Drinking age - 18 or 21?

People are old enough at age 18 to make informed descisions for themselves, if they want to drink let them, but if trouble is caused they also have to deal with them as adults.

 

Drinking is 18 where I live aswell and I'm 18 years old myself. I'm fine with it being 18+ since you could get alcohol when your underage anyway..

 

Where I live, you need to be 19.
I like that age. I dont know why.

 

Did you know that the actual age for drinking alcohol (in the UK) isn't 18?
It's a lot younger, the law is that you can not buy alcohol or drink it at a bar, not that you can't drink it.
That's why if when younger people are found drinking in the streets and what not the police just move you along and tell you to go home, they don't make arrests (they make arrests if you're being a nob, but not because you have drank alcohol), they allow younger people to drink at home under adult supervision too, the adults are to make sure they don't drink too much and get alcohol poisoning.

Yeah.. Anyway.. That's the law in the UK, you can drink under the age of 18, it's just frowned upon.

 

i think 18 is a suitable age, its your choice on if you decide to drink, and most responsiblity come at 18 anyways.

 

What happens after enough hit & runs occur because the average 18-year-old can't afford a taxi cab? You'd probably be surprised on how many more people "take that risk", especially at 18..

Are you kidding? 18 is when all the responsibility just starts to hit you in the face. Enabling a vulnerable teenager to drink his responsibilities away isn't doing any good for anyone. You can argue it all you want, but the matter of the fact is age doesn't bring out responsibility in someone.. Experience does. You should be experiencing other things at that age, not how much booze you can consume before you puke and black out.

 

18 for sure

 

I can join the Army (in the U.S) but not drink a beer?

That's kind of silly isn't it?

Fight and the possibility of dying v.s. a buzz/getting drunk

 

You're comparing apples and oranges. You're trying to say that going into the army is as dangerous to other people as getting inebriated is.

It's a little bit different when you're under the supervision of a military sgt than going to the club and flying 90 down the highway on the way home.

Give a better reason why you think the age requirement should be 18.

 

21 is good. Though I wish it were more controlled/not as easy to get but I know that is almost impossible. You are not responsible at 18, if anything you are just getting out on your own and trying to learn what responsibility is. Too much drinking just to drink happens.

 

Moving this to general.

 

This.

 

21 is fine. Just because someone is legally considered an adult at 18 doesn't mean anything. People struggle with drinking at all ages and the amount of drinking related deaths is already high enough. No need to increase it. Drinking in college is already a big enough issue and making it even easier to drink than it is already isn't a good idea. I know way too many people who have really messed shit up for themselves by getting 1 or more DUI's including my 26 year old sister who just got her second one and is going to have to serve time in jail, lose her license for several years, have 1-2 years of probation, fines, classes and a shitload of community service. They certainly don't take DUI's lightly and it doesn't take a lot of drinking to get one. I've also known 3 people who have died from drunk driving, one of which was my best friend's sister who was killed by a drunk driver her senior year of high school. Of course most people who can't legally drink yet are going to think the age should be lowered, but you will most likely come to realize that 18 is just too young.

 

I support a uniform age for everything even driving. 18 should be THE age no if and's or buts.

I'm 16 and have a nice car and I still think people my age shouldn't be driving.

 

I'm a 20 year old living in the US and I believe that the drinking age should be 21... unless you serve in the military, then it should be 18 for those who serve. That's the exception I'd want because even though those who are underage can still acquire booze quite easily, it's still more of a hassle then actually being able to go get booze yourself. So even though it's not much of a deterrent, it's still serves a minor purpose. And 18 year olds with free access to booze and a driver's license just spells trouble on the roads.

 

Drinking is better when you are 21. By then you are more mature and will tend to do less stupid things.

 

Drinking age is 16 here but on the other hand, driving is 18. So once you start working on your driving license you will already know the effects from drinking. In the US you can already drive with 16 but you aren't legally allowed to drink, so once you are allowed to drink you won't really know how it feels like to be drunk or anything similiar.

The drinking age is actually 16 for <10% alcoholic drinks so the best you can get is like a beer or some sort of weird mixed stuff. Once you are 18 you can buy all alcoholic drinks. I think it is fine how it is here in The Netherlands but yeah, you can't really compare it with the US/Australia.

Getting your driving license is much harder when you compare it to other country's. There are 17 million people living in a very small country. Loads of roads, cycling people, weird rules, etc. on the other hand in the US/Australia you just have extremely long roads where close to nothing can happen. Anyways, this is more about the drinking age.

I would say 18.

 

If you push it to 21, the majority will still drink at an earlier age by having other people buy beer for them anyway. Or drinking at friends or whatever..

And yes getting your drivers license in the Netherlands is fucked up..
Oh well at least I have it now <3

 

I think the whole thing is stupid, no matter how far you push the age back, there will still be stupid people who are all fucked up at parties causing shit or puking everywhere because they can't handle their alcohol yet. I live in Canada, but in Ontario where its 19 not 18 and I see more 21-25 year olds completely loaded than 19 year olds.

I don't see any benefit to pushing it back because all you are doing is pushing back the age where the ruckus occurs.

 

I live in belgium, were the drinking limit is 16 y/o (beer) and 18 for vodka, tequila etc ( which no pub really follow, being 16 years old is enough) . Being 16 myself I enjoy going out and getting waisted with mates. Most of my mates are more than mature enough to be able to get back home

I know a lot of people 20+ that act a lot less mature when they go out then for example 16 year olds. I guess a lot of it depends where you were raised also.

Also, we're not able to drive cars before we're 18. So 90% of the 16,17 year olds drive a moped. (I do also, and am smart enough to take the bike or taxi when I go out with friends)