Drinking Age - 18 or 21?

Laws don't enforce people drinking in moderation though.

I lean towards 18 because I like the idea of a uniform age for all three big vices, gambling, alcohol, smoking, etc. On one hand, there's the notion that taking away the illegality aspect of it would actually lower usage, but then on the other, you'd have degenerates at 18 who couldn't be trusted with it and would hurt themselves and others. It could go either way, really.

Honestly I stand firm with the 21 age, just because it does seem right. Smoking should be up there too. And weed shouldn't be legal at all.

But I think if someone is 18, I think they should be allowed to drink light alcoholic drinks, well more heavier stuff you have to be 21 to get/buy. But theres no way to properly enforce anything.
The younger the people are, they make worse decisions and don't know their limits, they could say only 1 drink then it ends up 20. I though it was legal for young people to drink if they were with their parents and they allowed it? Just get nice with your parents. :P I've been offered many times, but I don't drink.

BlahISuck said:

Laws don't enforce people drinking in moderation though.

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I know they don't and that's why I said in my post that "I've read some posts talking about how you can just drink in moderation, but there is no way to enforce that." Then I said that laws are designed to prevent such things, meaning that is the intention of laws, but it doesn't mean it works all of the time. It is a deterrent to underage drinking.

countryemo said:

Honestly I stand firm with the 21 age, just because it does seem right. Smoking should be up there too. And weed shouldn't be legal at all.

But I think if someone is 18, I think they should be allowed to drink light alcoholic drinks, well more heavier stuff you have to be 21 to get/buy. But theres no way to properly enforce anything.
The younger the people are, they make worse decisions and don't know their limits, they could say only 1 drink then it ends up 20. I though it was legal for young people to drink if they were with their parents and they allowed it? Just get nice with your parents. :P I've been offered many times, but I don't drink.

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I'm not sure about other places, but here in Wisconsin, minors can be served alcohol at the discretion of the bartender if they are accompanied by at least one legal guardian that is at least 21 years old.

Where I live pretty much everyone drank by the time they were 16, although not really frequently or anything, we just could because alcohol was easy to come by even though the legal age is 18 here. A lot of my friends went pretty nuts with the alcohol at the time, you know, passing out and vomiting ect (although not me because I was somewhat more sensible) but honestly, now that we're all 18 we've been through that all and we drink pretty damn responsibly I think. My point is that most people do not remain as irresponsible drinkers for a great deal of time, which is why I think the drinking age should in fact be 16/17. How can people learn to have responsibility without the freedom?

Between those two, 21.

Where I am, the age is 19... but I didn't drink until I was 21 anyway

I'm not convinced it entirely matters. Kids will always want to drink it, if they're not allowed, and when you let them drink it, well, they'll drink it! In some countries, the law is very lax. We went to Germany on a school trip, and saw a group of kids just go into a pub and buy a beer. The pub didn't ask questions, or for ID, just gave them the beer. The legal drinking age in Germany is meant to be 16, and they were about 13. In some countries, the legal drinking age is just useless.

Germany actually has a minimum drinking age, depending on amount of Alcohol there is in specific kind of drink.
In my opinion, it's useless, because a glass of Beer, which has 4% Alcohol, is much bigger than a glass of Ouzo, which has 40% Alcohol.

I say lower it-
Because teens now a days, including myself have been peer pressured into smoking, drinking and other things of that matter.
I regret my decision drinking, but I learned from it, and do regret it. (Believe me, i got punished.)
Lowering it would lower illegal teen drinking and overall stop some teens from making other bad decisions.
Lowering the age would of course higher the consequences, but in good reason.
Lower it i say.

I don't think there should be a flat age where it's suddenly allowed. I think there are better systems than simply saying "it's disallowed until some arbitrary date, then it's suddenly fine" (and that doesn't just apply to alcohol laws). I like the graded approach described in some of the previous posts, personally.

