Drinking Age - 18 or 21?

I think it should be 18. People used to drink alcohol at young ages, the current laws are remnants of prohibition. The individual states have the ability to decide for themselves what is the legal drinking age, but in some cases the federal government told them that they had to change it to 21 in order to get certain funding. Specifically I think it was Virginia (West?).

It's 18 in Australia and to be fair, when I turned 18 the only thing that changed was my ability to drive by myself. Realistically I think the legal drinking age should be lowered to 16, kids will be allowed to drink and there's no longer that need to rebel against the rules.
As soon as I was allowed to drink I started drinking less, same thing with most if not all my other friends.

I don't know the science behind age and brain development, but I would probably support a drinking age that protects the developing brain, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember hearing that age is 21. Regardless of what laws are in place, underage drinking occurs, so it almost makes me want to support a lower drinking age, just to lower the amount of "crime" (MIP mainly, obviously drunk driving won't be affected greatly) that occurs directly from being in possession. I suppose each side has it's pros and cons, but ultimately, laws are put in place for a reason, and I believe a drinking age strictly tailored to the development of the brain is the most important criteria.

Developing brain, ha! I do work alongside a professor, and he offered us champagne on our first meeting (I'm not yet 21). A little alcohol never hurts. Rebelling is a part of it. I highly doubt that a moderate amount of alcohol causes "permanent brain damage." In Canada, it's 18 or 19 - are we letting our youth down by giving them 2 more years of permanent brain damage? It's funny that the United States has one of the highest federal minimum drinking ages of developed countries, yet they allow many more additives and chemicals to be put in food than Europe.

BlahISuck said:

Developing brain, ha! I do work alongside a professor, and he offered us champagne on our first meeting (I'm not yet 21). A little alcohol never hurts. Rebelling is a part of it. I highly doubt that a moderate amount of alcohol causes "permanent brain damage." In Canada, it's 18 or 19 - are we letting our youth down by giving them 2 more years of permanent brain damage? It's funny that the United States has one of the highest federal minimum drinking ages of developed countries, yet they allow many more additives and chemicals to be put in food than Europe.

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From what I can see, those who drink underage aren't the most responsible when it comes to the amount of intake. Obviously a glass of champagne isn't going to kill your brain. The thing with brain development is, it's not the same for every person, which explains the varying amount of drinking ages, from a viewpoint pertaining to brain development only. Europe does it much differently, I can't recall if they had a very low drinking age in some countries, or just none at all. They're obviously not brain dead. But is alcohol affecting their development? I can't say for sure that that's not happening. My point is though, that putting in place laws that offer the most protection is the most important aspect, for me, of the drinking age. Obviously for the sake of feasibility, an age must be established where the typical human brain stops developing, otherwise the drinking age could be 50 for all we know. I don't know the amount of damage alcohol causes, but I wouldn't want to be the one to risk finding out the hard way.

Tldr; I advocate precaution, that's all.

Though I'm under aged (and thus not viable to the more prominent points of the discussion) I'd like to point out that (in my country, at least) the laws around drinking aren't so strict because they couldn't possibly cover every single bar across the streets. I've heard of people who started drinking at 16 and didn't mind because nobody ever caught them.

Even with it lowering to 18 I don't see a lot of difference that would occur, only some more college students into it maybe?

While the United States legal drinking age is indeed 21, I can see why it's at that age. And it's because the brain is still in development for the average human being at 18 years of age. There are people in this world that would die to have a beer, and whenever you introduce alcohol into a developing body, it can corrupt the finishing touches on a developed body. Sure 21 might be a little too old, but I'm not all for having the drinking age set to 18. Responsibility, as already mentioned, surely does play a role in alcohol consumption as well, and it's these irresponsible people that caused the legal drinking age in the United States to be raised. And DUIs are another thing too. Even though I doubt a raise in legal drinking age can totally help reduce DUI rates in America, I'm pretty sure it has helped even a tiny little, because driving while intoxicated is very dangerous and could cost someone their life.

Legal drinking age here is 16 years, but they want to higher it to 18.
But even then, more and more underaged people start to drink at 13 years, when their parents buy Alcohol (Bad!).

Also, even though legal age is 16, you have to show your ID Card or Passport while buying Alcohol, until your 20th age.
Nobody does that, though.

MKGirlism said:

Legal drinking age here is 16 years, but they want to higher it to 18.
But even then, more and more underaged people start to drink at 13 years, when their parents buy Alcohol (Bad!).

Also, even though legal age is 16, you have to show your ID Card or Passport while buying Alcohol, until your 20th age.
Nobody does that, though.

