<p>
</p>
<p>Look askance at any internet calculator or test. According to that BAC calculator, you would need to drink 40 beers to be too intoxicated to drive as an adult. Plus, I was under the impression that most kids here are underage and are thus subject to the .02 BAC limit.</p>
<p>Being underage.. having one beer is considered not legal. I had 3 beers on my 3rd MIP… and I blew a .06 (how lame.. right??) And to think I was helping a girl who was puking.. she got let off clean.</p>
<p>go heels!!</p>
<p>Easy, I forgot about the whole age thing. I think that if you are under 21, it is illegal to have anything over 0.000. Drinking laws are so dumb. It should be lowered to 18.</p>
<p>naahh.. drinking is overglamourized as it is… I don’t think we should make alcohol even more accessible in high schools.</p>
<p>They should lower the drinking age so that people can get the clubbing phase out of their systems and -grow up- earlier. Where I live the legal age is 18 and most people get it out of their system within a year or two before drastically lowering how often they go, including myself. But hey, I’m always up for a party. I’d party with anyone normal, which I hope includes most people on here.</p>
<p>So many kids in college drink. I understand that HS kids don’t need easier access, but do you have any idea how many college kids get in trouble for underage drinking? It’s just dumb.</p>
<p>I’ll agree there</p>
<p>Most high schoolers drink, with alcohol easily accessible, but it seems as if most people on this forum first experienced alcohol in college. I don’t drink and never have, but I attended a heck of a lot of more parties in high school than in college. Almost everyone I knew drank, and none of them got caught, ever. And believe me, they did dumb things.</p>
<p>The drinking age, from a purely legal standpoint and for no other reason, should be lowered to 18. The government shouldn’t reserve such petty rights from people once they’re legally adults. I don’t think it will drastically change how many people in each age group drink, just as turning 21 doesn’t determine whether I decide to start drinking.</p>
<p>Ehhhh drinking age should not be lowered, because the brain is still in its plasticity mode and harmful drinking at a young age can seriously damage the brain (not to mention the rest of your body). 21 is around the age that the prefrontal cortex of the brain matures, which is also responsible for judgement and reason.</p>
<p>I love it how when men drink, they grow more confident but their testosterone levels drop significantly and they have a hard time maintaining an erection. 
And constant drinking can lead to further difficulty of maintaining an erection. But I’m sure the company that makes Viagra doesn’t mind.</p>
<p>As for women, drinking is only processed through the liver (while for men it’s the stomach and the liver) so constant drinking can have an even more negative effects. Woohoo.</p>
<p>From a health standpoint, it makes sense. But yes, from a legal standpoint it does not make sense.</p>
<p>They have the legal drinking age to 21 for a reason, you know. During the late teenager to young adult transition we can find idiotic behavior that leaves me dumbfounded. In my opinion, as you get in your 20’s you become more mature and realize that it is your responsibility to acknowledge one’s careless actions-which results in disastrous consequences such as alcohol poisoning and driving-under-the-influence deaths.
In addition, most teenagers obtain their license near the age of 16-19. It is imperative to let the teenager drive and be accostumed to the perilous roads he/she drives through and let him/her figure out if driving drunk is a smart decision.</p>
<p>The prefrontal cortex can actually grow into the mid 20s. I don’t think that’s an issue anyway, since teens are going to drink regardless of the law. But lowering the drinking age would also reduce the novelty of drinking, causing people to get out of the phase earlier, especially if they’re allowed to go to clubs earlier.</p>
<p>Are you sure that whiskey dick is caused by reduced test levels, though? I didn’t know that. I really didn’t think that test levels dropped low enough for that to happen. I thought that part of the brain was just too impaired to work while intoxicated, or something.</p>
<p>I would think that the drinking age could be lowered to 19 instead of 18 or as is, 21. Because, aside from the obvious unhealthy effects mentioned by catsushi, this would at least prevent the overwhelming majority of high schoolers from getting easier access to alcohol but still allow college students to function like regular college students. Seriously, we can all smoke cigarettes if we choose to as 18+ year olds (even though the smell is awful and there is essentially no personal benefit, imo). Is drinking alcohol truly so much worse than smoking cigarettes? Another reason of having the drinking age at 21 is to curb drunk driving…but do 18-19 year old college students really drive all that much? Unlikely if they are going to a college away from home. Well, now my logic is not making any sense..nm it’s too late for me to think coherently about this</p>
<p>but one thing…“It is imperative to let the teenager drive and be accostumed to the perilous roads he/she drives through and let him/her figure out if driving drunk is a smart decision.”</p>
<p>–Ummm, no thanks. I’d prefer not to have the masses of teenagers drive drunk and cause all sorts of accidents just because they need to “figure out if driving drunk is a smart decision.” Come on, this is not something that needs to be figured out. Seriously! Driving drunk=moronic. Plain and simple. Driving with a single beer in your system= not the smartest thing to do, but a lot safer than driving drunk. Not that complicated</p>
<p>All this plethora of arguments made me so exasperated…
…that I think I’ll have myself a beer.</p>
<p>I’m glad I’m normal enough that people want to party with me, lol. Personally, I’ve driven immediately after one drink (it was a smirnoff ice, which barely counts really) and I really don’t think it’s a big deal, but I don’t make it a habit. Honestly, I bet cough syrup would make you blow about the same as one of those fruity “malt beverages”. Typically, if I know that I have to go home/be somewhere at a certain time, I cut myself off at least 3 hours before that time. Otherwise I’ll either crash at the place I am (if it’s a good friend’s place), or call someone to get a ride home.