My idea is 18 if they have graduated High School. 21 if they haven't. If you lower the drinking age more people will drink, even though they already do in High School or younger.

I don't like any type of drinking, and I never plan to drink. I am completely against under age smoking and drinking even though I am still friends with people who are underage. I don't let peer pressure get to me and people know when I say know, I mean it.

Iceman3317 said:

My idea is 18 if they have graduated High School. 21 if they haven't. If you lower the drinking age more people will drink, even though they already do in High School or younger.

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Ehh people will scream elitism and inequality. Something as "small" as this can be surprisingly political.

Ok, Lithuania - adulthood starts at 18
USA - adulthood starts at 21 (!?!)

It's nonsense people still drinks alcohol ( stupidies like me or someone of my friends ) . Teenagers too.
I started drinking at the parties when I was 14-15 ( I do not remember exactly) and look now at me - I'm not a dumbass, stupid cowboy from village far away. - I'm just I you know? ( sorry for grammar mistakes) People if they have a limit, they drink responsibly, if not - very very bad memories ( like sex with friend wife - she agreed). Still I want to say - drinking is for 18 year - because you became an adult. That's it. Thanks for reading this :)

I'm 15 so I don't have much to add to this, but I'll say what I have.

I think that it should be more around 23 or 24. The brain doesn't stop developing until age 21, but some people are different. I think that this age would cover everyone. There should also be more strict laws on consumption. Not to say that I wouldn't drink a shot or two if I could, but I wouldn't drink a lot. Not at all. I wan't my body to be in shipshape. There needs to be more consequences for DUI, DWI, and MIPs. Not just a fine and loss of license, but more jail time, too.
Just my thoughts.

I think the voting age and drinking age should be swapped, personally. 18 to drink, and 21 to vote. I've never understood why we have to wait for the fun thing, but we can do the responsible adult thing at 18. And besides, being 18 and voting means you can't legally drink to celebrate or drown out your sorrows, depending on how the election went for you.

Or just have them both as 18 or both as 21. It takes responsibility to do both, and to put voting at 18 and drinking at 21 speaks some volumes to me.

I know this topic is about the drinking age, not voting age or swapping them, but when I think of legality ages, I think of these two because they mystify me for reasons already stated.

Personally I'm not one who enjoys drinking that much. But not being able to drink until the age of 21 is fine with me. There's already enough teenagers who are alcoholics by the age of 17-23. If minors were allowed to drink, I guess drinks that contains small amounts of alcohol would be alright. Some may disagree with me but that's the perspective of someone who doesn't enjoy drinking that much.

Where I llive (Belgium) We can drink beer from 16 and drinks with more alcohol (like Whisky) from 18. Altough almost nobody checks your age when buying whisky or something like that. And I think that those age are good. Things that are prohibited are almost always considered as more fun. When it prohibited more teenagers whil try to drink it, then when it is legalAnd as far as it goes with the brain damage thing, I dont tink ore children are dumber then other children in the world So I think the age should be lowered to 18. I mean at 18 you are an adult and you can choose to drink or not.

The problem isn't really age, but that most people (young or old) just drink irresponsibly. I've seen plenty of teens who can handle alcohol without doing stupid things, but I can't say the same for a lot of young adults/adults.

It's a lot like the problem with sexual education - people seem to act like it has to be one extreme or the other; either we teach everything, or nothing. They don't realize that you can still teach people to be safe and responsible while also allowing them to indulge. It doesn't just have to be one or the other.

And yes, some people will still screw up no matter how thoroughly you teach them. But letting a few bad apples ruin the bunch isn't fair either.

All in all, I think 18 is a decent age, so long as you actually teach them all about alcohol and everything involved with it beforehand. Having a legal age of any kind doesn't do much if you don't actually make an effort to prepare them for it before they turn that age.

You're not magically going to learn how to be a responsible adult just because of a three year difference. Age does not guarantee wisdom; it just means you're slightly more likely to learn something over a longer period of time.