More NWs than I was expecting.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

In Canada the drinking age is 18 or 19 and in some places in Europe it's even younger. Honestly, if you're responsible enough to vote and go to war and live on your own in college/university- you should legally be allowed to drink and be trusted to do so responsibly.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

But that's the point, most people at that age aren't responsible enough.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

If someone's not responsible enough to drink without getting shitfaced then they're probably not responsible enough to handle a gun and be in a war zone, or make an educated decision on who to vote for. In Europe especially the drinking culture is a lot less taboo then the States and even Canada. It's more normal to drink at a younger age and personally I think that makes the whole allure of alcohol less appealing and more of a social norm so that people don't feel the need to go as crazy.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Late teens already get into so many lethal car accidents a year, do you know how worse that'd get if we lowered the drinking age? I get that if you're responsible enough to go to war, you should be allowed to drink. And just because people go to universities, that doesn't make them responsible. They're actually the ones that are getting drunk the most and doing stupid things, we shouldn't make that legal. No one's liberty is getting taken away by having the drinking age high, it actually saves plenty of lives and is a good thing.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Teens are going to drink anyway, regardless of the legal drinking age. If drinking wasn't such a taboo for us then I bet there wouldn't be as many kids that go crazy when there's alcohol available. Many times it's the kids who are sheltered or the kids that are sneaking around that feel the need to go crazy with their alcohol and those are the kids with bad judgement. The problem is America's drinking culture and that media and social norms don't teach us to drink what we can handle, they teach us to go college and go absolutely wild and then tell 'awesome' stories about that time we got drunk. In places like Italy and France it's normal to have a glass of wine at dinner when you're a teenager. When I decline beer or wine when I travel to Europe I get weird looks from the waiter, despite the fact that I'm now 17, simply because it's the social norm to drink responsibly. Putting a ban or a taboo on something makes it more appealing. Studies even show that alcohol consumption actually rose during the prohibition. "Alcohol consumption rose to record levels during alcohol prohibition. National alcohol prohibition began in 1920. Apparent alcohol use fell from 1914 to 1922. It rose...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I've withdrawn my vote. I agree that the drinking age should be lower, but because it's been 21+ in America for as long as we can remember, teenagers and society look at alcohol differently than countries that have younger drinking ages. If it were to be lowered, there's really no telling what would happen. You can assume that there would be more car wrecks or that teens might get used to it and be more responsible with it. The fact is: **we don't know**. All of that being said, if we could go back to the start when they decided 21 was the age that everybody magically became responsible, they should have made it a lower age. But since teens look at drinking alcohol the way they do now I think it wouldn't go very well if we dropped it.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Kids are going to drink anyways.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That's exactly why I don't think it even matters if the age is lowered.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

On the one hand, I think people worship alcohol way too much in the US. On the other hand, maybe if the drinking age were lowered, binge drinking would go down. Many other countries with lower drinking ages have less problems with binge drinking.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Except in England, most of Europe know us as the people who go to their countries on holiday, get way too drunk and cause a lot of trouble.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I did say "many," not "all." But good on you, providing a counter-example (and I mean that sincerely).

by Anonymous 11 years ago

To be honest though, I don't think that the drinking age is responsible for binge drinking, I think the drinking culture is. In the UK it's common to drink until you're ill, that's why people do it, but in places like France and Italy, they'l often have maybe one glass of wine with a meal or something every day. No offence but America has a pretty bad drinking culture, and with a lower age I personally would think it would get worse.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I wasn't aware the UK was like that, actually. And I did some quick research and found that when the drinking age was lowered in many states in the 70's, fatal car crashes did increase. And since most of the arguments to lower the drinking age are based on emotion, not fact, I'm inclined to disagree with this post.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

If you're old enough to die for a country, you should damn well be allowed to get wasted as well. I personally don't even drink alcohol, so this isn't me being like 'boo-hoo, I want to drink legally sooner than later', but I do think that fact Americans are forced to wait so long before being allowed to drink legally is what causing binge-drinking, car accidents, and other unfortunate situations with young people.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

In my opinion it should be 18. And I don't even want to drink

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm 20 in the US, and I don't even want to drink. I just want it lowered, because I hate that concerts are sometimes 21+.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Brains aren't developed enough to lower it. People seem to forget that's why it's higher. It has nothing to do with how responsible you are, it's just protecting you from killing your brain

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Drinking before age 21 //can// damage a brain, but how often does it? For example, my sister is now 21 and she's been drinking since she was 17. She attends a prestigious college where she gets good grades and she is going to get her doctorate. She's the most accomplished person I know and she drank for four years before it was legal for her to do. You think the 18 and 19 year old students at places like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford don't drink? Of course they do, they're college kids. But their brains obviously function a lot better than most.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Personally, I don't drink, but it should be lowered. I feel like a lot of people drink because it's illegal...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

No. Teens and college kids drink enough as it is. Imagine how crazy they'd go if they were allowed to publicly drink at 18 or younger. They would ruin bars and clubs and there would be far more cases of DUIs and other incidents from alcohol including deaths. The fact of the matter is people younger than 21 often do not have the proper judgment and mental or physical capacity to properly handle alcohol especially in a public setting.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The social stigma associated with drinking would be changed as well. People wouldn't go crazy when they drink because they grew up with it, it's no longer the forbidden fruit.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think it's really weird that americans can go to university and not be be able to legally drink.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think if it was more apparent that a lot of the teenagers that drink have otherwise spotless records, are fairly intelligent, and are the responsible type, they'd realize they aren't protecting us. It seems to be the one law the average teenager will break, and since it is generally a victimless crime I see no reason to not lower it to 16 or 18.

by Anonymous 11 years ago