# Should the Legal Drinking Age in the US Be Lowered to 18?



## MAC_Whore (Aug 21, 2008)

From MSN:

*Lower drinking age is criticized 
Politics and safety cloud college-led bid to spur debate*
By Susan Kinzie and James Hohmann 
The Washington Post
updated 2:32 p.m. ET, Thurs., Aug. 21, 2008


On the face of it, the notion seems counterintuitive, but to the presidents of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges, it makes a lot of sense: Lowering the legal drinking age might get students to drink less.

But any chance for the academic leaders to begin a public discussion of their theory -- that allowing people as young as 18 to drink legally might promote moderation -- has been lost in a wave of criticism from health experts, transportation officials, government leaders and opponents of drunken driving.

Safety advocates say the legal drinking age of 21 saves about 900 lives every year. And Laura Dean-Mooney, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said: People look to college presidents "for their leadership role on their campuses. It just seems like they didn't do enough homework to look at the science on this."

Other critics said the university leaders are trying to avoid being held liable for enforcing the drinking age and are kicking the problem to others. "I'm an alumnus of Dickinson College and can't believe they signed on to this initiative," said Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association. "They are really just punting on the issue and leaving the high school principals to deal with it. Very disappointing."

As parents ship their children off to college this month, university officials are bracing for a round of alcohol-fueled parties and binge drinking. They say they have tried banning keggers and have promoted alcohol counseling, but problems persist. It's time for a new approach, they say.

In addition to the Dickinson president, academic leaders involved in the effort include those of Duke University and Dartmouth College as well as several Washington area schools, such as the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. Their effort, the Amethyst Initiative, proposes to reopen a national discussion that hasn't been seriously debated in three decades.

Amid the backlash this week, the 115 university leaders in the group said their proposal is being distorted. They said that they are not necessarily advocating that the age be lowered but that the issue needs to be part of the debate because alcohol abuse at colleges has gotten so bad.


"We want to encourage an honest and constructive dialogue among educators, lawmakers, parents and students," Duke President Richard H. Brodhead said. "If what we are doing now doesn't work, then we have an obligation to ourselves, and to society, to explore what might."

Full-time traditional-age college students drink more than people the same age who aren't in college, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which estimates that 1,700 18-to-24-year-old students die every year from alcohol-related injuries.

"It's a very serious problem on college campuses, and it just seems to get worse and worse," said William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.


Although polling has shown that the public strongly opposes lowering the drinking age, there has been some consideration of it this year, "way more so than in the past," said Matthew Gever, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Minnesota, Kentucky, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Vermont have considered bills. In Minnesota, a measure that would have let anyone 18 and older drink in bars and restaurants failed. In Vermont, legislators set up a committee to study the topic. The bills in Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin, also unsuccessful, were aimed at changing the rules for members of the military.

Gever said the argument for the military has been, "If they're over there in Iraq and have been shot at, they may as well be able to have a beer when they get back home."

It was during the Vietnam War that the push to make alcohol legal for 18-year-olds most recently took hold. But in 1984, Congress mandated a 10 percent penalty on highway appropriations for any state with a drinking age below 21.

And that's why the chances of changing the drinking age are "very, very, very small," Gever said. "The political popularity of federal highway money far outweighs the popularity of letting 18-year-olds drink."

Not on Facebook, maybe -- where pro-Amethyst groups sport Sam Adams or Budweiser labels -- and not on campus.

"In college, you're free for the first time ever. There are no rules," said Walter Ray-Dulany, a fifth-year doctoral student at the University of Maryland in College Park. "In high school, there are rules. And maybe it's better to start drinking when there are rules."

Amy Austin, 18, a U-Md. sophomore, said that girls often get sick from drinking too much during sorority rush parties and other gatherings but that fellow students are reluctant to get them help because the girls are underage.

Lowering the drinking age, she said, "would do a lot to make college campuses safer."

It's no secret that alcohol permeates college life. Will Porter, a 21-year-old economics major at U-Md., said that one of the favorite games in his fraternity is for 10 guys to pass around a handle of bourbon until it's gone. About a month ago, he said, he drank seven shots of whiskey and six glasses of Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola at a bar near campus. He doesn't remember much else.


