Many Teens Getting Free Alcohol From Adults

[Daseal]

The drinking age should be 18. If you read the statistics (lies) put out by MADD they love to say how since the drinking age moved from 18--> 21 the deaths from alcohol have gone down significantly. When in fact there has been no drop, just a three year change in the deaths.

Others countries have an 18 drinking policy and have far fewer problems with alcoholism. I've been drinking for a long time, and rarely have I done something very irresponsible. I think drinking when I was young helped me from making stupid mistakes when I got older. Let kids drink at 18, while many folks are still at home (at least for a summer) and learn some responsibility instead of sending them to college to binge drink and be generally stupid about the whole deal.

I don't find it fair that we're not mature enough at 18 to handle alcohol, but we can be charged as an adult in alcohol related offenses before 21.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Daseal

The drinking age should be 18. If you read the statistics (lies) put out by MADD they love to say how since the drinking age moved from 18--> 21 the deaths from alcohol have gone down significantly. When in fact there has been no drop, just a three year change in the deaths.

Others countries have an 18 drinking policy and have far fewer problems with alcoholism. I've been drinking for a long time, and rarely have I done something very irresponsible. I think drinking when I was young helped me from making stupid mistakes when I got older. Let kids drink at 18, while many folks are still at home (at least for a summer) and learn some responsibility instead of sending them to college to binge drink and be generally stupid about the whole deal.

I don't find it fair that we're not mature enough at 18 to handle alcohol, but we can be charged as an adult in alcohol related offenses before 21.

We, as a society, have A HUGE drinking problem. Sure most of us can be and are responsible, but there is a mass amount of us that are not. Look at all the DUI's. So until people stop drinking and driving, and doing dumb drunk things, then I don't see how lessening drinking laws are a wise thing. There are plenty of 30 and 40 year olds being completely stupid with alcohol yet we are expecting 18 year olds to do what they can't (or won't depending on perspective)?

[Daseal]

Jsarno -- why do other countries have less of a problem with alcohol then? I'm talking pure alcoholism. More DUIs in this country makes sense considering the lack of mass transit, etc. But even alcoholism is much higher percentage wise here than most countries with fairly laid back drinking restrictions.

Plus, an 18 year old is an adult. Either make 21 the legal 'adult' age and everything before then is considered a minor, or make them an adult at 18 including alcohol. As I stated in my post, raising the drinking age didn't add responsibility, it actually just made people make bad decisions at an older age.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by saden1

The age limit at 21 is kinda retarded.

The sky must be falling and hell freezing over....I agree with saden on something non-football related.

First time I drank beer was when I was 10. I was at an aunt's house and I thought it was new flavor of Coke. Needless to say my parents saw me strutting about with the "coke" and that was the last time we ever went to my aunt's house.

That explains a lot

I'm older than most of you guys, I grew up very close to Silver Spring and we used to run a few miles across the "border", down GA Ave. into DC and my 18 yr. old friends would get beer. Good times, good times.

Daseal brings up a great point, when I was stationed in Japan there was no drinking age or it was very young, there were beer machines on the street and I watched kids buy liquor at convenience stores off-base. Even so, Japan didn't have any under-age drinking problem I was aware of.

If you're an adult legally at 18, you face the legal system as an adult, you can die for your country, you should at least be able to have a beer.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Daseal

Jsarno -- why do other countries have less of a problem with alcohol then? I'm talking pure alcoholism. More DUIs in this country makes sense considering the lack of mass transit, etc. But even alcoholism is much higher percentage wise here than most countries with fairly laid back drinking restrictions.

Plus, an 18 year old is an adult. Either make 21 the legal 'adult' age and everything before then is considered a minor, or make them an adult at 18 including alcohol. As I stated in my post, raising the drinking age didn't add responsibility, it actually just made people make bad decisions at an older age.

My wife's mother is from Germany and her two uncles still live there. When they come here they have a couple of beers with lunch and then have happy hour around 4. I asked them and its pretty common in Germany to drink every night and they really don't think that much about it. Here we would call them Alcholics. Also in other countries a DUI can carry some heavy time in jail. I know in Germany your first offense you serve jail Time and I think it could be up to a year.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by Daseal

The drinking age should be 18. If you read the statistics (lies) put out by MADD they love to say how since the drinking age moved from 18--> 21 the deaths from alcohol have gone down significantly. When in fact there has been no drop, just a three year change in the deaths.

