Question:

What age should drinking be allowed?

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These college presidents are saying it should be 18, not 21 as it is now. The drinking age was 19 when I was 19 and in college. I thought that was better than 21. I actually turned "legal" twice because when I was 20, the drinking age was changed to 21 and I became underage again after being allowed to drink for a year.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-18-college-drinking_N.htm?csp=34

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  1. 18. but the government should introduce a scheme where u have to take a test on alcohol responsibility. get the alcohol companys to fund the project through the extra sales they would gain.


  2. the best is 18 like all the world and ..


  3. It should definitely be 18. I had to write a a paper on it last year. At 18 you can join or be drafted into the military, vote, get married, you pay taxes, are considered legally an adult, can be arrested, can serve on a jury, and so on. The only things you can't do at 18 is gamble, become president, or be elected into congress. Not to mention there are only a total of 4 countries in the world that have a drinking age of 21, including the US, and all the others are lower. The countries like england, spain, canada, etc that have a lower drinking age don't have as many problems with alcohol as the US and actually have fewer alcohol related accidents a year. A lot of this is due to the fact that if it becomes a more accepted part of society, people can learn their limits in safer environments instead of trying to hide it from parents or cops and being worried about getting caught. People say that "your body isn't matured until 21" well newsflash your body keeps maturing throughout your life and there aren't many biological differences between an 18 year old and a 21 year old.

    And p.s. I got a 99 on that paper.  :P

  4. Well, I live in Canada so it's 18 in some places and 19 in others.  I think it's good at 19 because having high school students legally drinking is kind of frightening...besides, if you live close to the border to a province where the age is 18, it's fun to trek out on your 18th birthday.  Though it does suck going to university for 1st year and being underage while all the upper years are going out to bars and clubs.

    I have to say, I don't know how you Americans do it. (with the legal age being 21, I mean)

    Though I have to say, I agree with Agent 007.  Binge drinking is a huge problem in North America, Europe's got the right idea.  Introduce alcohol to kids early, so that they respect and don't abuse it (I'm not saying have 10 year old kids drinking every night or anything, but they need to get acquainted with alcohol early so that they appreciate it...when people become legal here, it's always a race to see who can get hammered the fastest on their 18th, 19th, or 21st birthday.  Which is definitely not healthy)

  5. The upper end of adolescence was legislated in NJ to be 30 in 2006.  Thus, 30 should be the legal drinking age.

  6. 18 becuase if you are allowed to vote, be tried as an adult in court, and be allowed to fight in the military for our country you should be allowed to drink.  

  7. In my country, Portugal, you can drink with 16... But with 12 all the people here can drink and go to a club, mainly if is a girl... because what they want is money, and they don't care the age!

    For example I am 15 years old, and the first time I went to a club was with 14... and I drinked with no problems!

  8. In my personal opinion the drinking age should be nonexistent. For example in Italy and France, children are taught from a very young age to respect alcohol and its effect on the body, and having a glass of red with each meal is not uncommon. However, here in Conservative-Land, parents say to their kids, "No, you can't. This is okay for me, but it's not okay for you."

    Selective Prohibition is worse than the total Prohibition of the 1920's! If you're going to make laws banning alcohol, they should apply to everyone, or no one. It isn't right to set an age...that just makes booze something mysterious and exotic to youth...which leads to college students going out and getting completely wasted the night they turn 21..and that is NOT a pretty sight.

    Edit: Thanks for backing me up Spiral! It's nice to know that SOMEBODY has a clear head here! :)

    I would also like to say that I am not legal (age 15 going on 16), so you all should completely ignore and and scoff at my inexperienced comments. lol

  9. That seems really high but I'm from Europe so their is large culture difference. I think people would go less 'crazy' if they were allowed to drink at an earlier age. Also I thought citizens were classed as adults when they were 18 in the USA so I don't see how it is fair to allow some adults alcohol whist enforcing prohibition on the rest. I believe someone should be 18 to buy alcohol and 16 to drink.

  10. 21. I do not feel that you are that mature at 18 (which is why I would also raise the draft age to 21)

  11. 25

    The idea that kids would go less crazy at 18 is a joke.  The legal age was 18 when I came along and most of the kids went just as wild as today at 21.

  12. I agree that it should be 19, that way the person is not still in high school (usually) and can join fellow collegemates to bars and clubs and not still feel like a child even though in every other aspect they are submerged into a world of adult-hood.

    I'm 20 and I drink anyway, but it always has to be at home or at a house party and the stupid fear of getting caught, when I am clearly already an adult! Maybe not a super mature and independent one, but still.

  13. keep it to 21.. since that's not stopping anyone from underage drinking anyways.

    i turned legal for 4 years straight back in the early 80s when it begun.


  14. I've always thought that 21 was a good age for legal drinking in the US. I don't believe that the majority of US teenagers could handle legal drinking at age 18.  

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