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Indeed, i think they are raising it to 18 in January i believe.

Anyways i never heard from anyone i know that they ask for the ID Card or Passport at all.
Yet i dont see the point of raising it, as people who already are drinking wont be intimidated of the rule, ignoring it most likely.

MKGirlism said:

Also, even though legal age is 16, you have to show your ID Card or Passport while buying Alcohol, until your 20th age.
Nobody does that, though.

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I think there's a similar thing everywhere, technically in Australia at least the drinking age is 18, but by law the salesperson must check your ID if they suspect you to be under 25. My mother is 43 and got asked for ID, she looks 43 trust.
I guess it helps alleviate discrimination claims and such.

ShadowExcadrill said:

Yet i dont see the point of raising it, as people who already are drinking wont be intimidated of the rule, ignoring it most likely.

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Because Mark Rutte is simply the biggest weirdo in Europe, which is categorised as "Prime Minister", together with Donald Tusk (from Poland).
He 'wants' to help NL out of crisis, but instead, he destroys NL with either stuff to make everyone else poor, or by editing the Law, which economically won't make any difference at all.
Raising legal age by 2 years is an example of the second one.

Plumpyfoof said:

My mother is 43 and got asked for ID, she looks 43 trust.

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Maybe cash workers in Australia disagree with you?
In NL, they have to ask for your ID if you look under 20, girls usually buy it with lots of Make-Up on, and boys usually use different clothes.
Either that, or our cash workers are just to lazy to ask.

I think it should be 18. Why not? You're gonna do it anyway. You can Vote at 18. You can buy cigarettes at 18, you can go to war and fight for your country at 18. Soldiers who go fight see horrible things, things we can't even dream of. And when they come back home they're still too young to have a beer? Should be 18.

krisags87 said:

I think it should be 18. Why not? You're gonna do it anyway. You can Vote at 18. You can buy cigarettes at 18, you can go to war and fight for your country at 18. Soldiers who go fight see horrible things, things we can't even dream of. And when they come back home they're still too young to have a beer? Should be 18.

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Well to be fair, most waitresses don't know where the date of birth is on a CAC Card so those soldiers get alcohol pretty easily still. But yeah I agree with this girl. If your old enough to sign contracts, take out loans, buy a house, pay taxes, kill and be killed in the name of your country. Then yeah, you should be old enough to drink.



Edit: Fixed! Lol my bad krisags87.

Girl! You agree with this GIRL! Lol :P

I'm not a brain scientist so I can only repeat what I've read and heard which is that the brain can still be developing halfway through your twenties.

That aside, drinking at a young age can be dangerous depending on certain factors. In America, we don't have much in the way of public transportation so young people can't exactly go out drinking and then take the train home unless they happen to live in a major city. And for those a little older who may have licenses, we're such a car and driving country that we're bound to have a lot of drunk drivers and deaths/accidents. Plus there's the whole responsibility and maturity issue so 16-year old going out to drink could get themselves mugged or drugged or something if they're not used to all of that. We just don't have a lot of safety when it comes to alcohol, particularly treatment for people who start to get addicted.

So with that said, if you want to have a low age for drinking there should be age restrictions on places that serve and sell alcohol so that only with a (presumably) responsible adult would you be able to get your hands on alcohol.

krisags87 said:

Girl! You agree with this GIRL! Lol :P

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Remember to keep your posts focused on the discussion and cut back on the spam.

There's probably more brain injuries sustained in high school football than in the consumption of alcohol. If 18 was the legal drinking age, there'd be no want to rebel. They're gonna do it anyway. Jmo.

21 because alcohol is dangerous and minors are morons.

I think 18 is an appropriate age for allowing one to drink. However I wouldn't be against certain restrictions until one is 21.

For example at 18, you'd be allowed to go to a bar and have 1 or 2 drinks, but not be allowed to buy any alcohol in bulk sizes such as a 12 pack of beer or more than say, a pint of liquor. Bar/Store Hopping could be discouraged easily by stiff fines and loss of alcohol endorsements on their ID.

I'm torn on this subject. Part of me says 18 because you're an adult. You can gamble (bingo), vote, and join the military, but not drink. You can fight for your country, but would be fighting for rights you don't even have. The other part of me says 21 because the brain is more developed at that age. 3 years makes a bigger difference than one might think. Too much alcohol can damage anyone's brain and body, but too much alcohol at a young age can be even more damaging. I've read some posts talking about how you can just drink in moderation, but there is no way to enforce that. Do you really want a 16 year old drinking every single day thus killing himself? Obviously that would be his own fault, but laws are designed to prevent such things and make the world a better, safer place.