Should we lower the drinking age?
9 Comments Published by clay August 20th, 2008 in State and Local Politics, U.S. Politics.Drinking agePomona College is one of about 120 liberal arts colleges that are part of the Amethyst Initiative calling on lawmakers nationwide to discuss changing the drinking age from 21 to 18.Will lowering the age make college students more responsible drinkers? This seems to be the motivation.
No it wouldnt but then again the people who want to drink before they are 21 will drink regardless of the age limit. Lowering the age limit will only make it easier to get a hold of alcohol… and i dont think when you are 18 you are responsible to drink alcohol.
I don’t believe we should lower the drinking age. Because people who are 21 and older that are drinking, they are getting into trouble, such as driveing drunk. And i think if we lower the drinking age, more people are going to drive drunk, because we can’t even maintain the situation now. If in the long run the drinking age is lowered then i think we should raise the driving age.
I don’t believe that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. As it is in the year of 2006, approximately 17,941 people died in alcohol related accidents, which is about 41% of all car accident deaths. There are even more non fatal but serious injuries every year caused by DUI’s. People that are 21 and over have a hard time drinking responsibly, which makes me come to the conclusion that people younger than 21 would be even more careless about their drinking therefore causing a lot more fatal and non fatal injuries. Although many teenagers believe it would be more fun if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18, I believe it would be safer for everyone if the legal drinking age was kept as is.
It would be very irresponsible if congress were to pass a law that would allow people under the age of 21 be able to purchase alchohol and be able to consume it. This would catostrophic consequences for further generations. I am personally writing this because when i went to go get innsurence to be able to drive, I was told because of my age and my gender that i was at a higher risk of getting into a car accident. When i asked why that was, the reply was simple. The claim manager told me that new drivers from the age of 16 to 21 get into accidents which usually include underaged drinking. Instead of my parents insurence payments being low, their payments rose from about $2,000 a year to about $4,100 year. And now liberal colleges want to give achohol to younger generations without further considering how this might affect generations to come. This is simply liberalists at their best. They only want to “Stick It” to the government just to say they did it. Will they take responsiblity if one of their students kills someone in an accident? I dont think so! The age of 21 is set for reason lets not change that!
Hah, what kind of wry humor is this? I would have thought everyone would have been for lowering the drinking age. I guess I’m the only one. Whew, my head is kind of exploding with reasons so let me address the very first one that all the aforementioned responses seem to be talking about.
Drunk driving — First off, I feel that drunk driving has more to do with the driving than it has to do with the drinking. In many foreign countries [especially Europe, trusttttt] the drinking age is as low as 16 years of age, while their legal driving age is 18 years old. Although sure, you could say that we live in America and a car here is rather essential compared to foreign countries, their drunk driving rates are still a lot lower than ours. This is beginning to turn into an argument on public transportation, so I digress.
“Sticking it to the man” — Christian said that kids only want to “stick it to the government” by drinking alcohol. Perhaps if we lowered the drinking age, kids would stop wanting to ‘stick it to the man’ and just let it be. Maybe they wouldn’t even want it anymore! -gasp- It’d be reverse psychology. That stuff really does work, you know.
Taboo — Expanding on that last one, at this age, drinking alcohol is some big taboo. So when we are given that freedom at age 21, these 21 year olds abuse their newly given right. They don’t know what their limit is and they’re supposedly ‘adults’ at age 18? Uhm, hello?
Age — OKAY, I THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE ADULTS AT 18, HM?! Aren’t we like, able to be legally emancipated at 18? Aren’t we allowed to vote at 18? Aren’t we allowed to get married at 18? If you’re allowed to get married at 18 but you can’t drink?! How would you like to have your marriage and not be allowed to drink a little bubbly just because you weren’t in the ‘legal drinking age’.
Its a dumb law. I rest my case.
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I’m sorry, I’m going have to side with Hannah on this one. There are a lot of good points she brought up, such as her “Age” section and “Drunk Driving” section. Many kids just drink for the thrill to be able to say “Hey I drank and I did something illegal” and most of the time the “underage drinkers” think the alcohol they consume was “gross” or “nasty” But if the government took that away from them, I don’t think that so many kids would WANT to drink as much as they are doing now, because that means they are not being REBELLIOUS. Many teens, not all, but many are getting their hands on alcohol whether we see it or not, leaving the law as is, changes nothing. Changing the law may increase the selling of alcohol but as Hannah brought up, if people know how to drink when they are 18 and know their limit rather than “just learning” at the age of 21 then I think they would have a better hold on their self control/drinkin limit. Kids in foreign countries are also much more mature when it comes to alcohol than teens in America, and whether that has to do with alcohol consumption at a younger age or not the bottom line is THEY KNOW THEIR LIMIT by the time they reach adulthood, how will we know ours if we aren’t given the chance?
AND P.S.
Just because we’re younger than the legal 21 drinker doesn’t mean we are any less mature when it comes to alcohol, people swear it is JUST teens getting into D&D car accidents but look up how many D&D accidents there are from people OF AGE. The numbers are still high.
kind of an interesting subject…
I don’t know.
Hannah took the words right from my brain.
What is wrong with asking a portion of our society to wait until they are 21? There is a major difference between turning 18, turning 21, and turning 25.
How many of you will be on your own supporting yourself at 18 (no help from your parents)?
And if we are going to change the laws, what will we need to do to change teenagers attitudes toward alcohol? Who is paying for this change? The beer corporations or the taxpayers?
So I am just going to be straight forward about this I will not give any research or data or any of that stuff this is what i personally believe.
Honestly people shouldn’t make a big fuse about lowering the drinking age. If you plan on going out to drink chances are you will be able to achieve your goal because honestly alcohol is pretty easy to get your hands on so either way if they lower the drinking age you can still get it for sure but if they don’t well you will just have to find another way to get your hands on it.
What I really do believe though is if you are serving in the military and you are under age than they should let you without a doubt go out and buy alcohol. I say this because if you are able to serve in the military and go out and kill or die for your country than im pretty sure your old enough to go out and have a beer after a long days work of fighting.
I think that lowering the drinking age would be a good idea. I think it would cut down the amount of alcohol related deaths/accidents/injuries.
HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY.
Poeple WANT to be rebellious. Most underage drinkers drink because it makes them feel superior. They get to brag and tell their friends that THEY did something ILLEGAL today. It makes them feel like a badass.
If the drinking age was lowered, it would be easier to get a hold of alcohol, thus making the person look like an idiot for bragging about something so easy to get.
I remember driving around with dad while i still had a permit. I was so exited and I couldnt wait until my final 6 months were over so that I could finally drive myself anywhere I wanted. When my 6 mos. ended and I had finally gotten a hold of an official drivers license, I no longer had the desire that i did 6 mos. earlier. It was the rush I got when I DISOBEYED the law and drove myself around the neighborhood. I felt REBELLIOUS, like i didnt need to listen to anyone. The rush went away when i knew i was no longer breaking the law and being the badass that i once was. Its the same with alcohol. Your desire for something is gone once you know that you can have it so quickly.
Nonetheless, underage drinkers will still get wasted. It doesnt matter what the age.
YOu dont have to be 21 to go to a friend’s party and have 10 jello shots, half a bottle of liquor, and end up naked on your neighbor’s front yard…