<p>I personally think that the drinking age should be 18. As a LEGAL ADULT I think that a person should be able to drink. I don't follow it regardless though :)</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t get why 18 year olds can die in wars but can’t have a beer.</p>
<p>I have never had a sip of alcohol and I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18. In European countries where even children can drink wine and high schoolers are even allowed to bring alcohol in school, there seems to be no apparent reason for the drinking age to be so high. Besides, most people don’t even obey the law so it’s almost pointless. And I think lowering the drinking age would reduce dangerous habits like binge drinking because say freshman in college want to drink but legally can’t. So they revert to locations which are conducive to binge drinking. But if it was legal, they’d not be forced to do so in order to drink.</p>
<p>I think as soon as one begins to actively contribute to society, one should be free to make one’s own choices. So lowering the drinking age would be a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>No; yes (mostly).</p>
<p>when I was 18 (1975) the drinking age was 18 years for beer, but 21 years for hard liquor and wine. I grew up in Mississippi. I think the age should be 19 years old. That way it takes it out of high school but not college.</p>
<p>^^^High schoolers already can get alcohol, and fairly easily too. I think it’s more about the principal that as adults, 18 years olds should be able to make their own decisions.</p>
<p>The drinking age was raised in an effort to lower highway fatalities. It worked. If it were lowered to 18, the number of young adults and others dying due to drunk driving would likely increase, and alcohol, much like cigarettes, would become more accessible to kids under 18. Also, we no longer have a draft, so it’s not like you can be forced to go to war when you’re not even allowed to have a drink. It’s a different situation than it was in the 60’s and 70’s. That being said, if the public transportation system in this country was not so godawful, I might support a change. As is, I think it’s a personal choice, and whether the law is in place or not is unlikely to affect whether people drink at all, although it might curb excess.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure we do still have a draft. In fact I know someone who just had to register for it…</p>
<p>We have a draft, we just haven’t had to use it in a long time. All males are supposed to register within six months of turning 18 or they face prosecution for a fine / jail time.</p>
<p>They’re required to register, but the draft isn’t in effect and won’t be ever again. Can you imagine, after Vietnam? No politician in his or her right mind is going to touch that with a ten foot pole.</p>
<p>Scientifically, twenty-one makes the most sense when speaking of alcohol’s effect on the brain. However, there are studies that suggest that the taboo of underage drinking heightens its appeal and leads to binge drinking, which makes sense. My father has offered to let me try various forms of alcohol over the past several years, but I’ve never particularly wanted to. There’s no taboo to me, and it just doesn’t seem like a big deal. In Europe, the taboo doesn’t exist in the same way, and young people there don’t abuse alcohol as much as here. Changing the law here doesn’t necessarily change the culture, though, since the hard-drinking party atmosphere has been ingrained into the culture of the young, and I doubt it would change much. It’s a tough subject.</p>
<p>I don’t drink alcohol, but if I felt like it, the law wouldn’t stop me. I’m sure it’ll appeal to me eventually, quite possibly before I turn 21.</p>
<p>
Yeah, I had to register. If you don’t register, you can’t get federal financial aid or loans for school. If not for that, I would have refused. It’s absolutely ridiculous, forcing someone to fight when they don’t want to.</p>
<p>
They won’t do it for another Vietnam-type war. But if the US is ever involved in a World War III, it would quite possibly be seen as necessary by those in power.</p>
<p>One of the best policies held in many European countries is that the drinking age is lower than the driving age. I think we should follow the German example, drinking age 16 for beer/wine, driving age 18. When alcohol is introduced before driving, the taboo associated with it is gone by the time the kids start driving, leading to much lower rates of both binge drinking and drunk driving in youth. Most people here wouldn’t agree with the driving age being 18, but that’s how it’s done in almost every other country in the world, and they don’t have nearly the drunk driving problems we do.</p>
<p>If alcohol was legal for 18 year olds, I don’t think drunk driving would increase significantly. In high school, people go to parties at people’s houses in the middle of nowhere. After these parties, drunk teens don’t have an easy way of getting home because they are in the middle of nowhere. If drinking was legal, people would at least be drinking in more civilized locations, and wold have higher access to public transportation.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree about raising the driving age. But you have to keep in mind that most European teens don’t drive, anyway, that’s the point I was trying to make about public transit</p>
<p>Part of the reason it’s up to 21 is because of brain development. I don’t think it should be lowered, because then you have 11 year olds thinking they are rebellious for drinking when the drinking age is 18. I don’t know actually that sounds ridiculous though. I just think it needs stay at 21 so people get an idea about brain development and at what age drinking is not hindering this process. I mean, people will drink no matter what the drinking age is. I doubt many of you would stop drinking and wait if it was lowered to 18 or anything. People can drink if they want to,it’s basically just another choice we will make or not make, there just needs to be some sort of “standard” that is relative to brain development, so those that don’t want to risk disrupting brain development, have a guideline.</p>
<p>I think there are good reasons for it being 21 (lower drunk driving amongst teens, the brain development thing, the fact that if high schoolers could legally buy alcohol, kids a lot younger than 18 could get alcohol a whole lot easier than they already can) and that there are good reasons for it being 18 (you’re a legal adult, you can fight in wars, vote, smoke, etc, so shouldn’t you be allowed to drink legally?, the idea of being a rebel and breaking the law appealing to teenagers so they drink to seem cool). </p>
<p>Honestly, the government can make the drinking age whatever they want. Being technically underage is not going to stop teenagers from drinking. If people wanna drink, they’re gonna drink. I’m not 21 for another 3 years, and my age hasn’t stopped me from having the occasional drink.</p>
<p>^ Exactly. Whether the age is 16, 18, or 21, you know 15 year-olds are still going to be drinking. It’s just that I don’t think a 19 year-old should be able to get arrested or cited for doing so. The law has no effect on when kids start, it just determines until what age they can be penalized for it.</p>
<p>Yeah Vietnam did not leave a good legacy for the draft; chances are, we won’t use it again for something like that. However, if WWIII or something else similar to that arises (as another user above wrote), they will institute the draft. If they had done away with it for good they wouldn’t require males to register.</p>
<p>Drinking age in my country is 18. I don’t drink much cos i don’t like the taste of alcohol. I like the sweet ones but vodka is just not for me. I don’t like beer. And yes i am underage.</p>