Drinking age

well....the only way i can see of ensuring people can consume alcohol safely is by performing background checks for stuff like crime or mental illenss and issuing a license to drink. but that's just not going to happen unfortunately becuz if that ever becomes a law, it'll just cause ppl to go drink it illegally and drive the whole thing underground making it illegal. so the only sure fire way is down the drain, too bad.

best alternative is i guess encouraging ppl to be more responsible but we know how there will ALWAYS be someone who disobeys the best advice and ruin it for everyone else by making everyone else look bad.

EDIT: i dunno if age really should be a factor deciding when soemone is ready to drink but i suppose the stereotype that Americans are less behaved than ppl from other countries makes it so that a person must be a certain age to drink. other countries have no restrictions whatsoever, i'm GUESSING it's due to the fac tthat they have no stereotype or generalization about their children being bad. i hope ther'es a way to prevent more careless accidents tho, but my methods are a LITTLE over the edge i know. i'm sort of a strict person when it comes to responsibility and behavior

 

It isn't that Americans are more foolish than people in other countries. Drunken disorderly behavior happens anywhere. The point here is that people like to be in each other's business so much and the way to make things harder to get to is to make laws preventing it and to waste people's times instead of just instructing people early on about the dangers. I agree with all else you pretty much said and suppose I want to highlight a bit on some things, because it's one of those 'issues' or well, more than one combined that fit here and get me going.

We have a lot of **** idiots that petition for things like raising the age of drinking, forcing kids 10 years and younger to the back seats of cars, taking away video games, forcing religion down our throats in school, raising ages of consenting sex, TV show removal, music bans, movie bans, book bans, fighting a war on drugs that is a losing battle etc, because people are always up in other people's businesses and not taking care of their own families. This is why we get a bad rep as in 'Americans are out of control'. They paint it that way. We aren't that bad and probably there would be less spree killings too if some people would stop being so **** and thinking they should run the lives of others. On this same note though, we have the jaded other side that doesn't seem to give a crap and lets their kids do whatever because they themselves are loafers. Most people are not either of these things but unfortunately we all get hell for it because we can always point out people who are on either side of that fence.

This is why I am very against 'stupid laws'. We have so many lame laws now and some oldies but goodies too that really need to go, but yet somehow get approved and are maintained. A permit to drink to me seems to be another strict law that cannot be enforced by any means and people would just laugh at it. Yes, some people act like idiots on alcohol but I think the drug war and alcohol issues are not as hard to cope with as people think. In the end, as cruel as it sounds in some ways, I think they ought to just make pot and some other drugs legal and alcohol should be left alone. Attach all the rules for alcohol to drugs as well, such as if you drive under the influence of a drug, you get punished.

Next, since we have to deal with an influx for a while of people who abuse it, take that money used to traffic out drugs and put it into drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. If someone gets 2 or 3 strikes and alcohol or drug abuse is found to be an encouraging factor to this behavior such as involvement to their arrest of assault or driving etc, force them to go to rehab and also be more inventive in procedures of teaching people how to deal with obsession and well, the need for something. Drop the lame 12 step program and get some real research psychologically done to help people drop an addiction and do something else with their lives. In this way we help the people addicted to drugs or alcohol, we stop bothering to spend countless money on a war that has failed since it's beginning, and good people who can control alcohol etc are not condemned to have to get a permit and be treated as too dumb to do anything. The real problem with alcohol seems to usually be the addicts that drown themselves in it so I don't see a need to have to torture others who aren't doing anything wrong with a permit. You can't stop someone from drinking, but if the help is there to teach them to learn to either drink responsibly or encourage them to find another joy in life that doesn't harm others because they have addictive personalities, we all suffer less.

