What do you think the Drinking Age should be, and Why?

here in holland it’s 16, little girls turning “coma drinkers” over night, it’s a disaster, the drinking age should just be 21, all that drinking is just bad, simple as that

I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and the drinking age is 18. During tourist seasons and other times of the year, the Americans come and drink anything they can get hold of. It’s like they have to stockpile the alcohol in their bodies. These people just go plain overboard. When you’re 18 and you drink, you’re used to drinking and it’s not such a big deal to drink. You get kinda bored of drinking by the time you’re 20, so you don’t go overboard with it when you’re 20. So, the drinking age should be lower. I’m 18.

I’m 19 and I think that 2 for the drinking age is fine. The thing tho is this, I’m in the cayman islands right now for a couple of months and the drinking age here is 18. The 18 year olds here seem way more mature than a lot of people I know in the states. I’d say we should make it 18, because seeing here the 18year olds don’t abuse what’s given to them. But here is way different than back home. We couldn’t handle it, we’d just take advantage andmess up. No everyone, but a hell of a lot of ppl. So yeah, 21. But for now I’ll enjoy being legal here

21*****

Not 2 lmao

I think it should be 18 because (1) at 18 you become a legal adult and (2) if you can fight and die for your country at 18 then you should at least be able to have a drink.

Let’s face it though, if a kid really wants to drink he/she is going to find a way to get alcohol. It’s not really that hard.

I think it should be based on something other than age but, since that’s not really possible, I suggest 25.

I’m 21, and while most of my friends are responsible, there are still a great many who are not, minority though they are.

Afterthought: this only applies to America, since I have no experience with anywhere else.

I agree with JoeyDesignsStuff that it should be based on something else entirely, but not on the 25 part. Problem is I have no idea what it should be based on. How do you measure maturity level?

Second question: Whatever age it is, what should the penalty be for drinking underage? We all know it happens…All the time.

Beheading.

JUST kidding, don’t freak out.

alive: I think the penalties are good, but the system used to find out who is underage is not very effective. It’s a hard thing to combat. You can give someone five bucks (plus the price of course..) to buy you beer if you’re a kid. The worst that happens is they say no, then you ask the next person.

It’s been mentioned before. I don’t think the age is the issue, it’s the maturity level. Kids need to be taught drinking responsibility. That way by the time they do start drinking they’re (hopefully) smart about it.

I think that the drinking age should be 18 for 3.2 beer, 21 for wine and beer, and 25 for distilled spirits. I’m 51. I think the penalty for drinking and driving should be an automatic 3 year loss of your driver’s license. There is absolutely no reason to drink and drive.

Might be a little confusing for some people…

Penalty ought to be in line with whatever the situation is. I don’t know if it’s so terrible to drink in your house, underage, and not bother anyone. The system as I understand it doesn’t really go out and look for kids not causing trouble.

But, if a minor gets into some other trouble and alcohol is involved, I think the penalty ought to be hiked up some. How much again contingent on the circumstances.

I like how they do it in Europe. Kids are brought up around alcohol and it’s not that much of a novelty that they are waiting for so there is far less binge drinking, or so I’ve gathered.

When I was growing up Maryland’s drinking age was 21, but DC’s age was 18 for beer and wine, 21 for liquor. So of course, we just went to DC! (and of course, we were drinking long before 18, anyway). I don’t know if it should be 18 or 21, but all things tied to being an adult should be at the same age (military, voting, drinking, etc.). I find it ludicrous that you can vote, go to war and die, but not have a freakin’ beer. I’m 41.

I’m 16 and am happy with the drinking age being 18. 18 being the age when you’re legally an adult it makes sense that the drinking age should be the same as it is the privilege of an adult.

16, but 18 is fine. 21 is retarded, you can die for your country but you can’t have a beer.

I’m with aug and joey. I don’t see why the drinking age is higher than the age where a person qualifies as a ‘legal adult.’ I think it should be 18 like everything else.

But really, does it matter? People who are underage can easily access alcohol. And as far as consequences, I don’t think there should be any for people who drink underage. That doesn’t do anything. Consequences should only be for those who supply it to underage people. That would at least prevent kids from getting alcohol.

I kind of like the way my grandfather put it once. He says that there shouldn’t be a drinking age, because parents are capable of deciding when their kids will be allowed to drink, and teaching them to drink responsibly, and controlling their access to alcohol. I know not all parents are responsible, but those people’s kids are probably drinking anyway.

