how will they become more responsible when adults aren't responsible themselves?
when the laws for the drinking age was passed, statistics showed that it helped. there were less crashes due to drinking...by a lot.
and about the reverse psychology...like i said before, it would just make it easier for a younger population to drink.

Does it really make a difference?


EDIT //

And I never said it was illegal for adults to drink.

yes ya did. you should of said "In fact, more teens drink illegally than adults drink."

and dont make it a big fuss i was only correcting what you said so people wouldnt think of it wrong. i didnt mean to be rude

Come on.
Please, can this country have any more stupid thoughts!?

First use of alcohol usually begins around the age of 13.
Junior and senior high school students drink 35 percent of all wine coolers sold in the U.S.; they also consume 1.1 billion cans of beer.
31.9 percent of youth under 18 years old in long-term, state-operated juvenile institutions in 1987 were under the influence of alcohol at the time of arrest.
Among sexually active teens, those who average 5 or more drinks daily were nearly 3 times less likely to use condoms, thus placing them at greater risk of HIV infection. Among all teens who drink, 16 percent use condoms less often after drinking.
Alcohol abuse and its consequences have been estimated to cost our society $86 billion each year - $26 billion more than the cost of Desert Storm.

All of what I just wrote right there tells you...
NO MORONS DON'T LOWER IT!
If anything needs to be done, it's to put a cork in underage drinking. If your an adult, don't be so transparent and buy kids drinks.

i dont think any thing would happen if they lowered/highered it

teenagers will drink no matter what...sorry parents who think their children dont drink, most high school age and now even middle school kids will try alcohol at least once

if it weren't illegal less people would do it. drinking won't be cool, no one will do it, and less accidents will occour.

but see drinking and clubbing are two different kinds of cool. clubbing is cool because of people's instinct to find a mate. drinking is cool because it's risky. people do it the the thrill of possibly getting caught. take away the reason they'd get caught, it won't be cool anymore and dumbass teenagers will have to proove their worth through accomplishments instead of how wasted they can get.

it is risky as in how dangerous it is to one's health, but the risk i meant was the one of gettign caught. kids have an instinct to rebel, rebeling is doing things against the law, such as drinking. make drinking legal, it won't be rebelious, it will sease to be cool, no one will do it, problem solved.

no. if anything, it needs to be raised! so many people get drunk and kill people.

I guess it doesn't matter, because even if it was raised or lowered, people would drink alchohol anyway

no, it shouldn't be. we already have enough drinking and driving accidents as it is. making underage drinking legal will cause even more problems. sure, people already drink illegally, but making it legal will cause more people to drink and drive.

No way...if anything they should raise it. Kids get drunk when they are like 15...cuz they get alchohol from their older friends or somthan....it's not good.

I wouldn't care if it was lowered to 18... Until recently, I had no clue that it was 21 since everyone drinks anyways... I think you should drink for the fun of it though, not to get drunk.

I guess they could lower it. Close to no one obeys those laws anyway. I say lower it to "when you get out of high school or 18, whichever comes last" that way there isn't 18 year old seniors who can drink, but everyone in college can.

in fact: any state can lower thier legal drinking age. the only thing is, if they do, the US government on longer gives them money for roads.

in other words: states are bribed to keep the drinking age 21.

Yeah..I always though the legal drinking age was 18..
Okay..I'm slow. ><

i think it should the age should ne rasied so your body can be strong enough to handle the beer.

There's really no benefit to lowering the drinking age, but there's also not much benefit to keeping the drinking age where it's at.

Issues with alcohol have very little to do with laws and everything to do with personal accountability. There are different types of people in this world... responsible people and irresponsible people, smart people, stupid people, and really stupid people, etc... I am 21 years old so it is legal for me to drink. And I, like a lame-o, waited until I was 21 to drink. Why? Because I found it more lame when my friends drank alcohol just for the hell of it. Yes, it's way cool to be out of control and puking all over the place and waking up next to someone you don't know...

However, now that I'm 21, I drink socially and I drink at parties. And if I feel like getting wasted, I do. Does that make me stupid? Maybe on those nights it does. But it's MY life. I know the risks and I'm pretty sure that in this day and age, everyone else does too. So if I die from drinking, then I guess Darwin wins and another idiot has been weeded out.