If we educate and teach truthfully the harm that alcohol can instigate (as well as drugs) and tell the -TRUTH- about it (because in the 80s and 90s schools were spreading over exaggerated lies), then kids can know and we need to start energizing the parents too. However, if someone is going to be stupid, they are so rehab seems to me a better answer than all of this money being wasted on other crap. If someone wants some E, pot, PCP etc, you just have to know who to hit up for it. It is -very- easy to get drugs even though they are illegal. It is a simple process for teens to get a hold of alcohol either at home or from friends etc. Parents can help make it more difficult. Education can make it less encouraging. And adults...they should know better and if they do not care, rehab gets them away for a while and incarceration for the crimes they commit when inebriated still works. Last thing I want to see is a permit on alcohol or a ban on alcohol because it will just be another Prohibition again and if it is so easy to get a hold of illegal drugs, it's even easier to get a hold of alcohol.

Anywhoo that's the end of my rant. ~whee~. I could have said this easier by saying 'punish and/or help the abusers; not the people who are doing fine.

 

not to get off topic but what's wrong with that law?
but then they'll kill themselves becuz there's nothing stopping the addiction
they've actually been doing this for quite some already, at least in places i've seen
i mean sure the ppl who can behave shouldnt' be punished but this ridiculous law is a law for a reason while not everyone will do stupid crap becuz of alcohol and not everyone will lose control, there will be ppl who will and we can't just not take them into account. since we can't tell who can and can't control themselves at a younger age, that's why the law targets everyone

 

ummmmmmmmmmm.............21. It sounds the best.

 

What's wrong with that law is that some kids have reasons to sit up front such as motion sickness which causes them to throw up if they sit in the back seats. I can see small children sitting in the back but when they are 5 years old and more I don't see the reason that cars can't modernize to adjust. Also, when parents go to drop off kids at school etc, they have to get out of the car and let the kid out of the back which means they have to shut off the car so it isn't stolen, get out of the car, get the kid out etc. Also, for cars without back seats, what happens then? It's inconvenient and a dumb rule.

What I wrote after about rehabilitation and real help for people to solve addictions and work them through would be better than putting people in jail as they are now over small things. The jails are overcrowded due to possession rules for minors having alcohol and for pot possession. There are worse crimes out there. Also, as I said, if people are found to be doing things such as assaults or driving etc under the influence, they do time for that crime but can get help if alcohol or drugs is involved to try to get them clean and learn to stop abuse.

Yes, they have been trying to but still some schools teach paranoid versions of things and are not teaching accurately. One thing I did learn traveling around the states is that they do not all have the same curriculum and I wish they did. All schools are not equal. The point though was to keep doing this sort of thing and encourage more action from parents to watch their kids and work out situations with them to prevent abuse situations and if alcohol situations arise, to have a game plan on what to do about it.

Also, you are right. We can't exclude people who will do things and the law does sooner or later figure out who is doing things wrong and who is not and if drugs or alcohol are involved. My point is that a permit would mean that we have to subject many others to getting it, paying for it etc and why? It's another freedom we lose and I do not think we should continue to keep giving up freedoms due to fear or bad people all the time. It's why I said to punish those who do the wrongs, get them help and let the rest of us be. If proper rehabilitation was set up along with how the prison system works (and improving that wouldn't hurt either) then I just think with proper education, discipline and information, it would work better for all than screwing over everyone with some new law.

As for the age issue, I do think 18 or 19 is enough. I really haven't seen proof that teenagers can't get alcohol just as easy as they did years ago and well some 18-20 year olds are mature enough. If nothing else, I'd say perhaps 18-20 year olds should at least have the right to drink at home because I can see at bars how they can be annoying or the younger teens try to get in all the time. The carding issue for selling works well enough though some places will give out alcohol to minors. I just think that 18 is the age of being considered an adult and if someone does not know the risks by that time any way, they probably will either learn or get the lesson through their head the hard way. Addiction itself though is different to me. I've partied etc but never felt 'addicted' to alcohol but know others who were and have had to get assistance or well, they ruin their lives. That's why I'm pretty strong on proper rehabilitation and education helping people with it rather than keeping on fighting a losing battle of prohibiting things.

