Should America Lower the Drinking Age?, 21 to 18? Rating Options

[smile4me]

Should the drinking age be lowered in the United States?
I think no.

[callie828]

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