Lowering the Drinking Age?

[Roemello]

Some teenagers may get their hands on it and do it anyway, but if this ever came to pass.... yikes Keep an extra close eye out for swerving cars! Or think it would actually work out ok to have it lowered to 18?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... -education

[Masamune]

Didn't they try this before and it didn't work out? A lot of 18/19 year olds started crap in the bars and people got tired of it. Some people aren't immature enough to drink at 21, let alone 18.

[Southern Image]

I don't think lowering the age limit would change anything. The 'binge' drinking would still continue.

[Frong]

The only way to get rid of the binge drinking would be to change the legal limit to zero, like it unofficially is in France. If kids grow up around alkeehol and get used to it as a normal thing, they don't see the big attraction in binging on it. The flip side to that, however, is a higher overall rate of alcoholism due to people having consumed it for longer (I think that's what they've found, anyway). So take your pick. Either put up with the moronic binging that takes place in our current system, or swap it for the additional alcoholics that you get from the French system. Some choice, not that I'm surprised that both options aren't so hot. We ARE talking about alkeehol here, the Magical Make You Stupid Potion.

[Nakor]

I don't think that lowering the drinking age would affect things that negatively to be honest. Here in BC the drinking age is 19, and in a few provinces (Alberta, off the top of my head, is one) the drinking age is 18. There's no unusually high drinking problems around here. (Of course, it might be that the unusually high marijuana problems deter from that....)

Of course, we know that Alberta are a bunch of drunks.

[Frong]

I don't think lowering the drinking age to 18 would make anything noticeably worse, just that it'd change the binging age from 21 to 18. Besides, the kids who are gonna drink and do st00pid things are already going to do so regardless of whether their alkeehol consumption is legal or not. It certainly wouldn't make anything better, but I get the feeling that most people would just ignore the law similarly to the way they ignore it now.

Of course, we know that Alberta are a bunch of drunks.

So they're kinda like most of the southern US, then, unless they're not also rednecks.

[Nakor]

Lots of oil riggers. That should pretty much explain it for you.

[KenseidenXL]

"Lower the drinking age?"

About fu.ck.ing time...

[Frong]

"Lower the drinking age?"

About fu.ck.ing time...

How would it affect you? You're already over it.

[KenseidenXL]

Principle.

[Diabolique]

Well, they should just go ahead and change it. Not like it's going to stop the kids from drinking if they really wanted to.

[Frong]

Well, they should just go ahead and change it. Not like it's going to stop the kids from drinking if they really wanted to.

Exactly. Half the population already ignores it anyway, so you may as well just give up and lower the drinking age so you can put a little less effort into catching 18 year olds with fake IDs.

[punkypower]

It used to be 18. I think Americans are way more uptight about drinking than other countries. We have law after law, but we're the ones with all the drunk drivers, binge drinking, underage drinking, etc. I'm not saying serve kids beer in restaurants or whatever, but I don't see why the drinking age can't be 18. You can go to war, get married, vote, get a mortgage, buy cigarettes, etc., at age 18, but you can't legally have a drink. Stupid.

[Frong]

Well, maybe they'll actually do the logical thing and just set all the standard-issue "you have to be an adult to do this" limits at 18 and leave it that way. Not that 18 year olds are necessarily adult-level mature, mind you... the vast, vaaaaast majority of them aren't. Still, you may as well have consistency.

[KenseidenXL]

No. Americans are stupid. The drinking age was raised to reduce drunk driving. It has absolutely failed. They need stiffen the penalties and impose them. Only in America can you have 20+ DUI convictions and still not only be on the street, but still have a fu.ck.ing driver's licence.