alcohol? I know what you're saying.

I'm saying if you don't think those younger than the drinking age should obtain alcohol, then wouldn't you agree that those who can obtain it be completely developed (as far as their brain is concerned) to make that choice to drink or not.

Jewel Nicole:

That it's harder for those younger than the drinking age to obtain alcohol? I know what you're saying.

I'm saying if you don't think those younger than the drinking age should obtain alcohol, then wouldn't you agree that those who can obtain it be completely developed (as far as their brain is concerned) to make that choice to drink or not.

I didn't assume you didn't know what I meant. I only wished to know for myself if we were on the same page.

To answer, no. I don't think that. The reason being we can't wait 25 years for people to start making important decisions, because if that's the case, then they shouldn't be making important decisions like voting, future careers, college, relationships, army etc,. What I'm saying is that the age is where it is for a long time (where I'm from) and whether it's raised or lowered, there will be still be people who are willing to obtain it for others.

I'm 17, and in about 6 months I'll be 18. There are kids in my grade who are going to be 18 sooner than me and I don't think they should be able to legally drink. I see the decisions they make now, what are they going to do when they're 18, just another year older? The day you turn a specific age your mind doesn't magically mature + help you make better decisions. If they're already drinking and driving at 16 + 17, why would I want it to become easier for them to get alcohol at 18? I don't think 75% of 18 year old people decent decision making. Most 18 year old people don't automatically understand their responsibilities as "adults" and I'm sure you can understand what I mean by looking at people that age. Whether it's someone you know personally, someone you've seen around or someone you've seen on a reality TV show, you all know that not every 18 year old is going to drink responsibly. I don't care that I have to wait until I'm 21 before I can buy my own alcohol. I'd rather know people my age aren't going to be driving across from me drunk. I'm not saying all 18 year olds will abuse alcohol, but generally they do without even legally being able to drink. And if it was legal I can see it become 10x worse than it already is. Then again, I'm in the middle of New York state so I don't know how it is for other Americans.

Then again, I can see how people are mad that we can enlist in the army/military/whatever at 18 but we can't drink. But, then again, it's your choice to enlist. You're doing it with good intentions I'm assuming. Not every 18 year old knows when to stop drinking. If 40 year old people drive drunk, why wouldn't an 18 year old?

I'm conflicted on this topic.

On one hand, 21 is completely fine by me, and it gives people time to mature if they weren't so when they were 18. They've had more experience in the world. People are less inclined to make stupid decisions, and they're typically smarter about what they do before drinking.

On the other, most teenagers don't even think twice about the drinking age. There is underage drinking everywhere. Which, unfortunately, can also come with drinking and driving. But while the U.S. age of drinking is 21, the ages all around the world are different: 18, to the lowest at 16, I believe.

So, if it were up to me, I'd probably keep it at 21, no matter how annoying the wait will be.

The Real Mitt Romney:

I'm 17, and in about 6 months I'll be 18. There are kids in my grade who are going to be 18 sooner than me and I don't think they should be able to legally drink. I see the decisions they make now, what are they going to do when they're 18, just another year older? The day you turn a specific age your mind doesn't magically mature + help you make better decisions. If they're already drinking and driving at 16 + 17, why would I want it to become easier for them to get alcohol at 18? I don't think 75% of 18 year old people decent decision making. Most 18 year old people don't automatically understand their responsibilities as "adults" and I'm sure you can understand what I mean by looking at people that age. Whether it's someone you know personally, someone you've seen around or someone you've seen on a reality TV show, you all know that not every 18 year old is going to drink responsibly. I don't care that I have to wait until I'm 21 before I can buy my own alcohol. I'd rather know people my age aren't going to be driving across from me drunk. I'm not saying all 18 year olds will abuse alcohol, but generally they do without even legally being able to drink. And if it was legal I can see it become 10x worse than it already is. Then again, I'm in the middle of New York state so I don't know how it is for other Americans.

Then again, I can see how people are mad that we can enlist in the army/military/whatever at 18 but we can't drink. But, then again, it's your choice to enlist. You're doing it with good intentions I'm assuming. Not every 18 year old knows when to stop drinking. If 40 year old people drive drunk, why wouldn't an 18 year old?

