Do you think the drinking age law will prevent people from drinking and driving?

Question

Regardless of what the drinking age law says, there are many people that will drink and drive whether or not they're at the legal age. So I think the law is pointless since it won't keep underage people from drinking. I've known many people that drink and drive underage. If they can't buy a drink, they'll find some way to get it. Just because they're underage, doesn't mean they will follow the law.

Answer 1

You are correct,people will drink and drive no matter how old they are.

But,to say a law is pointless just because someone will do it anyway is ridiculous. By your logic,the law against murder is pointless because people are going to do it anyway.

There is no justification for driving drunk,especially if you are underage. It isn't a "cool" thing to do,even though many teens think it is.

When I was 18,the age hadn't been increased yet. I lost two friends in my senior year due to drunk driving. Two friends that never had the chance to go to college,get married and raise a family. If there is any good in the situation it is that they only killed themselves instead of killing a car full of their friends or an innocent family.

Drinking and driving is not a joke and shouldn't be made out to be no big deal. It is a big deal. The fact that your friends seem to think it is okay just proves that the drinking age should never be lowered.  

Answer 2

You may know several people under age that drink and drive, but if the age is dropped back to 18 you will know even more.  The law isn't pointless because, as much as you think everyone under 21 is drinking and driving, there are more that aren't.  Also, an 18 year old has friends from 15 up.  Do we want 15 year old drinking?  Ah, believe me the 18 year old will buy booze for their minor friends.  And save the "Old enough to vote and die for my country" bit.  At 18 you can fight for your country and the service wants you at a young age because you're more willing to listen and be molded in what they want.  A 21 year old and older...not so much.  And as far as voting...well legally you are considered an adult at 18 in the US.  So since Adults can vote....however it doesn't mean you're mature.  No the drinking law at 21 is just fine.  

Answer 3

Chances are, even though you need to be 21 to buy a drink, teenagers can potentiality take beer or liquor from home, and drink it behind the wheel.  That can be a serious problem that needs to be solved.  Drinking age limits cannot prevent underage drinking or drunk driving.  

Answer 4

Ive talked about this multiple times, teenagers by nature are rebellious, and they they tend to get drunk to boot exactly because of that reason, leading to the law actually doing the opposite of what its suppose to.

As you said teens will always find a way of getting alcohol, by making a big dead out of it were getting more attention and are more likely to do something stupid.

About Drinking and Driving, personally i wouldn't drive if i have been drinking, just some ground rules i got for myself, Also if they do easy on the drinking, lower the age limit or something it will cause teens to learn to control their drinking earlier and easier instead of getting drunk to boot just because you cant always do it, its like a 1 time thing, and just get it out of their system and act normal about it.

Answer 5

Then they shouldn't whine about the fines, probation, and jail fines they so badly want.

If the laws would quit giving kids such slaps on the wrist, and really punish them for breaking laws, they would be less inclined to do things like drive drunk, drink underage, etc.

Do you think drinking and driving laws are pointless?  Why have them?  People are going to do it anyway.  My husband's sister and her husband left behind a 2 yr old little boy when they were killed by a drunk driver.

Answer 6

I know your question is specifically about drinking and driving, but I am going to tackle underage drinking and responsible drinking as a whole, not just the drinking and driving aspect of it. Let me say first off that I think that the drinking age should be lowered, but I don't agree with your reasoning. People do cocaine even though its illegal, so should cocaine be made legal because people are doing it anyways? No. As a society we agree that cocaine is bad and we don't want it to be legal. Our society does not have this same collective attitude towards drinking.

The first point I want to make is that age and responsibility are independent of one another. I think what people need to think about here is that instead of trying to enforce responsibility with a law, saying "I don't think you are smart enough to be responsible at this age so I will try and make you responsible with a law," we should be teaching actual responsibility by showing our young adults how to be responsible. That is the problem with drinking in our country, its not about age its about the irresponsibility of our society as a whole. I see as many irresponsible 21-80 year olds as I do 18-20 year olds when it comes to drinking. To me, this issue of our country's drinking problem has NOTHING to do with age, it has to do with society and the fact that we are not responsible as a whole when it comes to drinking and, here is the big point I want to make here, I see that irresponsibility developing in the 18-21 stage of adulthood, when our young adults are drinking unsupervised and unguided.

This is the fundamental problem with the drinking age being 21. We are saying that at 18 you are old enough to do everything on your own and you are responsible enough to make your own choices. You are an adult. You can join the military, move out of your parents home, have your own checking account/insurance etc...but you are not responsible enough to do the right thing when it comes to drinking. To me its a double standard, and its one that undermines the responsibilty of our society when it comes to drinking. I think that somewhere between the "coming of age" period that occurs at 18, a period where you learn a lot about being responsible and being an adult, and the "coming of age to drink" period, we are not becoming responsible adults in terms of how we handle drinking.

Think about this, when I turned 18 my dad taught me how to be an adult. I went and got my own bank account, prepared myself for college and he guided me through it. I did it myself, but he was there to show me how to do it. When I did something wrong, he showed me how to do it right. This did not happen with drinking. He couldn't teach me how to drink responsibly because...it was illegal for me to drink. You don't teach your son how to do something that he is not supposed to do. I couldn't seek his guidance because I was doing something illegal! Therefore, who do I learn from? Who teaches me to be a responsible adult regarding drinking? Instead of learning responsibility during this time like we do with every other aspect of our life, we are developing very irresponsible drinking habits. Instead of learning responsibility, which would be going out and having a few beers with friends, they are playing beer pong and chugging cases of beer in their basements. The drinking is forced underground where irresponsibility is actually fostered! They develop the idea that, its ok to get plastered because that is what they see and that is what they believe to be acceptable. So the irresponsible are being encouraged to be irresponsible by other irresponsible young adults. If they were at a bar responsible members of society would say, "thats wrong." Nobody is teaching these young adults to be responsible with drinking until after the irresponsible habits are formed. So to me, allowing these young adults to drink like adults with adults in a controlled adult setting, we can much more easily teach responsible drinking to our society.

The second point I want to make is this, we need to really understand how laws and society work hand in hand. Laws and mores must fit together. If a law says one thing yet a societal more says the opposite, then there is confusion and the system breaks down. The law is not respected because it does not agree with the more. Murder is against the law and as a society we all agree that it is wrong to kill someone. Society does not have that collective view towards drinking. The law says you can't drink until you are 21. A large chunk of our society does not agree with that and many turn a blind eye to those that break this law. That simply undermines our legal system as a whole, as I mentioned above. If the law is not enforced and not agreed upon, then it needs to conform more to what society says it should be. Our society says its ok to drink as a responsible adult and our society says that at 18 you should be a "responsible adult" but the law does not agree with what society believes. The law says, "yes now you are a responsible adult and you are going to be treated like a responsible adult in every aspect of your life...except when it comes to drinking." Therefore the law does nothing in my opinion and its hypocritical. It encourages society to break the law and encourages irresponsible behavior because we don't see it as wrong. It has the opposite effect of what a law should do. Societies mores and laws have to agree for either to be effective.

Sorry, I know that is long but I wanted to really get my opinion out there clearly.

Answer 7

I think the law helps - I know some young people that if the drinking age was lower - would definitely hurt someone while driving drunk.

Never forget - Sam Kinison was killed by a 17 year old drunk driver.

I miss him