Legal drinking age in the USA

Keep it at 21... Last thing we need is more drunk drivers out there... Plus, you tend to know a little better at 21...

 

Yah the 21yrs drinking age helps prevent so many teens from driving drunk. I don't know anyone under 21 who drinks, do you? I'm certain no one on college campuses under 21 is drinking either.

At 18 you can fight and die for your country, even be drafted, be considered an adult for legal purposes, including criminal trials, even be sentenced to death for a crime. You can vote. You can buy cigarettes and pornography.

But you can't buy a beer??

If we're going to have a 21yrs old drinking age, all of the above should be moved to 21 as well. Let's say either someone is an adult or they're not - not this halfway stuff. If we really wanted to reduce teen drunk driving, we'd raise the driving age to 18 or 21, but this is very unpopular among parents.

 

I've never understood it being 21 anyway.

If you're old (and presumably mature) enough to

1) Vote
2) Drive
3) Die in a War
4) Have Children and be assigned legal responsibility for them
5) Get the Death Penalty for any bad actions on your part

then Drinking is the least of your problems.

What about making a law that says you can't drink if you have a driver's license.

Or maybe make it so you can only drink after you qualify for Social Security.

If we're going to have various grades of 'adult' then I also think there should be tests associated with achieving each stage. Now that would be fun.

 

Yes, even though many under 21 do, it's still an effective deterret because it adds one more layer of "trouble" when it comes down to it. Drop the drinking age, and we will definitely see an increase in DUI related fatalities within that age bracket. ...and all for what, so Johnny can have a drink? No thanks...

 

Gee... well... as is, everyone drinks at a younger age, so what's the point? Drop it to match other countries.

 

Study: When does the human brain mature?

HANOVER, N.H., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Dartmouth scientists say they've determined anatomically significant changes in the human brain's structure continue to develop after the age of 18.
The study sought to define exactly when a person's brain reaches adulthood and human maturity begins.

Abigail Baird, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences and co-author of the research, said the study tracked a group of freshman students.

"During the first year of college, especially at a residential college, students have many new experiences," said Baird. "They are faced with new cognitive, social, and emotional challenges. We thought it was important to document and learn from the changes taking place in their brains."
Baird and graduate student Craig Bennett looked at the brains of nineteen 18-year-old Dartmouth students. A control group of 17 older students, ranging in age from 25 to 35, were studied for comparison.

"The brain of an 18-year-old college freshman is still far from resembling the brain of someone in their mid-20s," said Bennett. "When do we reach adulthood? It might be much later than we traditionally think."

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Hence, we should continue to keep the legal age for consumption of alcohol at 21 years.

 

By this reasoning, it seems we should RAISE the drinking age to 25.

 

I voted keep it at 21. Simply a good, rational, set point for the emotional maturity to drink responsibly. There will ALWAYS be those who cannot at any age. BTW, this has nothing to do with the asinine argument that if you are old enough to die for this country, you should be able to drink.

 

The answer to your argument, of course, is that it takes different levels of skill and/or maturity to do different things. Getting killed in a war and voting, for example, require vastly different amounts of judgement---yet 18-year-olds can do both.

If young adults 18-20 aren't allowed to drink due to "immaturity" or "poor judgement", I'd rather not have that same judgement exhibited on the roads.

 

I can only imagine the crap you've seen involving alcohol...

 

in my particular case... drinking wasn't as fun after i turned 21 because all of a sudden it was legal...

so i wasn't the greatest kid. shoot me. :lol:

which presents the case for lowering the drinking age.

however... i know a bunch of people who are now past 23 and still drink all the time so it won't apply to everyone.

seems 21 has struck a decent compromise between legal adulthood and emotional/physical maturity.

 

I am a social drinker. I probably dring a 12 pack a year at home and once a month at a social function. I would not miss it a bit if it were gone.

ALCOHOL is the most abused drug and it is involved in well over 50% of all the "problems" I have dealt with in my ENTIRE career.

Alcohol is a bane on society. Satan's elixir.

 

Damned if I wasn't going to have a drink before I shipped out for basic training when I was 18!

 

Alcohol is hard on the body. It acts as a poison. Under 21 the body is still developing. Even at 21 the body does not deal well with alcohol but that is where we have had it legal for a long time. That probably won't change. Like everything else...moderation is the key.

 

Just my opinion here: I think the legal drinking age should be 75. However, I'm open-minded. Anyone who thinks it should be 65 would find me willing to compromise half way.