Now, he said, he's going through court-ordered alcohol treatment. His second Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is Sunday.

"A lot of people get a real thrill out of the fact it's illegal -- that causes them to drink more," he said. But he said he's not sure that changing the drinking age would matter.

"I don't think it'd change the partying or drinking," he said. "I just think it would change the number of fake IDs people use."

__________________________________________________

So, what do you think?


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## Shimmer (Aug 21, 2008)

Yes.
They can vote, enter a legal contract, be put on death row and life sentences, and enter into service for our country. 
Yes.


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## NicksWifey (Aug 21, 2008)

As much as I don't agree with the drinking age being lowered to 18, why the hell not? There are plenty of kids that age and younger that are going to drink anyway if they can get the booze and we all know that's not hard to do when you've got friends and family who will buy it for you. 

When I turned 21, it honestly wasn't a huge deal to me about drinking, the only difference is I could order alcohol in public and buy it. I still drank when I was underaged and did it a lot more than I do now. To me, it's just not all as "cracked up" as it used to be.


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## Simply Elegant (Aug 21, 2008)

I think it would be a good thing for it to be lowered. I used to drink just because it was illegal at the time and now that I'm able to it doesn't hold the same thrill so I don't really drink anymore. 18 year olds are still allowed to drive and can still find ways to get alcohol so I don't think it's necessarily the dangers of more drunk drivers. They're going to do it whether it's legal or not so I think it'd be better to lower the age.


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## anjelik_dreamin (Aug 21, 2008)

The drinking age is 18 in Australia, and it just makes no sense to me that in America you can do anything but. Prohibition is the easiest way to make someone do something, and it's this feeling of the taboo that no doubt draws young underage drinkers to the bottle.


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## JennyNenny (Aug 21, 2008)

I think it should be lowered. A lot people think that it would be wrong because 18 year olds are not responsible and they will not be able to do anything about it because it would be legal. But i think that underage drinking will continue wether its legal or not. Also, at 18, you are able to vote, smoke, and go to war, so why not drink? People dont give enough credit to them, just because some stupid ones are drinking and driving and not being responsible, doesnt mean all of them are. There are a lot of 18 year olds that are very responsible and would be able to handle the drinking age lowered.

there are a lot of countries that have the drinking age lower that 18 and they dont have as much problems as we do here in the U.S. Speaking as a "teenager" myself, teenagers drink and do drugs mostly because they think its cool that they are doing something "Bad", if they knew that it was legal, at least half of those teens will not be doing it.  For example, at my high school, there are a lot of people that do drugs and drink, but they dont smoke cigarrettes, why? because they can, they wont get in trouble for it, or they wont have that feeling like they are a "big" person and no one cant stop them. 

hope fully i made sense and sorry if its long


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## VDUB*BELLA (Aug 21, 2008)

Its already 18 in Canada (19 in some Provinces) 
Agree w/ Shimmer. You can vote, join the army and generally be conisdered an 'adult' so why shouldnt you be able to have a beer?


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## Beauty Mark (Aug 21, 2008)

I agree with Shim's stance. I don't get really the correlation to making it illegal to drink under 21 and stopping drunk driving. Are these people idiots? I've seen so many friends get into places with shitty fake IDs. Besides, so many people of age drunk drive.

I feel like a lot of the reason people drink underage is because it's cool to do "illegal" things. I think that may have been partially my motivation. I noticed I stopped most of my drinking once I turned 21. Maybe it's also because I had to shoulder my bills myself, though.


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## Lapis (Aug 22, 2008)

I say yes, but where I come from it's 18, but from 10-17 you can drink alcohol if your parent is present, and most kids drink Shandy (9 parts soda 1 part beer very weak) and we don't have much binge drinking issues.


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## SkylarV217 (Aug 22, 2008)

No , Even in your early 20's your brain is still developing... drinking alcohol hinders and sometimes ceases that development all together. That is one of the main reasons the legal age to drink is 21. 

http://www.actforyouth.net/documents...olbraindev.pdf

I also believe many 18-21 year old are simply not mature enough to handle the responsibility of alcohol. But my main reason is the brain development.


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## frocher (Aug 22, 2008)

Yes it should.


