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What's it really like at the Big 3?
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Anonymous
| The 21-drinking age is a sign that 18, 19 and 20 year-olds are taken for granted or completely brushed off by politicians. They just don't vote. At the same time they are asked to go to war and pay the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. |
Anonymous
| So are District residents. |
Anonymous
| It's time to lower the drinking age and bring some sanity to the way we handle drinking in this country. The 21-law has totally failed. |
Anonymous
| Why would you lower the drinking age if it stops one kid from drinking and driving. |
Anonymous
| The U.S drinking age is insane and it should be left to individual states to decide when to allow kids to drink. Where are the states rights types when freedoms are actually at stake? |
Anonymous
This is quite a tangent but all the pro-age 18 drinking age posts (perhaps from the same person) made me curious. From what I can see, there are many public health studies that have concluded that the 21 law has saved lives, mainly through driving but also through raising the mean age at which Americans take a first drink (which in turn lowers rates of alcoholism). So it is not as clear-cut as you make it out to be. |
Anonymous
|
IMO, and from my personal experience, it is much better to desensitize kids as they are coming of age. The biggest problem with alcohol consumption is the binge drinking. This wouldn't take place (and doesn't really happen in Europe) if beer and wine are part of the lexicon as kids hit 16 and 17.
The problem I see is that alcohol is seen as a forbidden fruit, so once it is legal to consume, the consumers don't know how to handle it in a mature manner. If parents included wine with dinner, or beer on a nice Sunday afternoon ON OCCASION and IN MODERATION, then it wouldn't be a big deal as teen pressure and access increase. So yes, seriously, lower the legal drinking age, and if necessary, raise the driving age to allow kids to get their hands and brains around the consumption side. A sip of wine here and there is not going to stunt their development or harm their brains, but the conditions we have in the US now are not sustainable. |
Anonymous
| Getting kids to drink beer and wine instead of chugging vodka would be very helpful. My experience with high school kids is that they find it much easier to get and hide hard alcohol. Then they drink it like it apple cider. A beer and wine at 18 law would be safer for kids and perhaps curb alcohol poisoning. |
Anonymous
| If the law is changed, it might make sense to phase it in, the way it was phased out, allowing 20 year-olds, then 19-year-olds. But I would just like Congress to get out of the way and allow states and DC to write their own laws. |
Anonymous
Not so sure about this: "Online sites have been used by European youths organizing massive binge drinking festivals that are being increasingly scrutinized by authorities. Last week, a 21-year-old man died in France after an accident at an alcohol-drenched party organized on Facebook attended by 10,000 young revelers." http://www.seattlepi.com/health/1500ap_un_un_alcohol_abuse.html |