Others countries have an 18 drinking policy and have far fewer problems with alcoholism. I've been drinking for a long time, and rarely have I done something very irresponsible. I think drinking when I was young helped me from making stupid mistakes when I got older. Let kids drink at 18, while many folks are still at home (at least for a summer) and learn some responsibility instead of sending them to college to binge drink and be generally stupid about the whole deal.

I don't find it fair that we're not mature enough at 18 to handle alcohol, but we can be charged as an adult in alcohol related offenses before 21.

On the flip side of that, I was ultra straight-edge when I was in high school. I NEVER drank.

So I get to college where it's readily available and I went absolutely nuts. I had nothing to compare drinking with so I had a 1.3 GPA after my freshman year fall semester.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by BDBohnzie

Once I turned 21, I'd return the favor from time to time...probably took advantage of the younger guys sometimes (keeping change, buying extra off their money, etc.), but nothing that didn't happen to me. Plus being in a Fraternity, I made plenty of beer runs during parties (I volunteered to stay sober, and drive people to and from if need be). I know I made a run or 2 for AMD...

You mean you ripped me off?!?!?! NO!!!!!
Oh well, I did the same thing to the youngin's when I turned 21.

[BDBohnzie]

Originally Posted by ArtMonkDrillz

You mean you ripped me off?!?!?! NO!!!!!

Who? You? Never...well, at least that I can remember.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Daseal

Jsarno -- why do other countries have less of a problem with alcohol then? I'm talking pure alcoholism. More DUIs in this country makes sense considering the lack of mass transit, etc. But even alcoholism is much higher percentage wise here than most countries with fairly laid back drinking restrictions.

Plus, an 18 year old is an adult. Either make 21 the legal 'adult' age and everything before then is considered a minor, or make them an adult at 18 including alcohol. As I stated in my post, raising the drinking age didn't add responsibility, it actually just made people make bad decisions at an older age.

1- as first down pointed out, the punishments are more severe.
2- More importantly, they can drink from day 1. Therefore it's not something taboo. We americans like to break rules.
3- Believe it or not, I totally agree with NO alcohol restrictions. However, we can't do that since we already have restrictions because people would go buck wild. I am italian, and I've ALWAYS had wine at the table. Can't remember when we didn't. I've always been responsible with alcohol to boot.
There are far fewer accidents on the autobon as well, but that doesn't mean we should abolish speed limits. I do firmly think our lack of parenting in this country means we can not lower the drinking age, or abolish speed limits for that matter.

[KLHJ2]

I was listening to the radio on my way home from work back in December and an interesting statistic was brought to my attention. "The Washington DC metro area consumes more alcohol in a year than the entire country of Ireland" I was shocked. A little off topic I know, but I thought that I would throw that out there.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Angry

I was listening to the radio on my way home from work back in December and an interesting statistic was brought to my attention. "The Washington DC metro area consumes more alcohol in a year than the entire country of Ireland" I was shocked. A little off topic I know, but I thought that I would throw that out there.

That's an interesting stat.

However, after a closer look, the entire population of Ireland is approx. 4.1 mil. According to washington post, the DC metro area is 5.9 mil as of 2005. So I think it's safe to assume that the DC metro area has a population of around 2 million more people.
I'm also not sure about tourism, but I would wager that the DC area gets more which would increase alcohol consumption as well.

D.C. Area Continues Strong Growth (washingtonpost.com)

[KLHJ2]

Originally Posted by jsarno

That's an interesting stat.

However, after a closer look, the entire population of Ireland is approx. 4.1 mil. According to washington post, the DC metro area is 5.9 mil as of 2005. So I think it's safe to assume that the DC metro area has a population of around 2 million more people.
I'm also not sure about tourism, but I would wager that the DC area gets more which would increase alcohol consumption as well.

D.C. Area Continues Strong Growth (washingtonpost.com)

But there are more Muslims here that do not drink.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Angry

But there are more Muslims here that do not drink.

HAHA.

Yeah, but democrats drink more!

[MTK]

When I was a teen it was never hard to find someone to buy booze. Hell sometimes even my managers at work would buy it for us. And of course once you get to college it's all downhill from there. I had a pretty good fake ID that I used everywhere. It was a real license but I swear this guy could have been my twin.

[Daseal]

We got a Costco account on a fake ID. That kept us from having to risk it by showing the ID much since you could use your costco card to buy booze. Some states sold booze, but always lots of beer/wine.