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## KikiB (Aug 22, 2008)

I am extremely liberal on pretty much everything, but this is the one exception. In fact, I would almost love to see the drinking age raised to 25 because as Skylar pointed out, your brain does a significant amount of development in your late teens/early 20's, and alcohol can really mess things up. I know a lot of people who have had their lives ruined by alcohol, and I think that if the drinking age was actually raised it would keep it out of the hands of more people, and so it would be a lot harder for there to be the underage drinking because a lot of teens would probably ask the cool older sibling, or somebody who is 21 to buy their alcohol. Well the likelihood that they would know somebody who was 25 or older who would be willing to buy the alcohol for them is a lot lower-and you become a lot wiser and a lot more mature at 25 than you are at 21.

I can see the other side of this issue though. I do think that exceptions should be made for soldiers, because they have gone and served the country and for them to not be able to enjoy a beer even after having been shot at seems a little silly, even to me. Also if it was available at a younger age then maybe people would learn to not drink to get drunk...some of the thrill would be taken away. 

But on that last note, if somebody turns 18, then they would probably have their younger high school friends asking if they can get them drinks-I know it happens with several underage smokers at the high school I went to-and then it would just fuel further problems.


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## ..kels* (Aug 22, 2008)

i really don't see why not. it's the norm in a lot of other countries.


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## redambition (Aug 22, 2008)

lowered or raised, those who are under the drinking age will find a way of getting hold of alcohol and drinking it.

of those over the legal age, a significant number will also be drinking too heavily from a health standpoint.

it's all much of a muchness.


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## Beauty Mark (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *KikiB* 

 
_I am extremely liberal on pretty much everything, but this is the one exception. In fact, I would almost love to see the drinking age raised to 25 because as Skylar pointed out, your brain does a significant amount of development in your late teens/early 20's, and alcohol can really mess things up. I know a lot of people who have had their lives ruined by alcohol, and I think that if the drinking age was actually raised it would keep it out of the hands of more people, and so it would be a lot harder for there to be the underage drinking because a lot of teens would probably ask the cool older sibling, or somebody who is 21 to buy their alcohol. Well the likelihood that they would know somebody who was 25 or older who would be willing to buy the alcohol for them is a lot lower-and you become a lot wiser and a lot more mature at 25 than you are at 21.

I can see the other side of this issue though. I do think that exceptions should be made for soldiers, because they have gone and served the country and for them to not be able to enjoy a beer even after having been shot at seems a little silly, even to me. Also if it was available at a younger age then maybe people would learn to not drink to get drunk...some of the thrill would be taken away. 

But on that last note, if somebody turns 18, then they would probably have their younger high school friends asking if they can get them drinks-I know it happens with several underage smokers at the high school I went to-and then it would just fuel further problems._

 
People do know 25 year olds... You'd be surprised how many mixed age groups there are. At large universities, there are grad students who'd be happy to buy for some kids, provided those kids slip them some cash.

I think responsible drinking is what really needs to be taught. IMO, it's like sex. They're going to do it, why not teach them the ramifications of drinking too much?


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## Jinni (Aug 22, 2008)

I don't see why not. It's 18 here and I haven't experience more problems with drinking here than when I lived in the US.


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## Krasevayadancer (Aug 22, 2008)

I am going to look at it 2 ways:

One, alcohol is bad in general. Overindulging in spirits can really mess you up in the long run. Lets try to keep people away from it as long as possible by keeping the legal drinking age at 21...

But in reality most college students drink as soon as they begin at around 18. By prohibiting it you are increasing the allure. In my experience letting someone learn for themselves how bad overindulging can be without imposing a legal drinking age will actually prevent them from overindulging (some of the time, can't win em all)

So yes, lower the age- treat 18 yr olds as adults in this aspect.


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## *Stargazer* (Aug 22, 2008)

Yes. 

You are either an adult who can make decisions that impact your life and your country or you aren't and as such shouldn't be allowed to vote, marry or serve in the Armed Forces until you are 21. 

If 18 year olds weren't mature enough to drink, Europe would long ago have dissolved into utter anarchy and chaos. The reasons that AMERICANS under 21 do not appear mature enough to handle alcohol is because they currently consume alcohol like idiots because it is verboten.


