Should we even have a drinking age?

Question

From personal experience, I have found that the main reason for underage drinking is to get totally wasted, not social drinking. I believe the main reason for that is an overly enforced drinking age that creates a "taboo" that lures many teenagers to drink. I also believe that if alcohol was legal to all ages, it would become more integrated into family life and children would learn how to drink RESPONSIBLY. This is my opinion, I would love to hear yours.

Answer 1

Young kids should not be drinking.  

Answer 2

Young people should grow up around drinking, from the age of 13 or 14 and allow them to have small amounts of beer or wine like a sip for example, I have found that because I drank small amounts from as young age that I can go out without having to drink a lot because i'm used to it whereas some of my freinds who didn't grow up aroud drinking have a bad approach to alcohol and feel the need to get really drunk on a night out.

Answer 3

Young people's bodies cannot handle alcohol, and it causes people of all ages to lose 100% touch with reality.

Drinking Age is just and should not be changed, unless to make the laws stricter.

Answer 4

Since the legal drinking age is set by each state, it's difficult to quantify whether setting a national legal age would ever happen. In certain states, for example, a girl can legally marry at age twelve. But don't tell Texans that :)

While I agree that your argument has validity, I am not in favor of it. Young people binge drink due to peer pressure. It's the same for s*x parties where young girls known as slaves are passed from one boy to another. The girls don't really want to be involved in it, but the stigma of being termed a social outcast, and the concomitant personal online video sites showing them screaming or crying has caused girls to commit suicide. Binge drinking among young persons also can cause a desire to commit suicide. I just don't think that lowering the drinking age would teach children responsible consumption of a brain-altering addictive substance.

Children in many European countries do drink wine from very early in childhood; mothers still place watered down wine in bottles for their infants to help them quiet down and sleep. But European family structures are more cohesive than those in the United States as a rule, although this is changing. Parents do teach their children, by example, that a glass of wine is acceptable with a meal, even breakfast. I doubt that would be the norm in this country.

Answer 5

No. I agree totally with you. You ought to be able to give your 8 year old daughter a $20 and have her walk to the package store and get the wine for dinner. The poor slobs in the liquor stores go to jail when they sell to a minor. They aren't paid enough to run a store and to babysit for us. We should grow up about it, like all of Europe.

Answer 6

You've hit upon all of my key points in regards to alcohol in the US.

We fundamentally lack proper parenting and education about alcohol to our teenagers.  Everyone hides their heads and assumes that "my child is too good" to drink alcohol, when in reality they're getting shitfaced every weekend.  Parents don't parent because they know that the school is telling their kids "Just say no."  Well, if that worked a d**n we wouldn't have 80% of 20 years old with alcohol experience.  I highly doubt that number would rise by much if the law were changed to 18, or even abolished.  There will be a group of people which abstain from alcohol -- be it due to genetics, religion, or personal choice.

As the law stands, 34 states do in fact allow parents to legally give their minor (although to be fair, 18-20 year olds *are* adults) child alcohol for whatever reason, provided it is within their own household.  Further, the other states would not have any knowledge of you doing so if it is done in the same manner because ATF cannot get a warrant for that because they have no suspicion if they cannot see it -- that and it is a gross misappropriation of taxpayer funds and government employee time.

Just spend one day reading posts here.  You'll find numerous posts from minors asking whether this amount or that amount of vodka, beer, or wine will get you drunk, or asking if they were drunk when they clearly were (is there any doubt after you have 10 shots?).  I mean, there's a lack of knowledge here -- some kids truly don't know if a bottle of vodka to yourself in one night will get you drunk or not.  Worse, many of these kids are playing with Everclear, a 190 proof (95%ABV) spirit which has more in common with a household cleaner and sanitizer than a beverage.  This should not even be sold to ordinary citizens, let alone in the hands of people too young to understand what ethanol is.

I do think there ought to be a drinking age, however.  But I support a graduated plan -- such as beer and wine at 16, liquor at 18.  This should, ideally, keep the most dangerous stuff out of their hands.  If they have access to some alcohol and can get drunk if they want to, it shouldn't be too much trouble to stick with beer (or malternatives) and wine for a couple years.  Heck, some wines are 17% and will get you plastered pretty easily.  The whole point right now is that the minors are drinking hard liquor, have little idea about what drinking is all about and assume it is to get drunk.  Well, no wonder they like vodka, it gets you drunk without any effort.  It's too easy to get very sick from this sort of drinking style and to become addicted.  By starting off with lower alcohol drinks, as it should be, this would help to mitigate it.

Anyways, most of the kids are getting the alcohol from either older friends or their parents.  If the age were 16 for beer and wine, then the 14 and 15 year olds could easily get these items.  But, a 14 year old being able to get hard liquor would be a bit more difficult from a friend: a) fewer 14 year olds are friends with 18 year olds than 16 year olds are b) a 14 year old could get hard liquor from a 16 year old who got it from an 18 year old, but the 16 year old is less likely to share the hard stuff and more likely to buy them beer -- especially if they perceive beer to be harder to drink (a 'right of passage' type of treatment).