Poll: Drinking Age.

OK...so the military argument was made and in the late 60's and early 70's states were allowed to lower the age. Here is a clip from a Boston newspaper discussing the drinking age changes.

Late 1960s and 1970s: Drinking age lowered. During the late 1960s and 1970s, nearly all states lowered the drinking age to 18. This led to a huge increase in alcohol-related car accidents and drunk driving was deemed a public health crisis. In the mid-1970s, 60 percent of all traffic fatalities were alcohol related, according to the National Institute of Health(NIH). Over two-thirds of car accidents involving persons aged 16 to 20 were alcohol-related.

So Reagan in 1984 changed it back by withholding federal highway funds from all states who didn't go back to 21. What do people think about this? I think it should be 18, but there are some issues...when they changed it back drunk driving was of course still an issue, but not even close to as bad...

 

Most of the people I know under the age of 21 are definitely not responsible enough to drink. I also think our troops should be 21 before they can fight in wars. Overall, young adults today are not as responsible as that age group was 40 or 50 years ago.

 

I think people over-estimate the responsibility gap between 18/19 year olds and 21 year olds. Here's the age group breakdown of impaired driving in Canada (where you're legal to drink at 18 or 19).

Persons accused of impaired driving, by age group, Canada, 2011

 

So you're saying that the legal drinking age should be 65?

 

Underage drinking is more than a ordinance violation in PA. Still a just summery offense but it will show up on a criminal background check. Not to say you don't need to be exceptionally assholish to the cops or dangerously over intoxicated to get nailed for it… My point was why criminalize legal well behaved adults for having a drink.

 

I think making the drinking age as little of a deal as possible and teaching people to drink responsibly might go a long way to preventing binge drinking - as a few other people have pointed out, the European approach makes a lot more sense. Europeans still have their lager louts and football hooligans but binging does not seem as bad as here.

 

I hate to be the dissenting opinion, but I feel 21 is approproiate. I am 26 years years old and while I started drinking craft (SNPA) before I was 21, I feel my generation and future generations are getting quite a bit dumber, less responsible, and more careless when it comes to others, and human life. IMHO

 

Well in America you can shoot firearms as soon as you are physically capable of holding a weapon and I've met plenty of young kids who were more than capable of handling them responsibly. One of my cousins has a 10 year old who I'd trust with firearms before 99% of the adults that I know. So there is that irony that you can have guns before beer.

I also don't think entering the military and surviving boot camp instantly grants someone with responsibility. I've known plenty of servicepeople who were incredibly irresponsible. Plenty who were very responsible as well, but I haven't noticed an extreme disparity here between civilians and military. This argument just seems silly to me. Why should John A. be allowed to drink because he joined the military despite (perhaps because of) being an incredibly irresponsible teenager when John B. isn't despite the fact he is an extremely responsible young person who decided not to sign away years of his life to the military.

And please note that I'm not disparaging military service. I just don't think you should be given Heinlein-esque special treatment for it and I don't think it automatically makes you a better, more responsible person.

 

C'mon! one word… Woodstock! Naked and stoned out of their minds while dancing in the mud… real pillars of responsibility 46 years ago!

 

Statistics paint a completely different picture. Young adults today seem to be much more responsible with alcohol than they were 30-50 years ago. Binge drinking among them has roughly halved and the prevalence of drinking and driving is about a third of what it was in the 70's/80's.

 

The thing is most people over 65 are legally prescribed some really strong meds that most youngsters cannot get legally. Plus they drink on top of it, its cops profiling the youth and using inexperience as an excuse (although its probably true, I didn't know a damn thing until I was 30 and still don't really, but now I know I don't!) but that is just my opinion. All statistics can be skewed to prove the point of the author.

 

I suppose I cant argue with statistics, my opinion is based on my personal experience. I think given the chance, most 18-19 year olds would be buying a 30 brick of Busch and doing something dumb, rather than seeking out a fresh Pliny and drinking it in the evening at home,.... again, just my opinion.

 

Again, the hypocrisy of "here's a gun, please only shoot the people we ask you to" versus "You cannot POSSIBLY be responsible enough to drink a Bud Light".

For the record, I have known hundreds of blindingly irresponsible fellows and lasses well over 21. Age has very little to do with responsibility but being exposed to and held accountable for a higher level of responsibility is something completely different.

 

21

I was a fucking idiot at 18. I still was at 21, but i was less of an idiot.

 

Unfortunately, so are most young 20 somethings.

 

We aren't in disagreement here. My point was that the military doesn't inherently make people responsible. Why does 18 year old John Army Private get to drink beer because he has a military ID, regardless of his disciplinary record and actual responsibilities, when 18 year old John Bank Teller does not despite the fact that he is trusted to open and close a branch, audit a vault containing thousands of dollars and act professionally with sensitive personal information on a daily basis?

 

Now that I'm way past the drinking age and Ive been fully exposed to kids born in the 90s and 2000s, it should be AGE 30 to drink in the US.

 

Wow, I don't know where you are getting your stats...for all I know, the ones you are reading may say things like that...the best thing I can think of is a quote by Benjamin Disraeli (Prime Minister of the U.K. (twice) and writer): "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." They say anything you want them too...

 

I think the proper age is eleventy twelve

 

Lol...they are a strange group...