This pretty much sums up what I think minus the fact that I'm 22.

Fellow New Yorker!

I think it should be lowered. First off, most people already drink before 21. They get alcohol from friends/family, fake IDs or just steal it. Some grow up drinking, so they will continue doing so when underage. Then there is the fact you can legally do a lot of stuff at age 18, yet you can't drink. You can fight for your country, vote, as well as buy cigarettes, so why not drink as well? Also most countries have a lower age limit. If I remember right, USA is one of the few that actually has 21 to get alcohol.

I do know that each state has certain laws for underage drinking (or some do at least). For instance you can have so much if it's like a family gathering or something like that. Pretty much you can't get drunk.

I'm conflicted about it, but I will point out that the reasoning of lowering it because people already drink earlier than the required age by law is not actually a logical argument.

I had my first drink at 13, because I had terrible friends and I was spiraling out of control. I know a lot of people that had their first drink at 14/15/16, but once again, none of those facts are actual reasoning to lower the drinking age.

I think if we were to lower the drinking age in America, we'd first need to change the culture America has about drinking. Our culture about alcohol has always been a rather intense and periodically violent one.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up, however in Australia the drinking age is 18. Here, the discussion isn't over whether the drinking age should be lowered, but rather if it should be raised to 21.

That being said, a lot of people have their first drink well before they've turned 18. I was 11 or 12 when I had my first glass of wine.

Ultimately, I think the legal drinking age should be set to the age when you legally become an adult. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense in my mind to have it so you become an adult, but have to wait another three years before you have the full rights and responsibilities of being an adult in the eyes of the law.

However, on the flipside, I think there needs to be education on alcohol and how it effects you and so on during high school so people know the risks of drinking before they go out and get hammered. And this is what happened when I was in high school--I was educated on the effects of alcohol and other drugs.

So yeah, I think America should lower the drinking age to 18.

Honestly, I don't. Good things just don't really come out of alcohol. There are health benefits that came from marijuana strong enough for doctors to actually prescribe it to people and it's illegal; but alcohol effectively does nothing but ruin families and lives with alcoholism, make people angry and depressed, and cause deaths my drunk driving. It does nothing good, unless you consider escaping your problems by drinking a substance which only makes you bulligerant or upset or behave against your better judgment a good thing. That being said, I'm pretty much an anarchist and I don't think that the government should be able to tell us what substances we can and can't use (I think it should be up for the parents to decide until the child is old enough to maturely make the decision themselves). But honestly, there is a huge difference in maturity from 18 to 21 and I just don't think that 18/19/20 year old's would do well with super easy access to alcohol. Honestly, what good could come out of it? Again, I don't think that should even be up for me or the government to decide, but within the society we're living in, no, I definitely don't think it should be lowered.

To be completely frank with you guys, I live in a country where it's allowed to buy/drink alcohol starting from 18 years of age and everything I see around here are people who're even below 16- completely and utterly shitfaced from Thursday night through to Sunday.
So what's my point? The point is- the lower the age limit in laws and regulations, the lower the age limit in real life and not on paper. If I had a kid myself, I'd most probably would like for him to experience what wasted means when he's 17/18 (due to the regulation of alcohol being legal starting from 21) than experience what I am experiencing now.
I don't know how's the situation in the United States, maybe there aren't so much underage drunks, but here in Latvia the situation is fairly sad. Of course, I used to drink myself when I wasn't legal to do so, but now... Oh man, I go to the bar just to find it full of underage people with fake ID's cause it's easier to fake an ID where's it said you're 18 being yourself 16, than fake an ID where you're said to be 21.

JustAnotherNobody:

I'm not sure if this has been brought up, however in Australia the drinking age is 18. Here, the discussion isn't over whether the drinking age should be lowered, but rather if it should be raised to 21.

Same here.

