Possibly lowering the legal drinking age to 18

[FireMedic65]

well, these kids are going to drink regardless of the drinking age. i drank more before i turned 21 than i do now. but thats not saying much for me, i don't drink much now anyway

I don't see the point in drinking all together, I drink socially, not to get drunk. I never really enjoyed being drunk. It seems now a days, and even when I was younger, and I'm sure it goes back a lot further than that... all these kids want to do is go out and get drunk all time. It's dangerous for them, and everyone else. Yes, legal aged drinkers drink and drive, blah blah blah... which I guess is a reason why the drinkign age is 21... but they are "more responsible" but, who knows... I lost my train of thought there... but regardless of the age.... they are still going to drink.. they always find a way to get the alcohol.. being it someone buying it for them, or careless/ignorant vendors.... I don't know where I am going with this so I am just going to shut up now...

[Timmy]

In Australia the legal drinking age is 18. There’s nothing anyone can do about underage drinking. It’s getting really bad in Aussie Land. Being a 17 year old my self I underage drink at least 3 times a month, been doing it since I was about 15. I know the risks, I’ve ran Party Safe education programs with school; I’ve dealt with all sorts of underage drinking jobs on EMS duty. Kids pay no attention to the police officer standing up the front ranting on about alcohol and the law; they make jokes and rude remarks. In today’s day and age all that matters is what others think of you, hence underage drinking is seen as ‘extremely cool’ so everyone does it, if you don’t you’re seen as socially retarded. You’re a ‘hero’ if you’re the first to pass out. The thing that’s worrying me is younger kids are starting to drink, last weekend I helped a 12 year old who’d passed out. At every party now there’s a little group of ‘hardcore’ kids standing in the corner drinking. Cops don’t care, there sick of it. Parents well most kids lie to them, they don’t really care about the consequences as long as they’ve gotten total smashed and had a good time who cares what they think, besides if you get in trouble you can get smashed again next weekend and just forget about your parents. Lower the age, raise the age, it won’t matter. Remember most teens are ‘above’ the law lol. Off topic but fake ID is way outta control, so many kids have one.

[Lone Star]

Works for me. But could you at least post it in an appropriate forum. This one is specifically labelled for EMS related news, not general debate.

Gee, according to MY screen it says GENERAL NEWS.... -10 for petty ante bitching!

[Just Plain Ruff]

while we're at lowering the legal drinking age we can lower some other stuff like they want to in California and other places. Age of consent - 12 years old.

I personally think that the drinking age of 21 is ok and I also think that with the age limit like it is it has kept some people alive by their following the rules.

But I'm not a politician so I don't get to make these rules.

[Lone Star]

In Australia the legal drinking age is 18. There’s nothing anyone can do about underage drinking. It’s getting really bad in Aussie Land. Being a 17 year old my self I underage drink at least 3 times a month, been doing it since I was about 15. I know the risks, I’ve ran Party Safe education programs with school; I’ve dealt with all sorts of underage drinking jobs on EMS duty. Kids pay no attention to the police officer standing up the front ranting on about alcohol and the law; they make jokes and rude remarks. In today’s day and age all that matters is what others think of you, hence underage drinking is seen as ‘extremely cool’ so everyone does it, if you don’t you’re seen as socially retarded. You’re a ‘hero’ if you’re the first to pass out. The thing that’s worrying me is younger kids are starting to drink, last weekend I helped a 12 year old who’d passed out. At every party now there’s a little group of ‘hardcore’ kids standing in the corner drinking. Cops don’t care, there sick of it. Parents well most kids lie to them, they don’t really care about the consequences as long as they’ve gotten total smashed and had a good time who cares what they think, besides if you get in trouble you can get smashed again next weekend and just forget about your parents. Lower the age, raise the age, it won’t matter. Remember most teens are ‘above’ the law lol. Off topic but fake ID is way outta control, so many kids have one.

This is what happens when so many bleeding heart liberals have legislated us into a 'hands off' approach to dealing with kids these days!

I say we turn back the clock 20 years and bring these wild children back in line! Give the power back to the parents to raise productive entrants into society!

[itku2er]

I agree there Brett, parnets need to have the control back like years ago. That was the generation we grew up in and look our parnets must have done something right cause we made it.

[pyroknight]

I would just like to see a little fricking consistency. You can consent to sex at 16, but cannot vote until you're 18, and cannot drink until you're 21. Let's face it, most people don't even START to mature until about 25 (some NEVER do, but most start getting a clue by their mid 20s). Most males are not ready to take on any real responsibility until they are 30.

Unfortunately, the hormones kick in at 12 or 13 and parents are dying to get these know-it-all brats, who are now physically capable of kicking the $h!t out of them, out of the house. If you increased the age of adulthood to 25 or 30, it would mean we parents would have to support the buggers and provide them with food and shelter and video games for another seven years. I am NOT voting for THAT program, lol!

Kids are going to do stupid crap no matter what our laws say. Pick an age where you want to arbitrarily decide people become adults and stick with it. People have a right to drink themselves to death, catch STDs, and become miserably indebted. There are far too many liberal bastards deeply embedded in politics and government in the US for anyone to every have the balls to step up and institute policies like involuntary birth control for those who cannot keep their pants on yet have no income or insurance. The retarded will continue to procreate at a rate higher than they kill each other off until another pandemic sweeps through and helps scrape a few feet of sludge off the bottom of the gene pool.

Have a happy day! 8)

[Dustdevil]

There’s nothing anyone can do about underage drinking.

I beg to differ with you. With the proper consequences, underage drinking can be seriously curbed. The problem is, the "kids will be kids" attitude in society actually encourages underage drinking by minimalising the concern and the consequences.

Pyro, excellent point about inconsistency. Inconsistency, like hypocrisy, are also prime contributors to antisocial behaviour in our society. Unfortunately, the government itself is the culprit.

[Michael]

I'm exempt.

"Jews don't drink, because it dulls the pain." ~ Woody Allen

[Asysin2leads]

Anyone know how the feds got the 21 year statute instituted in the first place? Although it was the time of Ronnie Raygun, who was supposed to be all conservative and in favor of a smaller federal government, basically they trampled on the 10th admendment by threatening to revoke the federal highway funds of any state that didn't comply. A couple of states banded together to fight the pretty much outright extortion in court, but they didn't win. I think Louisiana up until fairly recently was the lone hold out who said "keep your f---ing highway funds", but the rest of them caved.

In case anyone fell asleep in social studies class the 10th admendment is the one which leaves all powers not spelled out to the federal government in the constitution in the hands of the states, and the constitution says nothing about age limits for drinking. Of course, it doesn't say anything about slavery either, and I guess some states had an issue with that too, but, well, we all know how that went.