Legal drinking age?

[The Dragon Master]

What do you think the legal drinking age should be? Why?

In some countries it's 18 and in others it's 21, which one is better?

Should people who are only starting to drink be supervised by parents, or left alone?

 

[Bryd0]

21 should be the legal age to have petrol down your neck, in my opinion. In the UK, it's 18. Think most countries have that though...

 

[DrLeftover]

21 for booze, pot, gambling, selective service, driving, marrying, voting, and all the rest.

14 to be charged and sentenced as an adult with a violent felony.

 

[JetWing34]

21 for booze, marrying, and gambling

18 for driving, selective service, and voting

16 for internet usage, and getting charged with adult sentence for violent felony.

 

[DrLeftover]

My question has always been:

At 18 you are old enough, and responsible enough to be drafted into the army to carry a weapon, kills others, and possibly die for your country.....

but not to legally drink a beer when off duty. How does that make any sense?

 

[Crusader]

My question has always been:

At 18 you are old enough, and responsible enough to be drafted into the army to carry a weapon, kills others, and possibly die for your country.....

but not to legally drink a beer when off duty. How does that make any sense?

It's like here, at 16 you can have sex but not allowed to take out a mobile phone contract until you're 18.

 

[JetWing34]

Oh, and I also think you must be 18 with a valid driver license to sleep in a hotel as a lone adult. Same thing with flying on an airplane alone.

This prevents any teenagers escaping from their parents and going out on big journeys of their own.

 

[Zane_Birchall]

Here is Australia the legal drinking age is 18, but I think that it should be higher because I feel 18 is too young for some to start drinking and could lead people into becoming alcoholics.

 

[JetWing34]

I agree, Zane. I would never want young people to become alcoholics.

Which is why the US federal government made 21 an ideal age to drink booze because students in college wouldn't have any sense of responsibility.

In alcohol commercials over TV and radio, ads are mandatory to have "drink responsibly".

 

[DrLeftover]

By that argument, Carrie Nation's solution is the only way to go to prevent people from becoming alcoholics.

 

[Evil Eye]

It's 16 here, or it was I've heard talk about it being raised to 18.
Personally, I can't say I care either way, people are going to drink whether it's legal for them to do so or not. 16 might be making it easier, but at the same time the likelihood of them drinking somewhere safe goes up. If you're not allowed to drink, you're not going to get drunk in a café or bar where there might be people around to help you if anything goes wrong.

At 18 you are old enough, and responsible enough to be drafted into the army to carry a weapon, kills others, and possibly die for your country.....

but not to legally drink a beer when off duty. How does that make any sense?

This is indeed pretty strange.
If anything those should be drawn level.

 

[EBL]

16 might be making it easier, but at the same time the likelihood of them drinking somewhere safe goes up. If you're not allowed to drink, you're not going to get drunk in a café or bar where there might be people around to help you if anything goes wrong.

I agree with this quote on so many levels.
I'm currently in the UK, which means the legal drinking age for me is 18. I've been going out and drinking on occasion since I was around the age of 15, but it was always out of the way and down the river or skate park at night so we wouldn't get found or reported.

In the US the legal drinking age is 21, I've been there twice and both times I've seen people of the age of 15 also drinking alcohol in places that they won't get reported to.

Obtaining alcohol as a kid isn't a problem, you either steal it from your parents or give someone money and extra to buy you alcohol going into a shop, there's always going to be someone that does that as they'll probably get a pack of fags out of it or it will pay for something that they want.

Kids are going to drink no matter what the age limit is, but as "Evil Eye" said. If the legal drinking limit is lowered to 18 then it will get people that age to stop drinking in public, getting into worse states and being in a more controlled environment which they can be contained and looked after.
In my experience I've found people at the age of 18 to be more responsible drinkers than some 21 year olds as well as some people in their 40's being worse than 16 year old drinkers. It's not a real question of age as people are always going to take alcohol differently but I feel that 18 should be the legal age for people to drink.

 

[JetWing34]

I also feel that 21 is 21. Anybody under that age are not responsible enough to knowing the limit to drink, or gambling and partying responsibly.

Rules are rules, people.