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Drinking Age in U.S. lowered to 18?

I'm doing a paper for government class about the drinking age in the United States (that it should be lowered to 18 instead of 21) and I could use some ideas so please post your opinions (even if you're aginst it). Thanks!

pretty much everyone drinks under 18 anyway
and thats a fact

quote:

Originally posted by mndeg pretty much everyone drinks under 18 anyway and thats a fact

true.... im all for it, hell man in our countries we start drinking at 16 or so.. haha

i think 18, ur smart enough to make the right choice for youserlf.. weather it be to drink or not to drink....

quote:

Originally posted by nchs09 true.... im all for it, hell man in our countries we start drinking at 16 or so.. haha i think 18, ur smart enough to make the right choice for youserlf.. weather it be to drink or not to drink....

That is one of my arguments.....I believe tht if eversince you are a child, you are taught how to drink responsibly, it is better that if it is completely prohibited to you and once you get the chance to get it you over-drink like an animal

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Originally posted by A_M_8 That is one of my arguments.....I believe tht if eversince you are a child, you are taught how to drink responsibly, it is better that if it is completely prohibited to you and once you get the chance to get it you over-drink like an animal

so your calling for a shift in the education system. Same fight is going on with sex education, they have always taught abstinence, not how to deal with having sex.

but yeah, I would go along those lines and review how other countries deal with drinking. Compare the drinking rates etc.

you could also mention the odd fact that people can do most things at 18 except drink, die for country, vote, etc.et....I am sure we have heard all those crys before.

its funny that 18 year olds are responsible enough to drive cars, vote, own guns, and buy porno and lottery tickets but can't drink until 21...

here's one point you must make sure to make:
At the age of 18, every american has to sign up for the selective service act, which essentially allows the government to draft them into the military.

If you can fight and die for your country at this age, why can't you have the same basic rights as everyone else? I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but the fact you are denying a simple right to an age group that may be obligated to go fight is kind of backward.

If you can go in the military and shoot guns and kill people you should be allowed to have a drink.

quote:

Originally posted by A_M_8 That is one of my arguments.....I believe tht if eversince you are a child, you are taught how to drink responsibly, it is better that if it is completely prohibited to you and once you get the chance to get it you over-drink like an animal

well i know my parents said to drink responsibly when they found out i drank, but i still drink like a ANIMAL ahha

21 is such a weird and odd year.

why is it 21 and not 20?

Well if I remember correctly, the liver doesn't stop developing until around 20-22 or so, hence a possible reason for the 21 age limit. However, if you can be ordered to fight a war and kill other humans, and possibly get wounded or killed, then why the hell shouldn't you be allowed to get drunk?

Maybe it's cos people are more mature and responsible at 21 then at 18?

I am thinking you shouldn't really focus on the arguement that we can die for our country yet we can't drink. I think the two are unrelated. kinda like saying, I can die for my country but I can't collect social security yet...

it could work as a great intro, but I think people will be moved more by stats of other countries that have a lower drinking age, like canada or some european countries. stats like drinking prevolence, death rates, accidents....things like that.

also see who funds the studies you look at, that will usually tell you how the results will come out....wild isnt it.

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Originally posted by Tranc3 Well if I remember correctly, the liver doesn't stop developing until around 20-22 or so, hence a possible reason for the 21 age limit. However, if you can be ordered to fight a war and kill other humans, and possibly get wounded or killed, then why the hell shouldn't you be allowed to get drunk?

good point, but some states had an 18 age limit. i wonder if they knew about the liver thing before or after they changer to 21

when the hell is the US gonna have Marijuana bars?

The key word is responsibility...and since so few American people have that...they'll punish the few that get caught...Like said, everyone under 21 still pretty much drinks on at least an occassional basis.

Other countries have discipline and responsibility...and the punishment for crimes/violations from drinking after a legal age is much stiffer. I.E. DUI's in some countries gets you thrown in the can and loss of license for upto forever and your vehicle is taken forever. Out here, a guy just got his 27th DUI in Montana and they slapped him on the wrist...for the 26th time.

Obviously in that case he was well over 21, but the fact is that the gov't would have a hard time lowering the legal age of drinkers, when the already legal aged drinkers are still causing tremendous problems in our country.

But alas, it is kinda wierd that you can do pretty much every thing at 18, except drink...oh or Rent a Car until 25....25? wtf

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Originally posted by tennessee_raver Maybe it's cos people are more mature and responsible at 21 then at 18?