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## kobri (Aug 22, 2008)

Well here the age is 19 and I think it works out pretty well. The age is lower than 21 pretty much everywhere else isn't it? They do have alot of other countries that they can look at to see what kind of impact it has there. Changing it so dramatcally though would be a bit crazy at first. All of a sudden you have so many more people able to drink, they will go a little wild with the freedom, but I think once it is the norm, it will be a good thing. It's a hard call because that adjustment period with so many people now being allowed could be chaotic and dangerous. Maybe if they slowly lowered it down, like 20 one year 19 a few years later...


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## Dahlia_Rayn (Aug 22, 2008)

I'm also in the camp that thinks making it forbidden increases the allure.  While alcohol abuse can and does lead to impaired mental development, the issue is the abuse.  Everything in moderation, right?  If we made alcohol consumption more normative I think society in the USA would view it as less of a taboo.  Besides, research is also showing that moderate amounts of red wine have positive health effects, so there will always be conflicting studies our there.


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## Lapis (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *Beauty Mark* 

 
_
I think responsible drinking is what really needs to be taught. IMO, it's like sex. They're going to do it, why not teach them the ramifications of drinking too much?_

 
So true, when I lived at home the American kids who came to the university always got majorly smashed the first couple of weeks at school (some the whole time).
Here alcohol has sooo many taboos it romanticizes it and makes kids want to try it and to me as a parent it's sorta scary when I see my 19 year old cousin's friends act more crazy to try alcohol than my 12 year old!
Something has to change and taking the age up is not it!

It has to start with parents! And can't run to either extreme with the parents themselves.


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## kimmy (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *Shimmer* 

 
_Yes.
They can vote, enter a legal contract, be put on death row and life sentences, and enter into service for our country. 
Yes._

 
agreed.

i feel that the people who get into trouble when they drink (ie. violent drunks, drunk drivers, etc.) will get into that trouble no matter what age they are. if i can join the military at eighteen, if i can vote, if i can marry, if i can be given a life sentence, if i can gamble, why can i not drink at that age?


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## Divinity (Aug 22, 2008)

Most 18 years of age have at least tried it or are drinking anyway, so why not?  I agree with Shimmer - you can vote at 18, enter a legal contract, serve the country, and be put on death row...if they are considered old enough to do all this and legally considered an adult at this age, then they are old enough for liquor.


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## Nox (Aug 22, 2008)

An 18 year old man can be sent away from his mother to a far away land to pick up a machine gun, fight, kill, and die for this country.

Give that man a brew!

The problem with mainstream American culture is that it glorifies drinking as something associated with coolness, parties, youth, etc.  People here don't teach their kids how to drink properly because they themselves haven't even mastered it.

With my own children, they will grow up drinking wine at the table with the rest of us (of course you would water it down for the children).  But once you take this forbidden mystique away, there ain't much to it.


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## panther27 (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *SkylarV217* 

 
_No , Even in your early 20's your brain is still developing... drinking alcohol hinders and sometimes ceases that development all together. That is one of the main reasons the legal age to drink is 21. 

http://www.actforyouth.net/documents...olbraindev.pdf

I also believe many 18-21 year old are simply not mature enough to handle the responsibility of alcohol. But my main reason is the brain development._

 
Im completely agree with you


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## Brittni (Aug 22, 2008)

Skylar had a good point about brain activity AND maturity levels. Even though I'm 19 and a majority of myself/friends drink, I'm a hell of a lot more mature than most people. IE: The boys peeing off the balcony last night next door. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I think it should remain the same and if people underage really want to drink then let them do it the way they've been doing it I guess, it's not going to stop us either way. I feel that it stems more from parents not raising their children to make the decision on their own as is with most of the problems in the world; children raising children, etc. lol


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## Beauty Mark (Aug 22, 2008)

But if people are that immature at 18, why on earth do we let them buy fire arms, drive at 16, etc.?


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## glamdoll (Aug 22, 2008)

I totally agree with Shimmer. At 18 you are LEGALLY an adult. So why is the goverment telling adults when they can or cant have a drink? Seriously, that is ridiculous. Making drinking under 21 such taboo is what gets people into binge drinking and doing all this underage stuff. Its lame.