 

yea i agree that 18 years of age is a good age tho, i have no problem with that, but before that is too soon in my opinion seeing as the legal age to start driving where i live is at age 16.

 

The age is fine as it is in most countries, it works with the culture of that country. Though the only one I have a slight issue with is in the US. You can do most things at the age of 18, so why is drinking alone so high? You have to wait until you are probably out of college until you can even officially buy and drink it. With a high age limit it will just promot underage drinking, it's like a forbidden apple. Heck you can drive at 15 in some states which to me is way to young to be on the road. If a person is responible enough to have a car and drive anywhere then why not drink.

The age is Japan is 20. But that works with everything else since you can do most things when you get to 20.

 

well....i guess they don't want newbie drivers to be drunk AND driving and would rather have a pro drunk driver rather than a newbie drunk driver on the road? that is what i would think.

 

Fair enough, but in the UK the driving age is 17, and drinking is 18. I don't think it takes 6 years for people to realise that drink driving is bad. Heck, I knew that before I even started learning to drive. Most people are responible drivers anyway, and know they shouldn't do that.

 

I live in the US and I think that the age should stay 21. It doesn't really matter though because its so easy to get where I live. I bet I could walk into a super market, buy a case of beer, pay and walk out un-noticed. I'm only 15, and I definitely look 15. I don't think I'll ever drink in high school. Smoking is a whole other story here. I think that 50% of my school smokes or has smoked and thats just the minimum.

 

i think it should stay 21 as well but i wouldn't really mind if it were 18 years of age either.

 

18 years in UK and many of us minors think it's far too high, we break that rule because it's there and getting alcohol is easy.

You can sk hobos, older siblings or older friends to get it for you and mix it with soft drinks and drink them while walking down a road.

And no that's not from personnal experience but i think the age should be lowered, less people would drink because many do it for the thrill of law breaking.

 

There's still the issue of screening for risk factors. Some studies have found that alcohol abuse and susceptibility to abuse and other negative effects are highly correlated to genetic and hereditary factors. We'd essentially be denying some people a freedom based on their genetic inheritance, if further tests demonstrated a causal nature between heredity and alcohol abuse.

Also, suspending a license and assuming that will do something is rather naive. Thousands of people drive without a license everyday without consequence, junkies find a way to get high in rehab, and most importantly speak-easies found ways to get people drunk during prohibition. Realistically speaking, a piece of paper that states that the government has deemed a person fit to drink after they have met a certain criteria isn't going to prevent those that don't "qualify" from consuming alcohol.

 

If only. America has the bloodiest streets in the entire world. I agree that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. People enjoy doing things because they know they shouldn't or can't, so by allowing them to just do it would definitely rain on their parade. Also, for the hell of it, I have an incredible problem with drunk driving. I don't drink, and I doubt I ever will. More than 90% of my friends do, though, and it's quite annoying. Kids don't understand much of anything when it comes to drunk driving until they've actually been in an accident. Still, even after that, they continue to do it. Innocent people are killed every day by drunk drivers, and I don't feel their punishment is sufficient. Me? Here's what I would do: To any man, woman, teenager, anyone, who has wrongfully taken the life of anyone as a result of driving under the influence of any narcotics; you should have your leg put up onto a table and have your thigh smashed with a sledge hammer. For the next 6 months, you're wearing a cast up to your abdomen with a little flap in it so you can go to the bathroom. You're not going to be driving again for well over 6 months, and damn are you going to feel it when it rains. But not just that; Every year on the birthday of the person he/she killed, they should have to visit the family and express their sympathy and apologies, visit schools and tell the story of how they took someone's life as a result of over-drinking at a wedding and not knowing when to stop or driving yourself home from a party because you were too selfish or ignorant to make sure you had a ride home from someone who was sober. After all of that, you think they're going to -ever- drive drunk again? I don't think so. This is how it should be done. And hell, if they do it again, kill them and charge their family for the bullet.

/endrant