My friend at the age of 20 was killed by a drunk driver who was 40. No matter wat age...no1 takes a drunk seriously....when ur drunk...ur drunk. *smokes a bowl*

quote:

Originally posted by PhloTron The key word is responsibility...and since so few American people have that...they'll punish the few that get caught...Like said, everyone under 21 still pretty much drinks on at least an occassional basis. Other countries have discipline and responsibility...and the punishment for crimes/violations from drinking after a legal age is much stiffer. I.E. DUI's in some countries gets you thrown in the can and loss of license for upto forever and your vehicle is taken forever. Out here, a guy just got his 27th DUI in Montana and they slapped him on the wrist...for the 26th time. Obviously in that case he was well over 21, but the fact is that the gov't would have a hard time lowering the legal age of drinkers, when the already legal aged drinkers are still causing tremendous problems in our country. But alas, it is kinda wierd that you can do pretty much every thing at 18, except drink...oh or Rent a Car until 25....25? wtf

i dont know about that, alot of countires are relaxed about this, well from my experience, latin american countires in central america.. nothing big happens if cought but also police curruption is rediculus. here in the us i think they are reatty strict with dui

quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 so your calling for a shift in the education system. Same fight is going on with sex education, they have always taught abstinence, not how to deal with having sex. but yeah, I would go along those lines and review how other countries deal with drinking. Compare the drinking rates etc. you could also mention the odd fact that people can do most things at 18 except drink, die for country, vote, etc.et....I am sure we have heard all those crys before.

they should teach like kama sutra and shit instead of abstenience...wouldn't society be better off without all the bad lays out there?

I did a paper on this, but i formated my comp and it got lost.

here some nice sources and ideas i used though.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/ar...nion/5116.shtml

http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html

http://www.essaycrawler.com/viewpaper/22710.html

http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol-inf...1053520190.html

Thats pretty much it. Just don't plagarize it of course and you should be set. Hope it helps.

quote:

Originally posted by PhloTron The key word is responsibility...and since so few American people have that...they'll punish the few that get caught...Like said, everyone under 21 still pretty much drinks on at least an occassional basis.

good point.. the whole binge drinking on college campuses is something to look at too. A lot of underage drinking goes on, and its mostly in a gaming context, i.e. drinking as much as you can (binge drinking)

rather than being responsible and drinking socialibly and not getting blitzed out of your mind just because you can.

I think most under 21 year olds in the US don't drink responsibly and thus the 21 year old law will stick. Also all the attention that newsgroups give to underage drinking (like 20/20, 60 Minutes, Dateline, Primetime etc..) doesnt help much either with their biased reports.

Then you gotta look at the cold hard facts too. I cant give you any coz i dont know any, but i'd figure there might be a lot of cases of underage drinking that has led to fatalites or something..and these are reasons as well to keep the current drinking age at 21.

I'm not sure there exists a good argument to lower the U.S. drinking age to 18. There are plenty of good arguments to lower generally speaking (it if you don't specify a new arbitrary point), and there are plenty of good arguments to abolish it altogether.

However, I'm not sure there are any non-fallacious objective arguments that could be used to suggest that 18 years is the optimal age to permit everyone to start drinking at.

So I would have to say that your thesis is fatally flawed.

quote:

Originally posted by Arbiter I'm not sure there exists a good argument to lower the U.S. drinking age to 18. There are plenty of good arguments to lower generally speaking (it if you don't specify a new arbitrary point), and there are plenty of good arguments to abolish it altogether. However, I'm not sure there are any non-fallacious objective arguments that could be used to suggest that 18 years is the optimal age to permit everyone to start drinking at. So I would have to say that your thesis is fatally flawed.

He could use elements from that massive argument we got into about age restrictions a few months ago

The only reason why they changed it to 21 is becuase the stupid 18 year olds don't know how to drive while intoxicated ahah.. Look at europe they have no problems because they start drinking earlier and by the time they get their license they know not to drive drunk rofl or either that they know how to drive the streets blindfolded. In other words they are more mature then Americans in responsibility issue. It's a fact cuz America has the worst DUI in the world. Before America was fine having it at 18 then all the people who started driving around 16- 17 and start drinking at 18 became stupid. Read it up its all there on why they changed it from 18 to 21. They will never change it down to 18 since there are more accidents now then before. When will people learn. They still do the same shit even when their car gets taken away from them. They even ride their bike and get into accidents.

I used to completely agree with dropping the age, but now that I'm almost (less than 4 mos) from 21, I say no. Simply because I had to wait just like everyone else to legally drink, and so did everyone before us. I don't want anyone getting a smaller waiting time just because of some kids who weren't patient...

FFS you'll end up drinking anyways. Besides, those golden high school/early college years are supposed to be the huge binge drinking years, and it just doesn't happen as much later on.

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