It's essentially poison.
While I agree that if a person wants to poison themselves with it, they should be able to, the simple fact is that people drive drunk even though they know it is illegal. You drive drunk, you can wreck a lot easier. And odds are, your going to wreck into another car possibly killing the people in the other car.
If alcohol only harmed the user, I'd be fine with it. But it doesn't just harm the user. It can easily harm another person.
Anything can harm other people. I can stab someone with a pencil or scissors, choke them with rope, or drown them in a lake. Should we ban water while we're at it?
You're advocating for a nanny state. If we banned anything that could possibly bring harm to another person, we wouldn't be doing
anything. The real problem isn't alcohol, it's people who abuse it. You're saying that everyone should be punished for the actions of a few idiots. I don't drive when I've been drinking, I shouldn't be punished for those who do.
You can take my alcohol from my cold, dead hands, because that's the only way you're going to stop me from having it.
And they are breaking the law. Your point is?
Laws are their for a reason. While you might not agree with them, as long as you live in a certian country/state you should at least have enough respect to follow whatever laws they have. Don't like the law? Don't break it, change it.
In theory, laws should be based around a set of ethical values. In practice, at least here in the US, they're based on whatever sounds good in a commercial for re-election.
If a law conflicts with my moral values, I will break that law. If a law interferes with my personal freedoms without a reasonable justification, I will break that law. I'm not going to be an unquestioning slave to a system that has lost its purpose.
Since they want alcohol, how about a week of physical labor on a isolated farm that grows the ingredients for it? And to make it more effective, cut off all forms of communication outside of the farm.
Sorry, but what's so wrong about underage drinking that we should resort to, as the US Constitution defines it, "cruel and unusual punishment?" It's a minor thing that should carry, at most, a few hours of community service as a penalty. Personally, I don't even see it as a problem. I drank underage and I'm a productive member of society today and was an upstanding student back then. As long as people are responsible, I really don't care what they do. You're willing to resort to torture because someone broke an arbitrary rule? Pardon my French, but screw you.