You can't protect people from themselves. Firstly, it's not fair to say that if the drinking age is lowered, more people will drink and drive. In fact, it's kind of stupid. First it assumes that people who want to drink don't because of the drinking age. I can honestly say I have never met ONE person who WANTED to drink but said "Nah, it's not legal." Because almost no one actually gets in trouble for underage drinking. And secondly, it also assumes that being a teen automatically makes you irresponsible, stupid, and dangerous. Well my sister was 21 when she drove drunk and got arrested. And none of my friends who partied when they were 16, 17, 18, ever drove drunk. It's not about an age or a specific group of people. It's about stupid individuals, be them young, old, black, white, male, female, blah blah blah... And we can't keep spending taxpayers money trying to protect people from themselves. Where I live, you can get fined up to $500 for not wearing your seatbelt. And now police can pull you over SOLELY FOR NOT WEARING YOUR SEATBELT. You don't have to have any other infraction, like speeding or driving recklessly. How stupid is this? Why shouldn't people be able to decide if they want to be safe or not? If you want to be stupid and risk your life, I don't see why everyone should be so concerned about saving you from yourself. It's not illegal to skydive or bungee jump or walk in the middle of the street at night... so why is drinking such a huge issue as though it's somehow worse than any other form of potentially dangerous action? Because people could drink and drive and injur others? Well people stab other people too, but we can't make it illegal to buy steak knives, can we?

Drinking should either be legal or illegal. It's stupid to think that people magically transform into responsible adults the day they turn 21. People are either responsible drinkers or they're not. Period. If they want to get loaded all the time and kill their liver, hey, that's up to them. And don't think that if alcohol didn't exist, stupid people wouldn't find some other reckless way to pass their time...


Callie

Do you really think the US and how much of tight asses they are , are going to LOWER the drinking age when all we see on TV is not to smoke and drink..thats crazy , whoever got this info is totally whacked out.

doesnt matter bout the age, if u like the taste of it, then drink it...tell ur older friend to beer a 6pk

i think it should stay at 21 but controlled way more because i almost got hit by a drunk driver and it is sad that a 21 year old cant act like a 21 year old and be responsible and know when his limit is and have a sober friend drive .

Alcohol consumption is Evil. Alcohol is pathetic.
WTF is so fun about using it to incapacitate your body and diminish your senses?
People who consume Alcohol are narrow minded and are subjected to peer pressure. Alcohol is hella Lame and consuming it just wastes your life as instead you could be achieving something such as traing for Abu Dhabi grappling championships or something productive and Konstructive

are you your 21 posts like this?

use facts, not opinions.

If anything raised because of drunk teenagers who don't seem to have the ability to know how much is to much..why would it be lowered if you take looks at statistics..

Hello!

I am from the UK and the age is 18 here, i am younger but getting hold of drink is not a problem. I think our law should stay because in all honesty you dont need to look that old to be served!

but for u kids in the USA tht suck so much as*s for you!!!! I beleve once you are 18 (in the eyes of the law an adult) you should be prepaired to make your own decision about drinking.

think of all of the dangerous things you can do like smoke at 16 in the UK ( sory dont know wat that is in USA) that will kill yo but you can do it when your body is just developing!

yet agin another stupid law by the goverment to save money for the country and take it off the people who work!

thank you for your time

Rach

Wouldn`t really matter either way, cause people will always be doing illegal things.

yeah seriously, if the age was lowered wouldnt that equal to even younger kids drinking maybe?
I dont think it should be....because some people dont drink responsibly and thats no good.

Well.. A lot of people drink illegaly..

But on the other hand people are so irrasponsable in the US.. mostly teenagers.. because.. things arnt like they used to be..

I have no idea, I think it should stay the same. [I guess]

yes!!!! lol u should of seen me at the tennis party last night! i drank all of his and i got pushed in the pool

I think 21 is too high but then again it's 18 where I'm from. You can basically do everything that someone thats 30 can do. Smoke/Sex = 16. Drive = 17. Drink = 18.

More pubs are highering there age so that you have to be 21/25 to go into them. But that's only some of them. Alot of parent's are pretty laid back as well with their children drinking. I was going to a new years eve party when I was 15 and I asked my mum if she could buy me some drink and she did. 4 big bottles of it. They let me take a bottle of 'babycham' and 4 cans of beer with me as well.

Lowering or highering the age won't stop underage drinking. It's the 'cool' thing to do supposedly. It's like when ya hit a certain age, when you go to parties it's not fun unless theres alcohol there.

Person 1: I'm having a party this weekend, wanna come?
Person 2: Sure
Person 1: Great, remember to bring some alcohol.

Hmm.

18 is perfect, not allowing a consenting adult to do what they want is just one big part of the nanny state, let me do what I want to do.

\/ COME ON!! If people cant look after themsellves that is their problem! We do not need more tax money spent on getting the police to lock up underage drinkers. Keep the age at 18 and consenting adultys can make the choice for themselves, if we cant be trusted why dont we just stay inside all day and night and not live our lives?

no, people are irresponsible enough as they are.

let a person do what they want to do and end up killing someone from driving drunk?

if people learn to drink responisbly before they drive, then drunk driving will go down.

