Posted on 06/24/2004 6:48:33 PM PDT by Pikamax
Colo. Senate Hopeful: Lower Drinking Age
Friday June 25, 2004 2:16 AM
DENVER (AP) - Republican Senate candidate and brewery magnate Peter Coors has reiterated his support for lowering the drinking age to 18, saying that young people drink anyway and the government has made them criminals.
During a debate with primary opponent Bob Schaffer on Wednesday, Coors didn't back down from remarks he made several years ago in support of lowering the drinking age from 21. Coors said it could help teenagers learn to drink responsibly.
He also criticized government efforts to force states to raise the legal age. ``I don't think that's a proper use of the executive branch,'' he said.
The remarks set off criticism Thursday.
``Underage drinking destroys lives and costs our nation billions of dollars,'' said James Copple, co-director of the International Institute for Alcohol Awareness.
The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation said underage drinking costs the nation $62.6 billion annually in deaths, injuries, property damage, and related economic and productivity losses. It said alcohol consumption by underage drinkers in 2001 led to 3,212 deaths nationwide.
Coors did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"The younger folk aren't sufficiently mature[d enough] to handle the booze!"
Well, in much of human history there were no drinking age limits. Somehow the world did not come to the end. In those days youngsters used to start drinking earlier, and learned how to manage it and hold their liquor at correspondingly earlier age, too. Probably, it is the cultural message: "drink, but don't get drunk".
If you can enlist in the military at age 18 and defend your country - with all the life and death responsibility taht entails - you should be able to buy a drink.
Ditto
Yeah, they can fight our wars, get married, be sued, be tried as adult, enter contracts, vote, but they can't have a beer. This is absurd.
Yes. Me too. I remember going into bars with a doctored birth certificate when I was 17. But logically, if an 18 year old is mature enough to give his life in war, he should be able to have a beer.
Right. My Italian parents gave us sips of red wine from the time we were toddlers.
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