18 vs 21
 

Why is that by governments standards, at 18 you are not old enough to handle the responsibilities of alcohol, yet you are old enough to give and take life for you country? Theoretically you can go to war, eat a bullet saving you own men’s lives, come back a war hero, but you can't drink a victory beer because you may not know how to handle yourself. Can someone please enlighten me?

well, they tried to have 18 as the drinking age in California for several years. Changed it back due to too much increase in DWIs etc.

but you're right--it doesn't seem too fair or logical; but young men are fearless. Fearless and stupid enough to be soldiers, (no, this is not a slam against our servicemen and women); not yet grown up enough to be responsible around alcohol? dunno.

Can we enlighten you? Nope. The US is one of the few countries who has an (on a universal level) absurd rule for drinking alcohol. Alcohol is part of all human cultures but the US just has very different rules about it. I'm in favor of 18 being the age of consumption or not even having a drinking age (because alcohol is human culture! and the correctly parented children will know not get wasted at age 10).

Believe me, at the tender age of 19 I am applicable to both conscription and drinking tickets.

If every 18 year old in the nation registered to vote and immediately started lobbying about this, it would be changed quickly.

18 has been the drinking age before, and it worked out very badly because it meant that through members of the senior class, the entire high school would have easy access to alcohol.

The number of teen DWIs increased after the change.

maybe because the 18 years olds were buying all their little buddies booze.

Which change, to 18 or to 21?

To 21.

Read about this in both statistics and psychology classes. Do I remember any other particulars? No. I was too busy drinking.

Some people think alcohol abuse at colleges has gotten WORSE since the age was raised to 21 in the mid-80s. (I'm one of them.) It actually was 21 in many states back in earlier decades. It was around the time of the 1960s if I'm correct that most states lowered it to 18 in large part due to "if I'm old enough to get drafted and have my ass shot off, I'm old enough to have a beer" agitation on the part of young people. By the time MADD was raising a ruckus in the 1980s, those same people didn't seem quite so concerned about protecting their children's rights to drink.

I don't know what you are talking about SteveDallas. We all know if you illegalize something the abuse will go down. I mean, look at the great success of the prohibition.

Seriously, I think we should have a system for 18-21 year olds that if they are drinking alcohol and are below a certain Blood-Alcohol level, they don't get a ticket (unless they are driving). That encourages responsible drinking both socially and through the law. It is basically the same thing as encouraging safe sex instead of abstinence.

Rexmons can you add a poll to vote who wants to keep it at 21, lower it to 18 or get rid of the drinking age altogether?

Sure, NOW you want to vote.

:lol:

18 is the age for basically everything here. License, Drinking, Voting (compulsory) etc

I tend to think its a bit OTT to get your license and be legal to drink at the same time.

We have an awful lot of young driver deaths over here and usually if there is a fatal accident involving a young driver....it tends to wipe out a car load of young people traveling together.

We dont seem to have a problem with 18 yr old drink drivers though and a lot of that is to do with education and penalties I think, plus incentive for Designated Drivers etc.