[meowgal]

I just saw this in todays Wall Street Journal....


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1219...googlenews_wsj

I don't know how to cut and paste this...... it's not working....

[Sternchen]

Hmmm, interesting. Not really sure how I feel about this yet!

[GirlFriday]

I don't know how I feel about it either. I could see things getting better after awhile, but they'll get worse before they get better.

It might be a good thing in the long run though. Not sure.

[Veelyn]

Whether they lower the drinking age or not, underage teenagers are still going to do it, just like they do it now.

[jburgh]

I'm old enough to remember the lower drinking age. For me, it was not a big deal at age 18 to grab a beer with a pizza, or a glass of wine with dinner.

IMO - binge drinking is not going to be solved by lowering the drinking age. I feel that this behavior is due to long standing taboos on alcohol (do what I say, not what you see me do), advertising (being drunk on beer is fun, fun, fun) targeting young men, coupled with immaturity.

Until we as a society have a healthy attitude toward alcohol, young people will continue to feel like they are doing something "forbidden" and exciting, and overindulge.

[bag-mania]

I don't think changing the law would make one bit of difference. I think most kids that drink do it because they want to feel drunk, not because it's considered "forbidden fruit".

[MissTiss]

Originally Posted by jburgh

I'm old enough to remember the lower drinking age. For me, it was not a big deal at age 18 to grab a beer with a pizza, or a glass of wine with dinner.

IMO - binge drinking is not going to be solved by lowering the drinking age. I feel that this behavior is due to long standing taboos on alcohol (do what I say, not what you see me do), advertising (being drunk on beer is fun, fun, fun) targeting young men, coupled with immaturity.

Until we as a society have a healthy attitude toward alcohol, young people will continue to feel like they are doing something "forbidden" and exciting, and overindulge.

I sort of agree with this and will go one further. In Europe it's not unheard of for a child to have a little wine at dinner. Perhaps they are doing something right...(Not that I necessarily thing kids should drink either...). I don't know.

If I remember correctly European countries don't have as many underage/drinking related deaths as we do either.

It's a double edged sword and a difficult situation to remedy.

[annanas]

Originally Posted by MissTiss

I sort of agree with this and will go one further. In Europe it's not unheard of for a child to have a little wine at dinner. Perhaps they are doing something right...(Not that I necessarily thing kids should drink either...). I don't know.

If I remember correctly European countries don't have as many underage/drinking related deaths as we do either.

it really varies from country to country, europe isn't one homogenous place. in the uk drinking is fairly out of control, and not just with young people, there are huge campaigns trying to convince people to cut down. but the driving age is higher than in the US almost everywhere in europe, and it's much less common for young people to drive in most places so that probably accounts for a fairly large proportion of the drinking related deaths. none of my friends had a car when i was in high school, for example, so it wouldn't even have occurred to us to go driving.

i had my first full glass (proper glass, not those buckets they call glasses these days) of wine/champagne when i was around 13 but i was only allowed the one for a long time. i was around 15-16 when i started to drink a few more glasses. even if i have on occassion overindulged, i've never put myself in a dangerous situation, if i'm not at home or at a friend's house i stay in control and never to let my drink out of sight. when i was underage i was actually more careful, i think because i felt that my parents trusted me to be, whilst just after i turned 18 i felt that i was entitled to make my own decisions and didn't have to prove that i was responsible, but i think i might be an exception.

[kristie]

I definitely do not think they should change it to 18.......leave it at 21, it is not going to change anything for the better by changing it IMO

[ColdSteel]

I'm not sure that a lower drinking age will solve anything. It's really a societal thing. The way to drink in the US is binge, binge, binge! I go to school in Marin County which has the highest underage drinking percentage in the US. It's something that's very accepted. Parents will supply the alcohol just because they don't want them to "get it from somewhere else". I've never been into the high school party scene. I have been very drunk once in my life and that was when I was visiting my boyfriend at college. I did too many shots much too fast and spent the next day paying for it. I didn't get sick but I had an absolute KILLER hangover. Needless to say I REALLY learned my lesson. Walking around Neiman Marcus with your mom with a pounding, dizzying headache isn't fun.