18. If you’re old enough to stand on the front lines and die for your country, you’re old enough to have a beer.

Many Western European countries, such as France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Greece (among many others) place their drinking age at 16, and only rarely enforce the drinking age at lower ages (France is the most notable example of this). The experiences I have heard from residents of these countries have indicated that because children grow up in a culture where a glass of wine or a beer here and there are perfectly normal and acceptable, they don’t feel the need to drink twice their body weight as soon as they legally can. This echoes what Mtl_zack was saying earlier. So, in essence, I suppose I’m in favor of a drinking age radically lower than what we have now. 16 seems to work just fine.

Granted European countries get by just fine with lower drinking ages. But would that really fly in America? If bring raised in an environment that places no extreme gravity on alcohol is the deciding factor, could America implement a lower drinking age today? With the amount of sexifying American advertising does coupled with youth culture’s value of drinking, I don’t know if teenagers in this country could be trusted to be more responsible if granted easier access to alcohol.

I grew up in Germany where the drinking age is 16 for beer and wine but 18 for spirits. Legal driving age is 18 also.
I now live in New Zealand where the legal drinking age is 18 but the driving age is 15–16.
In my experience the german model works better and is safer as well. The simple reason being you “learn” to handle your alcohol before learning to drive. In NZ a common problem is that people get absolutely trashed when they turn 18 and then drive home as they have for the past 3 years I their lifes resulting in deadly car crashes. Either way I think a step between “lesser” and “harder” alcohol is a good thing.

I like the German model meemorize mentioned.

16 for beer & wine
18 for spirits
18 to drive, vote, go to war

Ultimately, as many have pointed out, how you are raised around alcohol is THE most important factor and there’s no way to regulate that.

Since there is no objective way to determine if a person is mature enough to handle alcohol, I feel that all rights should be given to them once the person is declared an adult based on age. 16 for everything: drinking, smoking, gambling, driving, enlisting. If the person is stupid enough to experiment with both drinking and driving in one night, they get their driving privilege taken away from them for a long time. I feel if the punishment for the first DUI was severe enough (perhaps suspension of the license for 2 years, mandatory hours working in a morgue dealing with drunk driving victims, big monetary fine, etc), people would see the risk far outweighs the reward.

I’m in favor of the European way (16 legally, but before that, it’s generally at parental discretion). I’m American, but my parents have been giving me wine since I was about 14 or 15. I can’t say I’ve never gotten drunk, but I definitely understand that alcohol is more to accompany food or be a social thing; I don’t feel it necessary to drink all the time, nor do I find it necessary to get hammered when I do drink. It’s an important lesson to learn. When it’s a forbidden thing , it’s more tempting.

Joey: Good points. Perhaps we could learn from the phased withdrawal from Iraq and lower the age by a year every two years or something until we hit 16?

@Joey: The advertising in Europe is pretty sexified too… And if you’re implying that American teens are more susceptible and downright stupid…

Well, that I’d just have to agree with.

18

At 18 you’re old enough to smoke, actually own your property and it not be under your parents’/guardians’ name, join the military, vote, be considered a consenting adult in a relationship, and go to prison instead of juvenile hall if you commit a crime.

So why the hell aren’t you allowed to have a drink?
Also, everyone knows that 18 year olds drink anyway.

Basically everyone I knew in high school started drinking freshman year (14 or 15 depending on their birthday). Now I’m not condoning such underage drinking but the drinking age being 21 clearly is an ineffective deterrent against underage drinkins anyway so why should an arbitrary number be kept which effectively does not protect people/serve a purpose?

A lower drinking age is probably a better deterrent anyway. It’s not as much fun when it’s legal.

I don’t understand what a drinking age does. Everyone seems to be saying that any kid who wants to, gets around it, and that there is barely any enforcement of the regulations, and even so, the underaged drinkers get no serious punishment.

I think this drinking age is a legacy of a kind of puritanism in the United States, but it has nothing to do with how people actually behave.

Children benefit by exposure to a topic, whether sex, or drugs, or alcohol, or voting. We, as parents, will do a better job if we expose our kids to these things (and others) and show them how to handle them responsibly.

I think most parents in this country are horribly remiss when it comes to parenting. They rely on schools to do things, but pass laws that prohibit the schools from doing things, because that is the parents’ responsibility. This way, they get to play the blame game. Parents point the finger at schools for failing to teach, and schools point the finger at parents for failing to teach. Lovely.

It is a dog eat dog world, no matter how much we try to make it otherwise. To pass laws that are meaningless and can not be enforced teaches children to disrespect the law. Drinking age laws are useless, and should not even be laws, at all.

We should approach issues surrounding use of drugs (alcohol is a drug, as I learned in high school, btw) as we do for adults: with education about the consequences of behavior, and programs to help folks stop abusing the drugs. Laws don’t prevent drug abuse; education does. When education fails, we’ve got Bill W.

