Groups push for lowering drinking age

[losttheskyagain]

The age honestly doesn't matter. A large amount of alcoholics are exposed to alcohol long before the legal age. Lowering it won't improve the number of drunk driving fatalities.

 

[PvtRyan]

Bob?

We have the "designated driver" concept, but what is "bob"? Buddy On Board?

Bewust Onbeschonken Bestuurder, or: Deliberately Sober Driver I guess. Then there's the Bert: Bezopen En Rijdt Toch or: Wasted But Drives Anyway

But yeah, it's just a designated driver, but the whole Bob thing was a media campaign.

 

[Tyguy]

They should let 18 years olds only buy girly drinks...then when they are 21, they can buy beer.

 

[CptStern]

heh and at age 25 you get to drink real beer: you know the imported from other countries who dont water their beer down kind :E

 

[Krynn72]

And at age 30 you can drink pure mercury: you know the imported stuff from countries who dont water down their elements.

 

[Tyguy]

Ya, im not a huge fan of our domestic selection...

I love Pilsner, Hienekin and Stella....

 

[CptStern]

And at age 30 you can drink pure mercury: you know the imported stuff from countries who dont water down their elements.

bah who need to purchase Mercury when I can just suck on a chinese toy .....oh boy that didnt sound right ....

New Lego! now with more Lead!
- made in china

 

[Tyguy]

I hear chinese "toys" are smaller than other toys....

(IM TALKING ABOUT THEIR PENISES!!!!!!!!Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahhahhhh)

 

[CptStern]

^ possible homersexual

 

[Ennui]

I don't intend to drink alcohol ever and the only thing I see actually coming from this as a societal result is more accidents, so I'm against it.

As much as I would ideally like to see the drinking age lowered in the US, I have many reservations.

I do think it's good that a lot of countries with lower drinking ages, particularly in Europe, allow teens to essentially drink/vomit most of their stupidity out of their system early on. I may still like getting trashed, but I'd like to think I'm pretty responsible and mature with alcohol aside from the occasional stupid shit behind closed doors. Me and my friends knew our limits long before we got our hands on licences. And the risk of drunk driving could generally be avoided because public transportation existed pretty much everywhere. You could be an incoherent, boozed mess by the end of the night and just catch a bus or a tram home.

In the case of the US, however, there are some pretty big distinctions both culturally and practically. You need a car to get around a lot of the time. When you're 16 and you start going out more and/or take up a temp job, public transportation is often rare and inefficient, and you can't depend on your parents to take you everywhere. I really would not like to see the distribution of alcohol to teens around the time they start taking up driving. Being inexperienced with both is just a recipe for disaster, so anything below 18 is out of the question.
But even 18 seems to low to me, and that's because... well, it just looks to me like a lot of American young adults still act ****ing stupid. Be it with driving or drinking. Maybe I'm being unfair with that assessment. Perhaps where I grew up people around that age were just as immature. But then that brings us back to public transportation. There's simply far more potential for inevitable teen idiocy to result in bad accidents and needless deaths when the youth in question is utilizing direct control over a big, heavy, deadly vehicle. The US doesn't have the luxury of sidestepping those problems in a lot of places.

So I'm sort of torn. Although it doesn't matter to me too much since I'm just one year short of being able to purchase my drinks legally.

I personally agree with both of you on the safety issues, but I feel compelled to argue for lowering it to 18 anyway, out of principle. Honestly, the damage is done. Underage drinking is so widespread already that changing the drinking age back to 18 is not going to make it any more prevalent, and there's the possibility then that it might even help make the 18-21 year olds more responsible with their alcohol: because it's no longer an illegal activity, they can drink in bars and clubs, rather than house parties where they have to drive away drunk to escape the impending police bust.

In my experience anyway there are two types of people: those willing to drive drunk and those who aren't. The former category is going to do it regardless of whether they are drunk legally or not.

You get drafted in the USA? Damn, so civilised.

Anyway, when have drinking age ristrictions stopped anybody? My mate went and bought some bozze the other day.

Not drafted, but all American males have to register for the draft after they turn eighteen, in case the government decides to implement one.

At which point I would be on a bus to Canada and not coming back.

 

[Tyguy]

If they lower it I would vote for harsher DUI laws....First offense, lose license for 35 years

 

[Ennui]

As far as I'm concerned, you should not be allowed to drive a car ever again if you're enough of an asshole (not to mention stupid) to drive drunk.

 

[Tr0n]

Hey, if you can vote and die in a war, you should be able to catch a buzz...

I'm going to re-quote this post, because I believe no argument can trump this statement.

I don't care if death rates rise because of the drinking age is lowered or what not. Again, if I'm old enough to go too war for this country and possibly die, I should be able to drink.

 

[AntiAnto]

I'm just going to ignore that part.

Well, by using your common sense you can easily and ethically surpass a law that is completely useless or that depends on an individual's choice. The government tells me it's illegal to have my seatbelt unfasten, but to my ears that sounds like a goddamn challenge.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

If there was a way to make it not involve me or people I care about (aka on the road) I'd be all for it, natural selection ftw.

 

[Stigmata]

Just for the record, I'm for lowering the drinking age to 18.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

As far as I'm concerned, you should not be allowed to drive a car ever again if you're enough of an asshole (not to mention stupid) to drive drunk.

I think that's a bit harsh and unrealistic. Believe me, I highly prefer a non-driving drinking session at home, but, the truth is, chronic drunks can handle driving, up to a point, probably far above the "legal" limit. I know that sounds ludicrous to a lot of people, but try to think outside of the crowd. It obviously shouldn't be the norm, but it shouldn't be over-punished, either.

 

[noQ]

utter nonsense ..if that were true europeans would be drunk all the time

ooooh yeaahh..been drunk for 5 years in a row now....

the drinking age here is 18, but people start drinking at 12-14 or on rare occasions later on.