I work with several 18 year olds. Now, in the country of Honduras, our 18 year old soldiers can drink. Do you realize that every 18-20 year old here has been binging? They do nothing but drink, and drink, and drink, and drink. They are unaware of their ability and they do not really have the maturity to take it on all at once. At the age of 18 they all of a sudden have the real world thrown at them. They are forced to take on maturity for their actions, their jobs, maybe moving away from home and having to pay their own bills.
If we allow them to drink when all these other responsibilities are first given to them. We could be contributing to the downfall of these people who do not know how to control themselves.

If you raise the drinking age, it becomes an open door for younger kids to drink because it's what cool, and rebellious.

How high will they make it? Either way, it's not going to stop underage drinking.
Like Keyori said, children need to learn control.

I doubt if the drinking age was raised it would ever really stop minors from obtaining and drinking alcohol...

Maybe more effort should be placed onto describing to minors, parents, guardians and even bartenders, about the affects of underage drinking on an undeveloped mind... hopefully we can prevent and cure any alcohol related incidents from occuring at least before the legal drinking age...

I'm 18, and an Australian, here, I'm the legal drinking and voting age, I have drunk, but I don't need too, if I couldn't drink again till I was 25 I could live with myself just fine...

Also, more analysis has to go into preventing people with relatives with addictive traits and personalities (to hopefully prevent them from developing an addiction before hand, rather than rehab afterwards)

I don't think the age should be raised at all. The problems that we have with alcohol tend to be that in American Society we glorify it but teach no one to be responsible. You see all of this drinking going on but no one discusses it and teaches their kids about moderation.

The more you make the topic taboo the more you are going to have problems with it. Why do you think smoking is still so big? It's because there are all these groups out there saying "no you can't do this" and so you get a group of people that go "the hell with you I am going to do it out of spite".

I also agree that it should be lowered back down to 18. Sorry it seems pointless to let you do everything else BUT that. But again in America there would have to be a societal shift and people talk openly about it. If we keep it taboo it's just going to keep causing all kinds of problems.

well, I am safe no matter what! :angel:

*cough*

Anyways, I believe that it should stay the same. Raising the age is not going to stop drunk driving or stop teens from purchasing it any more than it has in the past. You know what I mean? If anything I think they should lower it to eight teen. If a eight teen year old can give their life away and fight in a war then they should be able to drink.

I am 22 years old and I don't really care about the drinking age law. I started 'drinking' alcohol since I was 2 years old. The thing is, if you drink very moderately like 2-6 times a year like I did, there's nothing to be afraid of, no health problems...unless you drink it 365+ days a year.

I do agree that there are plenty of people who will drink regardless of the drinking age, but I do believe there is a fair amount of people who will wait until the drinking age. I am 20 right now and I have plenty of friends who have waited or will wait until they are 21. I think if it really is better to not drink until a certain age for the brain or whatever else the reason, then the people who care should be held to that. If it doesn't matter to some kids what the drinking age is, then we shouldn't take them into consideration when making the law.

It doesn't matter to me because I never plan on drinking, which is just a personal choice for me, but I do hope that people will wait until they are old enough to understand all the implications of drinking before drinking, though I still don't know what age that is and I suppose it would be different for different people. Maybe the better thing to do is just try to teach kids more about alcohol and the stuff that comes along with it instead of just telling them not to do it because there is no faster way to make a kid want to do it.

i don't think there should be a drinking limit at all. I think it should be up to the parent on whether or not a kid can have wine for dinner or not. there are children in other countries that have wine for dinner every night and they are all of good health. I think hard liquor should not be allowed for anyone under 18. I say 18 because the people in our country can go and fight for our rights and freedoms but they can't buy alcohol. I think this is wrong.

considering the brain never stops developing should we base it on your logic, might as well just bring back Prohibition. :\

The way I understand it, alcohol does not prohibit brain development, but merely destroys what's already there.

Actually, I think the drinking age should be lowered. In Europe it's lowered and there's fewer problems with alcohol there. I'm not an alcoholic by any means, but I would also like to make the argument that it should be lowered to at least the age of 18 because if you are old enough to go to war and die for your country, you should be old enough to drink. I also think that if they lowered the age like it is in Europe, there would be less problems with 21 year olds binging and turning into drunks. I mean, if it's legal then it's less appealing to do stupid crap with it.

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