Well, no matter if it's lowered or raised, there's always going to be underage drinking whether it be with a fake ID or swiping it from parents or friends' parents. I think the lower the legal age, the younger kids are when they get their hands on alcohol with a fake ID. It's a lot easier to fake 18 than 21 when you're 16. I actually am nineteen and am constantly confused for being seventeen or younger. If the legal age for drinking is lowered, then it just gets easier for younger kids, I think, because it's not uncommon to see an 18+ year old that looks younger and it's not that hard to get your hands on a fake ID, either. And underage drinking is inevitable so why make it easier?

All in all, no. I don't think it should be lowered. I think there's a huge difference in maturity between eighteen and twenty-one, too, and giving kids the ability to freely get their hands on alcohol legally will probably just cause more harm than good because drunk driving is a huge problem. I know of a fair amount of cases where a teenager was not only caught drinking underage but driving while drunk. I don't think we should make it easier for them. Sure, there's responsible teenagers out there, but the occasional responsible kid doesn't take away the fact that lowering the legal age is more than likely a very bad idea.

Well, I guess that depends on each person's maturity. Here in Portugal 18 is pretty much the legal age to do anything, like voting, getting your driver's license or drinking, and I've seen a lot of times people who are 21+ drinking like there was no tomorrow and being the responsibility of younger kids. Honestly I don't think that lowering or raising the legal age would solve any problem, if teenagers want to get drunk they will, no matter what the law says. I got drunk for the first time about half an year before I turned eighteen and now I only drink once in a blue moon so, like it's used to say, the forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

It already is in Canada. Do I agree with it? I guess. People drink regardless of the law.

I'm quite against them lowering the drinking age here.

I mean, one of the main reasons is that alcohol does have a strong impact on the developing brain, and causes many issues while you're intoxicated as well. Lowering the age will put more of those in that developing age bracket at risk, as lowering the age puts it into the hands of high schoolers. And even if technically only certain seniors would be able to legally buy the drinks (which worries me enough) that would still make it even easier to get by those younger - you do start high school as young as 14 after all.

^ true!

and I don't see a problem with lowering the drinking age to 18. Believe it or not, I actually started drinking a lot LESS when I turned 21. Not sure why, but I think for some people the thrill of having to find a way to get it and eating that "forbidden fruit" if you will can sometimes lead to more drinking when underage, and then once you finally turn the legal age and it's so easy to obtain it starts to get old or just knowing you can do it whenever the hell you want makes it easier to turn down opportunities to do so. I know there are loads of people who start drinking LOADS when they turn 21, but I think a lot of them slow down not too incredibly long after. Also, as far as alcoholism goes, I don't believe that having the drinking age at 21 vs 18 is going to reduce that rate or anything. If somebody wants to obtain something bad enough, they will find a way. It's easy enough to get substances that are completely illegal vs things that are just put on age restriction, so I don't think that makes much difference. The only downside I guess could be that it's probably more likely for young kids to have 18 year old friends than 21 year old friends, but still, if they want to drink they will find a way to obtain alcohol and it will happen.

Then there's all the cliches like "you can die for your country at 18 but you can't legally have a beer" which I think make a lot of sense. If you can do mostly anything else at 18, I don't see why alcohol should be different. It's just 3 years, what's the big deal? Also, 18 and 21 year olds are, generally speaking, a part of the same social group (maybe they go to college together or whatever, but they're close enough in age that they could be considered peers), so 18 year olds who are partying are likely partying with 21 year olds, and if these people are all at ABOUT the same place in their lives as young adults, why is it okay for some of them to drink and not others?

I'm sure there's a lot in there that could be argued, but that's the way I look at it.

Being from a place where the drinking age is already 18, I don't see the issue with it being lowered. Sure, my drinking was a little excessive between the ages of 18 and 19, but it was that freedom to do whatever I wanted that caused that and the novelty wore off after just over a year -- I'm more of a have-a-cider-with-dinner type now. The way I see it is that I'm better getting that phase out of the way before I entered the important years of my life. When I hit 21, I'm going to have a degree and be partway through my Honors year. I'd rather not spend that year getting absolutely shifaced because I can.

