Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 years old? (patriot, alcohol, world)

[redguitar77111]

I find it ironic that Frank Lautenberg, who introduced the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, was a donor to the Presidential campaign of George McGovern, the “youth candidate”.

[brownbagg]

if you are military you can drink at 18

[travis t]

Absolutely NOT! If anything, raise it to 25, or even re-impose some prohibition-style restrictions. The US life expectancy has gone down for 3 straight years, and a big reason is an explosion of liver disease.

It's a longstanding myth that prohibition 'didn't work.' The liver disease rate went down dramatically during the decade of prohibition.

[r small]

18 is old enough to drink. But they should raise to driving age to 18.

[danielj72]

First point I will make is that this should absolutely be a state issue. The federal government should not be regulating the drinking age nor is it right for them to use funding to bribe states into doing what they are told by the feds. I am a firm constitutionalist and strongly support the 10th amendment.

All that being said I believe a lot of time effort and funding is wasted enforcing a law that no one respects. I know I did not follow this law when it applied to me. I know my parents disobeyed this law as did my grandparents. I have no illusions about my kid and his respect for this law. The 21 drinking age has existed since prohibition was lifted and since then only the 55 MPH speed limit has received less respect. The real problem with all this is the fact that the consequences of breaking this law now means a permanent criminal record unlike in my time when the cop simply poured out the beer and called your dad. Today they take kids to jail. For this reason the law must go as it is not right to damage young lives permanently for doing something all of us older Americans did in our youths. It should be 18 and even those younger should not have their records permanently marked for something as common as drinking alcohol. No law is ever going to change this behavior anyway just as no one ever drove 55 mph.

[rstevens62]

Originally Posted by danielj72

First point I will make is that this should absolutely be a state issue. The federal government should not be regulating the drinking age nor is it right for them to use funding to bribe states into doing what they are told by the feds. I am a firm constitutionalist and strongly support the 10th amendment.

All that being said I believe a lot of time effort and funding is wasted enforcing a law that no one respects. I know I did not follow this law when it applied to me. I know my parents disobeyed this law as did my grandparents. I have no illusions about my kid and his respect for this law. The 21 drinking age has existed since prohibition was lifted and since then only the 55 MPH speed limit has received less respect. The real problem with all this is the fact that the consequences of breaking this law now means a permanent criminal record unlike in my time when the cop simply poured out the beer and called your dad. Today they take kids to jail. For this reason the law must go as it is not right to damage young lives permanently for doing something all of us older Americans did in our youths. It should be 18 and even those younger should not have their records permanently marked for something as common as drinking alcohol. No law is ever going to change this behavior anyway just as no one ever drove 55 mph.

I agree, Im not sure what happened in the 200os, but somewhere along the way, cops became real jerks.


Back when i was 16, a friend and I had been out drinking at a party and were driving home, it was about 4am, cop pulled us over, and since it was the city we both lived in, he saw that on our IDs, and he instructed me to park the car on the street there and told us both to walk home...and if he came back and saw my car was gone, he would come to my house and cite me! So I walked home and went to bed, and picked up the car next day (lesson learned) without a DUI being on my record. NO cop would do this today.

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by rstevens62

I agree, Im not sure what happened in the 200os, but somewhere along the way, cops became real jerks.


Back when i was 16, a friend and I had been out drinking at a party and were driving home, it was about 4am, cop pulled us over, and since it was the city we both lived in, he saw that on our IDs, and he instructed me to park the car on the street there and told us both to walk home...and if he came back and saw my car was gone, he would come to my house and cite me! So I walked home and went to bed, and picked up the car next day (lesson learned) without a DUI being on my record. NO cop would do this today.

I am not sure it’s the fault of the cops. They are being instructed to have a “zero tolerance “ attitude towards this issue. The fault lies with our legalistic society. It also lies with the obsession with safety at the cost of personal liberties. Advocate groups have spent decades creating this unforgiving system by lobbing lawmakers. Mothers against drunk drivers has done much to get the laws passed it wants and the public really has little say in it. Hundreds of thousands of Americans under 40 live with minor in possession on their records because of these tough laws. These records prohibit many from getting the jobs they want or traveling to Canada or other countries. They have criminal records forever over this. The tougher consequences however are not stopping any under 21 drinking, all its doing is generating countless criminal records. The public obviously does not support a high drinking age because literally no one follows it unless they don’t believe in drinking at all. The laws should have the support of the public in order to be legitimate.

[Quick Enough]

Originally Posted by rstevens62

I agree, Its not govts place to create laws like this, or determine which age is suitable, its just not their place.


I do not know why so many people accept and recognize these laws, I guess what Ive said before is true...Americans have all but lost that patriotic spirit its citizens once had, many people now look to Govt to determine what is right and wrong and appropriate...its really sad we have sunk this low imo.


It would be nice to see more Americans refuse to comply with these laws, while there are some retailers and bar/club owners that will serve 18 yr olds, most will not, since its so risky, however the few that do, do so with pride, they say if 18 yr olds can join and fight for the country, they can surely drink alcohol.

"I agree, Its not govts place to create laws like this, or determine which age is suitable, its just not their place."

Don't understand how societies work for the betterment of ALL of its citizens, I see.

Must have been "educated" in a liberal public school.

Being you are so upset by our society why are you still here? I'd bet you can find a BETTER place to practice your beliefs. You will NOT be missed!

[wawa1992]

Keeping the drinking age at 21 or lowering it to 18 doesn't solve the crux of the problem.

As it is, it's totally illegal for people 20 years, 364 days old to drink, but if you're one day older, you can get wasted to your heart's content, as long as you don't drive or cause a public disturbance. And yet, people under 21 find ways to get alcohol all the time and often have to drink "under the table". Some of them turn to drunk driving because they "pre-game" and head out drunk to party. Then there's the issue of people under 21 being scared to get help for things like alcohol intoxication. I've been to university and I know how these people under 21 who want to drink operate.

18-20 year olds are not so immature that they should be entirely forbidden from drinking, yet they're less mature than those 21+ (on average). However, it's better for an 18-20 year old to drink in a more supervised environment such as a bar or restaurant than in an apartment.

Here's my idea. Some drinking privileges would be gained at 18, but full drinking privileges would be gained at 21.

-No buying a large quantity of alcohol until 21; those under 21 would only be able to buy from bars or restaurants

-Those 18-20 would not be able to provide alcohol to others (to prevent alcohol from being accessed by those under 18, such as high schoolers)

-Maintain the zero blood alcohol limit while driving for people under 21

[Phil75230]

Yes