I think that the drinking age should be 18, mostly because that's the age that they pin almost everything else to. Even though maturity varies widely by individual, I guess you have to pick an arbitrary number, and you may as well be consistent about it
( ... )
I think that the "oh no, you can't do that, see?" response is likely to make drinking something to sneak more, my experience was that the worst of the binge drinking started with people before they were legal, it became not less of a social outlet (because that'd be a lie) but the craziest amounts of booze at a time, and stupid choices about how much/how to drink, were made by the younger drinkers. I would argue that it's at least partly the "Ha! I can too do this!"
I think i mostly observed the worst drinking decisions being made by the least experienced drinkers, who were totally unaccustomed to alcohol's lovely siren song of "some feels good, more must be EVEN better!" That seems to happen regardless of legality, with new drinkers (and experienced ones who forget the hard lessons too easily ;)
I do think that there are some people who want to do something more if it isn't allowed, but there are also some who won't do it if it isn't allowed (or is too difficult to obtain), so they tend to cancel each other out. When something is allowed, and available in greater quantity because of easy legal access, I would still guess that you'd end up with more drinking, not less.
I think the analogy I would make would be, if drinking were allowed at work, would there be more or fewer people at work under the influence?
There would be more, but if there was already a culture of keeping a bottle in your cupboard and tippling through the day, would it make THAT big a difference?
Other than in the use of lousy statistics ;) (Sorry, but if the general population dropped doing something 50% over a period of time, you can't say that a subset of that population dropping essentially the exact same amount is a result of something that only affected the subset, which is really more my rant on this.. My stance on drinking ages at the heart more about consistency... I also think that the way this country approaches drinking doesn't help ANYONE. Is Europe better, or Ireland specifically, where it's really a non-issue as long as you're not driving? Well no, but there is literally NOTHING to do in Ireland that is as cheap as getting drunk. The US doesn't have *that* problem.
I believe the drinking age should be abolished, and the education of minors in the proper and responsible use of alcohol placed squarely onto the shoulders of parents.
The UK has an 18 drinking age but in the same breath, it's not illegal for younger to consume it. A study was done and children that learn responsible drinking early from their parents are far less likely to binge drink or drink irresponsibly later in life. (I'd have the link but my computer is currently out of commission).
Lord forbid we actually teach the children of our nation to be responsible adults!
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Or at least in my experience.
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I do think that there are some people who want to do something more if it isn't allowed, but there are also some who won't do it if it isn't allowed (or is too difficult to obtain), so they tend to cancel each other out. When something is allowed, and available in greater quantity because of easy legal access, I would still guess that you'd end up with more drinking, not less.
I think the analogy I would make would be, if drinking were allowed at work, would there be more or fewer people at work under the influence?
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Other than in the use of lousy statistics ;) (Sorry, but if the general population dropped doing something 50% over a period of time, you can't say that a subset of that population dropping essentially the exact same amount is a result of something that only affected the subset, which is really more my rant on this.. My stance on drinking ages at the heart more about consistency... I also think that the way this country approaches drinking doesn't help ANYONE. Is Europe better, or Ireland specifically, where it's really a non-issue as long as you're not driving? Well no, but there is literally NOTHING to do in Ireland that is as cheap as getting drunk. The US doesn't have *that* problem.
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The UK has an 18 drinking age but in the same breath, it's not illegal for younger to consume it. A study was done and children that learn responsible drinking early from their parents are far less likely to binge drink or drink irresponsibly later in life. (I'd have the link but my computer is currently out of commission).
Lord forbid we actually teach the children of our nation to be responsible adults!
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