However, I do think it needs to come with an amount of teaching in schools and homes to do with drinking responsibly. I never got that at school -- strict Catholic teaching, anything other than red wine at communion was the devil apparently -- but my parents taught me to respect my body's limits in terms of alcohol and under adult supervision, I was always allowed a small to moderate amount of alcohol at family gatherings under the age of 18. This kinda built up a tolerance, for me, so I can drink more than my friends that didn't touch a drop until they were 18. I'm not saying it's the way to go, feeding kids alcohol (I was 11 when I first tried it but my parents are fairly liberal about that sort of thing) but even teaching from a young age that alcohol in moderation is okay would work well.

I mean, you're always going to get underage drinkers. In my town, if you weren't 18, you had parties when your parents were away and raided the liquor cupboard or you sat in parks and drank, but that was a small minority and you're never going to stop those people drama doing so. I just don't think that the irresponsible actions of a minority should affect the laws governing everyone else.

Absolutely. A person of the age of 16 is indefinitely fine.

I don't see an issue with drinking being legal at eighteen. You are, in the eyes of the law, an adult and all adult responsibilities and freedoms should apply. (The freedom in this case being the drinking and responsibility not over doing it and such.)

I also think it works quite well here (in Australia) as most eighteen year olds are also going after their license and wanting to be able to drive. (We have a probationary period that lasts three or four years, I'm unsure as it is being changed / was recently changed, and when driving on L- and P-plates you are to have a BAC of 0.0.) By having legalising alcohol consumption at the same time as driving, it can help prevent alcohol intake and teach younger people to be more responsible with their drinking.

Just touching also on the other topic that appears here, underage drinking: yes, I have had alcohol before, but always under parent supervision and approval. Do I see something wrong with underage drinking? No, as long as it is supervised and such. By trying and tasting before hand, the novelty and "forbidden fruit" aspect of alcohol wears away, and your parents are also teaching you about it. For example, I was allowed half a glass of white wine at Christmas, and only three sips of Baileys and coffee at New Year's. The lesson I learn from that is stronger concentration of alcohol = less intake. I first started tasting alcohol and such at fourteen / fifteen, but only sips of my parent's drinks.
I would find it wrong if it was done behind backs and intake wasn't carefully thought through (and I know that does happen).

As long as you keep your head about you and you aren't being irresponsible with your drinking habits, I have no problems with a lowered drinking age.

sheepcat;:

I don't see an issue with drinking being legal at eighteen. You are, in the eyes of the law, an adult and all adult responsibilities and freedoms should apply. (The freedom in this case being the drinking and responsibility not over doing it and such.)

I also think it works quite well here (in Australia) as most eighteen year olds are also going after their license and wanting to be able to drive. (We have a probationary period that lasts three or four years, I'm unsure as it is being changed / was recently changed, and when driving on L- and P-plates you are to have a BAC of 0.0.) By having legalising alcohol consumption at the same time as driving, it can help prevent alcohol intake and teach younger people to be more responsible with their drinking.

Just touching also on the other topic that appears here, underage drinking: yes, I have had alcohol before, but always under parent supervision and approval. Do I see something wrong with underage drinking? No, as long as it is supervised and such. By trying and tasting before hand, the novelty and "forbidden fruit" aspect of alcohol wears away, and your parents are also teaching you about it. For example, I was allowed half a glass of white wine at Christmas, and only three sips of Baileys and coffee at New Year's. The lesson I learn from that is stronger concentration of alcohol = less intake. I first started tasting alcohol and such at fourteen / fifteen, but only sips of my parent's drinks.
I would find it wrong if it was done behind backs and intake wasn't carefully thought through (and I know that does happen).

As long as you keep your head about you and you aren't being irresponsible with your drinking habits, I have no problems with a lowered drinking age.

YES
plus the drinking age in the US was 18 for a long time but I don't remember why it raised to 21. On the flip side voting age was 21 for a long time so those two just got flip flopped. Still a really dumb move. We can get in a world of debt, be expected to be a functioning adult, and maybe even fight a war at 18 but we can't have a wine cooler. Really dumb considering what you said about the forbidden fruit thing. If you know how having too much feels like without it being a bad thing, once you get behind the wheel of a car you'll think about it. "Oh snap, I walked over my cat and crashed into the wall. Guess I can't drive then" would be a logical thing instead of "lol walking and driving are different. I got this"