Will lowering the drinking age to 18 stop underaged drinking?

Question

Some college presidents want to lower the age to 18, whats the point except for no blame on the college you will still have underaged drinking by 16 and 17 year olds that are in college. Only have of freshman are 18 when colleges typical start in august the others are 17 and a small bit are 16

Should we really lower it or just get off our lazy a**es and enforce the rules

Why not just make legal age for everything 20 or 25 your no longer and teen and wouldnt be hanging around highschool age people which was why it was raised to 21 from the get go since 18 year olds were giving it to friends that are 1 or 2 years younger and were minors.

Answer 1

I'm with America on this one. . .I'm old enough to remember what it was like when 18 year olds could drink.  

If we lower the drinking age, we need to raise the driving age.  

Answer 2

nope,  just make them younger and have more dead 18-21 yo.

I vote to RAISE the age to 25.

Answer 3

No, it will increase underage drinking.

18 year olds that can buy it legally have younger friends than 21 year olds.

So they will share it with younger people, like the 17 and 16 year olds you mentioned.

But if an 18 to 21 year old person really wants to drink, they will find a way to do it, legal or not.

Answer 4

It would help a lot... its probably only at 21 right now because of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers...

Answer 5

I believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 may help the overwhelming problem of binge drinking in teens.

Because teens are not legally allowed to drink until age 21, they hide it from their parents. Because they hide it from their parents, they learn how to drink from their peers. Teens don't have life experience to understand how to drink responsibly. They need to learn how to drink from a mature adult.

In most of Europe, the drinking age is 16. Also, the law is not aggressively enforced so children often will have a glass of wine with dinner. The children/teens learn to drink from responsible adults. So from an early age, they learn that it is only OK to have one drink or two per night. Their parents and other responsible adults set the example. That is why Europe has such lower rates than America.

Also, the psychology behind "You Can't Drink Until Your 21" makes teens believe that they are rebelling and being "cool" because it is illegal. However, if teens were able to drink from a young age, it really is not that cool to be seen drinking a beer.

Here is my personal story. I started drinking when I was 15. I hid it from my parents because I did not want them to know I was breaking the law. Alcohol is easy to get regardless if the age is 18 or not. When we were only 15, we had numerous 21+ friends. I learned how to drink from my boozing friends. I learned that it was normal to have 8 shots of vodka in a row. I learned that it was cool to "shotgun" beer and drink to you puke. I learned it was perfectly normal to drink until you pass out.

However, if drinking were legal at age 15, I would have learned from my parents. I wouldn't have hid it from them. I could drink with them....That would mean having one beer per evening.

If you notice in our country, for many young people turning 21 is such a mile stone. To celebrate, they go to the bar and get completely trashed. However, once they are legal to drink it's really not that cool anymore.

I quit drinking at age 20 because it was ruining my life.I love being sober. Now that I can go to the store and buy liquor at any time I please, it really isn't all that tempting. "You want what you can't have" I remember being a naive 15-year-old kid and the thrill we would get when our 21-year -old friend would hand us a fifth in a brown paper bag in the parking lot. It was like "OMG we are so fricken cool!! We have alcohol" Now that I am legal to drink, it wouldn't be all that amazing to have a fifth of liquor.

It is sort of like the mentality of s*x education. Study after study has proven that abstinence only education does not work. The idea is to strongly encourage abstinence but also provide info on safe s*x because no matter what, kids are going to have s*x. No matter what, people are going to drink alcohol. It is part of our culture. However, kids should be taught to drink responsibly. They should learn to drink with their parents so when they are at a dinner party and they have 3 beers and start making a fool of themselves, responsible adults can point out how immature they are behaving. They will quickly learn how to "be cool" is to only have a couple drinks and to not become intoxicated.

Answer 6

I'm 22 now, but I remember when I was in my teenage years, it was really hard to get alcohol.  I didn't know many 21 year olds, but I knew alot of 18 year olds. The problem was I didn't know that many people who were of age. If you lowered the drinking age it would not stop it. There isn't a way to do it. You just need to make people aware of the consequences. If you just lower the drinking age, it just makes more younger people have more connections on getting alcohol.