If they lowered it, maybe people wouldnt break the law so much.


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## SkylarV217 (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *glamdoll* 

 
_If they lowered it, maybe people wouldnt break the law so much._

 
I don't mean to be rude , but i don't like the school of thought that ... People are breaking the law ... we might as well change it ...


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## SkylarV217 (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *Beauty Mark* 

 
_But if people are that immature at 18, why on earth do we let them buy fire arms, drive at 16, etc.?_

 
Most fire arms are restricted you have to have a background check, make it through a class and be finger printed .... & you have to be 21 ... you can't buy a gun at the age of 18 .... at least not in my state.


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## glamdoll (Aug 22, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *SkylarV217* 

 
_I don't mean to be rude , but i don't like the school of thought that ... People are breaking the law ... we might as well change it ..._

 
I was saying that specific law is broken so much because its truly outrageous, in the fact like shimmer said, you can be sentenced to death, you can enter into legal contract, be held acountable for your own actions, but you cannot legally buy alcohol. It just doesnt make sense.

18 is the age where you are an "adult" so why are we adults being told we cannot drink till 21.

I didnt mean like in general if a law is being broken it should be changed. I guess I didnt fully express my thought.


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## babiid0llox (Aug 23, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *Shimmer* 

 
_Yes.
They can vote, enter a legal contract, be put on death row and life sentences, and enter into service for our country. 
Yes._

 
Well Shimmer you've summed it up pretty nicely 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Here in Australia the legal drinking age is 18, where not doing that badly. I'll admit there is a serious issue with drink driving but it's not like it's significantly worse than in America (I haven't got any exact facts to back up this, I am much too lazy lol) or many other countries for that matter. 

We also have a binge drinking issue, particularly with the younger generations, say under 24 to underage teens. But our binge drinking issue is nothing like what's going on in Britain and the UK (as has been stated on 60 minutes, a binge drinking documentary that we had to watch in PDHPE last year and on Today Tonight, LOL at the last one).

Regarding drink driving, there will always be some idiot that will get into the car whilst drunk, maybe lowering the drinking age limit to 18 might result in a few more cases of this. But I highly doubt so.

Also why would a government deny someone who may have very well helped to put them in power, the right to consume alcohol, when they're able to do all the things that Shimmer listed? Why not raise the age limit of the not so fun things to 21? If 18, 19 and 20 year olds are not able to decide whether they want to drink beer or not, then they surely don't have the mental capacity to enter into a car loan contract or know that murdering someone is wrong. (Sarcasm intended)

Sorry for the long post!


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## Shimmer (Aug 23, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *Beauty Mark* 

 
_But if people are that immature at 18, why on earth do we let them buy fire arms, drive at 16, etc.?_

 
Precisely.
They're either adults and competent of mind and capable of dealing with their actions, or they're not.
This middle ground MADD/SADD/whatever crap is ridiculous and it's nothing more than a fundraiser that plays on emotional response.


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## Willa (Aug 23, 2008)

They should.

Here it's already 18 years old to drink.
And because of that, loads of young people who live near the canadian borders basically come here to Quebec to party on fridays nights, and go back to the US after...


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## Beauty Mark (Aug 23, 2008)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *SkylarV217* 

 
_Most fire arms are restricted you have to have a background check, make it through a class and be finger printed .... & you have to be 21 ... you can't buy a gun at the age of 18 .... at least not in my state._

 
Regulations don't mean that the person isn't immature and won't handle it improperly. A class doesn't mean anything either; how many people pass driver's ed and can't drive for beans? There are states that I believe allow 18 year olds to purchase guns.

I'm not saying that drunk driving isn't a serious issue or that college drinking isn't a serious issue (I'm frankly disturbed by the drinking culture), but I don't think setting the drinking age at 21 or higher is helpful


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## rbella (Aug 23, 2008)

I believe I had my first drink at age 16 with my crappy fake ID.  I also believe that I drank every weekend non-stop (without my mom's knowledge) until I was 21.  At 21, it lost its appeal because I wasn't banned from it anymore.  Just a thought....


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