I’m also in favor of lowering the drinking age, but that’s mainly because pretty much everyone I know drinks (or did drink, if they’ve turned 21 since I’ve known them) under 21 anyway. The law does absolutely bunk to stop people from actually doing it. I know two guys who got MIPs and had a party with their infamous 2-whole-bottles-of-everclear hunch punch the next weekend to “celebrate” it. I started at 17, although I was already in college at the time. I don’t really think high schoolers should drink.
Also, I don’t think it’s fair that when I go to France in 2 weeks I’ll be able to buy as much alcohol as I want there, whenever I want pretty much, and then suddenly I get back here and can’t for another 13 months.</p>
<p>ugh everclear. had half a dixie cup of it once in one shot straight up. gross.
I agree about the drinking age being 19. Or make the BAC level more as a progressing ladder as you grow older. 18 being zero, 19 .2, 20 etc…</p>
<p>Btw I wonder if theres a thread where all of us say how old and what school we go to.</p>
<p>I found leah posting this in another thread and I thought it would be more appropriate.
“mm..i ended up running around unclothed at the last big party i went to before school was out.
i generally don’t make a habit of public stripping..but i totally had an excuse because i sat in vomit (not mine!) and naturally had to remove my skirt. then, taking off my shirt was an appropriate following action, according to me in my drunken state hahah.”</p>
<p>I stand by my previous (first post) statement.
also okgirl and aulostchick will be an addition. and burgler. but we have to keep the girl to guy ratio 2:1, ya feel?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My piece of information was from a video I once saw that documented a study where participants were told to drink and then they were monitored. Numerous sources mention or state that alcohol is correlated to testosterone levels dropping–> [Alcohol</a> Boosts Testosterone Levels - WorldHealth.net](<a href=“http://www.worldhealth.net/news/alcohol_boosts_testosterone_levels]Alcohol”>http://www.worldhealth.net/news/alcohol_boosts_testosterone_levels) and [TeenBodybuilding.com</a> - Big Red - Alcohol And Bodybuilding - Do They Mix?<a href=“in%20big%20letters%20it%20says” title=“ALCOHOL LOWERS TESTOSTERONE AND INCREASES ESTROGEN”>/url</a> and [url=<a href="http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/abuse/l/blacer030117.htm]Alcohol’s">http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/abuse/l/blacer030117.htm]Alcohol’s</a> Effects on Testosterone](<a href=“http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/bigalcohol.htm]TeenBodybuilding.com”>http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/bigalcohol.htm) and [Alcohol’s</a> effects on testosterone](<a href=“http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/ace-aeo010603.php]Alcohol’s”>http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/ace-aeo010603.php) . Not reliable sources, yes, but the best I could come up with when typing “testosterone” and “alcohol” into Google. Most of the sources mention that new research points to an increase of testosterone in the frontal cortex of the brain, but every source mentions that alcohol inhibits reproductive functioning and testosterone secretion.</p>
<p>I know that alcohol reduces test and spikes estrogen. That’s a pretty well known fact. I just don’t think that the drop in test is what causes inability to get an erection. The drop just isn’t that severe.</p>
<p>But I just re-read your post and it doesn’t look like you were drawing a link between the two anyway, so my bad.</p>
<p>I dont think young guys without ED have to worry about this.</p>