[bagnshoofetish]

Originally Posted by MissTiss

If I remember correctly European countries don't have as many underage/drinking related deaths as we do either.

I believe that has more to do with the highway situation and the popular culture of fast cars here in the US. More teens in the US own or have access to cars than teens overseas. The alcoholism/teen drinking rate is just as bad in Europe as it is anywhere. When we are in London/Paris for example, people walk home from pubs/clubs or take public transpo home more than they drive unlike here in the States. In that particular situation, I feel that has alot to do with the teen driving/death ratio.

[bagnshoofetish]

Regarding the OT, I think lowering the drinking age will only save the government money when it comes to prosecuting underage drinking. It will do nothing to reduce underage drinking at all. I started drinking when I was 13 years old. Laws do nothing to prevent teens from obtaining alcohol, especially when their parents drink as well. If the law does end up saving the government money, my wish would be that they redirect that money towards educating teens about addiction as well as fund recovery programs for teens.

[PrinceAbdullah]

When I went to Jordan there was no drinking age.. Anyone could walk in the Amstel store and buy a beer.. LOL

[bisousx]

It wouldn't make a big difference. I had no issues getting alcohol or getting into clubs when I was underage. I believe if people didn't make it so forbidden to get drunk, kids wouldn't be nearly as interested. My parents let me sip off their drinks all the time when I was growing up, and I don't really have an interest in getting hammered drunk except on select occasions (birthdays or whenever I'm in a party mood). One thing I would like to see though, is making an exception to the 21 year old rule for military personnel. How effed up is it that a 19 year old can die serving his/her country and be denied a beer?

[amanda]

I have kind of a different perspective on this issue, because I live in a college town and recently graduated from a school that's known widely for it's party culture and drinking (we're ranked one of the top 10 party schools in America in a variety of different polls, every year).

And I have to say that I agree with the idea of lowering the drinking age. The way it stands now, college students are almost split in two - you may be able to drink, but your friends might be unable to get into a bar with you, or vice versa. This creates a necessity to binge drink - the underagers have to take any opportunity they have to get blindingly drunk because they don't know if they'll be able to sneak into a bar with their friends later, and they know they can't buy their own booze at a store, so if it's there, they usually drink whether they want to or not. I know I did. It was such a thrill to actually be able to have a few drinks. Now that I can drink legally, I drink less overall and I hardly ever binge. There's not a mysterious, clandestine aura about it for me, which lets me make better and more reasonable decisions.

The drinking age also forces you into some dangerous situations in the pursuit of having a good time with your friends. Instead of going out to a bar, which most people do here (we have dozens - we're a bar scene, not a house party scene), you go to house parties, usually thrown by people that you barely know, and usually far from campus (whereas the bars are right next to campus). Bars here are fairly safe, police are vigilant about keeping the downtown bar district orderly, and taxis and car services are plentiful if you have too much to drive. We admit we're a party town and we embrace it, and that allows us to keep everyone a little safer. There's no form of authority at house parties, however. You usually have no idea what you're drinking, how strong it is, where it came from, or who made it. And then you have to get yourself home, because you can't just walk outside and hail a $6 cab like you can at a bar.

Being able to drink legally also lets you have greater choice of WHICH bars you frequent - when I was underage, I went to whatever bar I could get into, whether or not I felt it was sketchy, unsafe, or frequented by unsavory people. It's what I could do, so I did it. Now that I drink legally, I don't go to ANY of the bars that used to let me drink underage - I go to nicer places with a higher quality of patron, which leads to a safer experience overall.

Part of the dangerous drinking culture we have in this country is because of the pedestal that we out drinking on - it's mythologized and fetishized in an unhealthy way, mostly because of how much we restrict it. I would think that Prohibition would make it obvious to everyone that making alcohol illegal doesn't make people drink less, it just makes people go to great, sometimes dangerous, lengths to do so. Why have we not learned from the past? And why don't we realize that the same phenomenon goes for people ages 18-20?