What's the point? People are still going to drink illegally anyways.

21?? Thats quite high. Here in Australia its: sex/drink=18 driving=16
But even if it is kept at 21, there'd still be those out there who are still underage and drink illegally............as long as they stay in the house and drink the police can't do nything about it...........but it depends if majority of the public is responsible or not.

americans are way to irresponsible to be drinking.

and anyways its not like anybody follows the rules teens still drink.

No, it shud be hired 2 35.

The legal drinking age in the US used to be 18. It raised in the late 80s/early 90s because people were being reckless about it and not taking it seriously. It was also raised because of the anti-drug campaigns in the 80's as well. I don't have a problem with people drinking or smoking pot, I just have a problem with people doing those things and not using any sense, common or not, and then driving or whatnot.

Regardless of how old you are, you can become addicted to drugs and alcohol. A lot of people don't really think of alcohol as a drug but it is. I've seen a lot of people drink themselves sick and some of my friends are among those who probably will drink themselves sick in the future.

If you're gonna drink, then go ahead, but don't drive, have sex, or get arrested afterwards. And if you cause an accident, get preggars, or end up in jail, don't complain about it....

personally? no.

i know this is going to sound lame, because i got it from the movie spider-man but here it goes anyway "with great power comes great responsibility". which it true. they didn't pick the drinking age to be 21 for fun, they put it there probably because they figured a 21 year old is way more mature than 16 year old.

I dont drink...much.

And I really think it would make more sense to lower the age limit to 18. If people are going to drink dangerously, they're going to get booze legal or not. Alot of teens drink and think "Oh this is illegal! I'm so cool."

They feel rebelious. I know a kid from Norway and he said that because the law allows you to drink at 18, more people drink to drink, and not to say, "I'm so wasted!"

At eighteen we can drive, we can have a job, we can legally move out on our own, we can buy cigerettes, we can join the military and kill for our country, we can die for our country. It would only make sense to let us by alcohol in our country...

they do let people who are in the military drink while they're on call.

"Kill for us, then you can drink!"

...that's a little silly, I think.

I'm not FOR dropping the age level. It would just make alot more sense if they did. Or make the age level higher for everything else, which would suck.

i just think lowering the age to 18 would make it much more easily accessible to younger people. most high schoolers don't have that many friends who are 21 who can go out and buy them beer, but if the age is lowered to 18, a large majority of seniors can get it. cause the same people that go out and get the alcohol for the younger people are the same ones that are partying with them. i don't think it would make much difference in the rebelling area since it's not much of a change, it would just make it easier to get.

Teens will get it if they really want it. So many seniors have older brothers/sisters/friends and even parents (yes parents) who will supply them with alcohol.

If I really wanted cigerettes, I could get them. I'm not eighteen. The same thing could be said about alcohol. To me, it would make more sense to make it 18.

The only problem that I see is that alot of 18 year olds are still in highschool and could supply younger people with it...But on the other hand..younger people who drink are already AT the parties where alcohol is present.

Really, lowering to 18 wouldn't make THAT much of a difference. Underage drinkers will drink now, legal or not. But people who dont like alcohol aren't going to chug a bunch of beer just because it's legal. If they don't like it, they don't like it. It would just make alot more sense...

well yea, but if they don't have older siblings, it's hard for them to find alcohol. it would be easier if the age was 18. it'd be easier for me to get cigarettes than alcohol. i have friends who are 18 and that i talk to at school every day, while i don't think i have any friends here who are 21..

with the drinking age at 21, this is what's going to happen.

i'm going to go to college
my roommate will offer me a beer
i will take, but have never had beer, so i'll drink too much and become drunk.
i will not know now to drink responsibly.
sophomore year, i get to have a car at college
and i'd still drink irresponsibly

if the drinking age were 13, then

at 13, my parents would let me drink some beer
they'd teach me to drink in moderation.
they'd teach me the dangers of drinking too much
and the effects of drinking on driving.
and at 13, i'd probably still listen.

at 16, i'd be a veteran drinker. but under parental supervision. i'd have never been drunk, and ever drinken too much. when i start driving, i'd know the penalties of driving drunk.

at 18, when i leave for college, i will have been drinking for 5 years and driving for 2 years.

so, when my roommate offers me beer, i do not foolishly play a drinking game with him, decide to drive to the drugstore to get something to help the hangover, and crash van, killing the family inside.

heh.

Nice.

...



Parents should tell his/her child(ren) the consequences of drinking whether the drinking age is 21 or not.

showing is much more effective than telling.