Responsibility is the key concept, and the word of the hour!

I dont think there should be a drinking age, I think people should have the right and option to wheather they want to drink at a certain age or not, if they do something stupid and get drunk at 14 its their decision

The thing is, it does not only affect them but everyone around them. If they die in a car crash that is perhaps tragic but you could argue it’s their own fault. Realistically however the car crash will involve another car and who knows how lucky they are to survive.

I think it should be 18, too, for the same reasons other people have pointed out. If you can die for your country, you should be able to drink. If you can vote and do absolutely anything else any other adult can, you should be able to drink.

I also think it should be 18 (and not younger) for health reasons. People’s bodies aren’t done maturing until that age (about) and even easier access to alcohol at a younger age would cause a lot of physical damage early on.

My parents abused alcohol, as did first husband. I think the older, the better. 21.
( I am 53).

Here in Maine it is 21. and i think that it should stay that way. they are adults then and are more responsiable. (hopefully) i am 38.

@Rossi: No, people are adults when they turn 18.

@DrasticDreamer – Thank you! I wish people would understand that. If you can fight and die for your country, you should at least be able to have a beer before you do it. And I know there is all that scientific research about maturity and they say we’re not really fully grown adults until about age 25, but if society’s convention says I’m an adult at 18, I wish society would treat me as such at age 18.

@Tits: I know. It’s beyond idiotic. It’s disturbing, on a very deep level, to have a government that is more than okay with young people giving up their lives for the benefit of everyone else, but… Drinking some beer?! Oh, no. No, no, that’s just not right…

Yeah. Gimme a fucking break.

Yes, it’s all or nothing. You can’t be an adult in one sense but not in another, unlike the approach many governments take nowadays.

The point is moot anyway, since not all 18/21/40 year olds are mature enough to responsibly use their rights and not abuse them. That’s why the law is here. So in my mind, we might as well give them all their rights at 18 or younger, and take them away when they show that they are not mature enough to be a responsible adult.

I see what you are all saying.but some are not responsiable adults at that age. NOT saying of course that your not.We used to be a state that they allowed drinking at the age of 18 and they were to many of our yourg adults not being responsliable and they were getting killed from drinking and driving so they changed it for that reason. I totally understand were you are all coming from. but the death totals were getting very scary and we need our young folks to be here for the future.but other then that i do think that you are right. if you are old enough to fight for our country you should beable to drink as long as one is responsiable and stay off the roads then yes it should be ok too.

Everyone should stay off the roads if they’ve been drinking, definitely, but I think there are better ways to make that happen. I’ve been a DD before, and I always appreciate when someone is one for me. My thought is that people will be stupid, regardless of age, and far too much time, money, and energy is lost enforcing laws of underage drinking (when the involved parties are 18+).

very true titsmcghee! it don’t don’t matter one the age when it comes to dd. stay off the roads is all they have to do. no matter what age. but they seem to have a better handle on life when they are older. (most i say.)

I would abolish the drinking age altogether. BUT, I would create a competency/responsibility test to obtain a drinking license. I’d make sure it was designed by world class phychologists to make sure it measured the test taker’s attitudes and level of responsibility and wasn’t simply a case of someone giving the answers he thought would get him a license. I’d make sure that you could get a license if you were not likely to be the sort of person who would choose to drink irresponsibly. I don’t know exactly how such a test would be designed, but I’m sure we could find a way to create a profile to determine who would be a responsible drinker and who would be an irresponsible drinker. Then I would institute a death penalty for anyone caught selling or providing liquor to someone who did not posess a license to imbibe. I would legalize drugs as well and create a similar test. I’d make it next to impossible for those who would be prone to alcoholism or irresponsible drinking to obtain alcohol. And those who did not obtain a license but chose to drank anyway would be treated with both punishment and rehabilitation depending on what was appropriate given the situation.

I can tell you, when I was a kid, my parents occassionally let me have a little alcohol, it was no big deal, and I have never once driven drunk or drank myself unconscious. I am certain I could have gotten a license at 12 years old, and I would not have had any problem being responsible about it. Conversely, I have people in my family who are WAY older than 21 whom I don’t think should be allowed to drink. Age is arbitrary, responsibility is what matters.

@daleepetrie .. i like the way you think!!! :)

Death penalty might be a smidgen harsh, though. Certainly revoke their vendors’ / drinking license.

Harsh, schmarsh. They’d be endangering lives. And I’m not just talking about vendors, I mean the dude who buys beer for the teenagers (which in this case might be 25 year old guys who are too immature to get a drinking license). I am OK with removing from society anyone who has a reckless disregard for human life.