[GeronL]

so I guess we should raise it to 35?

[Vaquero]

If your old enough to get your @$$ shot off in Iraq, your old enough to have a cold beer, in my book. 18 should be the drinking age.

[zaphod3000]

A copy of Does the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Save Lives? can be downloaded here.

[Tanniker Smith]

We should lower it to 12 because they're gonna do it anyway.

And every beer should come with a free condom so if it do something stupid when you're drunk, you can do it safely.

[oldpass]

I wonder what good money paid for the study?

Of course the early adopter states to 21 would see a reduction, as the 18-20 year olds went into neighboring states where they could drink legally. Once every state was forced to adopt then rates evened out again.

[WVKayaker]

Just more MADD people!

Can't have anybody enjoying themselves, you know! /sarcasm

I remember driving down to DC to visit the Cellar. I was 18, and could drink legally. Darn, I even drove back home! I'm amazed I kept making it, and never had a wreck!!! (NOT!)

[wolfpat]

ping for later

[Frogtacos]

At the E club on Ft Huachuca you only have to be 18 to drink. I spent many a night there...

However, that might be because so many of the soldiers were going to Mexico to drink, alot were getting killed in accidents on the drive home.

[livius]

I grew up in New York when the drinking age was 18, and that was just fine. The important thing is to set social boundaries for what is acceptable. Being disgustingly drunk at any age - 18, 21 or 60 - is not okay.

[PackerBoy]

The drinking age was 18 when I was growing up in Wisconsin in the early 70s. I was able to have a beer with my pizza before heading to my (Catholic) high school to attend a basketball game. It was no big deal. Sure some abused alcohol, and there were younger kids sneaking drinks when they could. (I recall riding my 10-speed bicycle to a local bar and being served at the age of 16.)

There were very few run-ins with the law. I never heard of any drunk driving arrests or alcohol-related auto accidents. Your parents were a bigger concern, and belive me they monitored our consumption and behavior.

[Names Ash Housewares]

I wish people didn’t drink so damn much.
I’ve seen no good come from it in my life experience.

[Hulka]

The argument to lower the voting age to 18 was; you can serve in the military and you can drink.

Now, years later, they raise the drinking age to 21 but 18yr olds can still serve in the military and vote.

So,you can be responsible enough to serve in the military and vote, but not responsible enough to have a drink.

Sheesh.

[Emile]

It could be that the reason fatality stats are significantly different only in the states that changed the age voluntarily is that those states actually ramped up enforcement, whereas the others just changed their laws to pay lip service to the feds and keep their federal money, but did nothing additional on enforcement.

That said, I agree 100% with Vaquero and others here that if you're old enough to serve and old enough to vote, you're old enough to do other legal adult things, too.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

The 21 drinking age law is useless....the kids either get the booze, anyway...or just turn to drugs.

The 18 drinking age would actually foster a little more alcohol responsibility at a younger age

Note that “binge drinking” never was a serious problem until the age was raised to 21. The higher drinking age kept college students out of bars (where they would drink less, since it would be more expensive per drink) and into buying it bulk at a liquor/grocery store thru a friend 21/over

[hexpoppy]

Here,s the thing—I worked in a package store in Connecticut, when the state lowered the drinking age to 18.
A lot of kids are still in high school at that age. They would come in the store and buy booze—legally. I could look through the window and see all their under age friends waiting in the cars. There wasn't a darn thing I could do about it.

[Political Junkie Too]

Here's food for thought...

We teach children to drive at 15, and give them licenses at 16. But we don't teach them to drink until they are 21, at which point they initially abuse alcohol (at 18 without parents' knowledge) and then drive.

What if we taught them to drink at an earlier age, and once they master that one, we teach them to drive? In other words, drinking age is 16, permit age is 17, driving age is 18?

-PJ

[shuckmaster]

No other country has a 21 year drinking age. Most are 15-18 and quite a few don’t even have a drinking age.

[Tanniker Smith]

My problem with this -- and it was a problem for me because I was under 21 when the drinking age was raised (and under 19 when it happened before that) -- is that their reasoning for raising the drinking age was driving accidents.

So why not raise the driving age instead.

For that matter, New York State makes State Identification cards that look just like Drivers License and are just as official.
Why shouldn't someone with such an ID, who is obviously NOT a driver, be allowed to drink at 18 as they can't cause any auto accidents except by walking out in front of a car?

[Toki]

I almost guarantee that if you went up to anyone 19, and asked if they had drank, they would say yes. Even at a conservative college like mine, almost everyone would say yes. We even had rum cake at a retreat for a women’s prayer group. I hate drinking (I’m not 21 yet), is stuck doing it sometimes, (especially when you mistake some one saying cherry instead of sherry, and your 12 year-old brother wants to eat all the soup, after already having a alcoholic drink his aunt gave to him). And when I went to Italy, and roomed with girls all over the US (Chicago, Califonia) I was called Hannah Montana for the fact that I didn’t drink (and actually paid for the stuff I was using).
/sigh

[Mister Da]

The Gubmint can set the drinking age at whatever they want, but it wont stop the partying. Kids have little respect for this law. Never have, never will.

It was easy for a teen to get booze 40 years ago, & I suspect it is even easier now.

This is much like the gun ban. To paraphrase: When booze is outlawed, only the drunks will have booze.

I do not condone teenage drinking, but the Gubmint wont stop it, no matter how many laws it passes. This is just more nanny state crap.

Hillary & Co. thinks “it takes a village” to raise a child, but it was the villagers who were selling us the booze, wine, & beer - at a substantial markup.

In 40 years nothing has changed but the laws, & they have changed nothing.