Legal Drinking age in ontario is 19 & I don't see much more problems here than in america. sadly, I also notice that most 19 year olds around here have roughly the same maturity level as most american 21 year olds. The way I look at it, the sooner you are given certain responsibilities, the sooner you become responsible. in theory, lowering legal drinking age would make people more responsible at a younger age.

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Originally posted by Omegasox As Boomer said, using a correlation between drinking and going into the military just doesn't work. It's look as though you're just reaching for reasons why it should be lowered, and not looking at it objectively.

Well, its like this. The government would rather send a 18 year old to war to probably die than to let him get a drink.

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Originally posted by albertoR Well, its like this. The government would rather send a 18 year old to war to probably die than to let him get a drink.

So Marijuana should be legal because the government would rather send you off to die than let you smoke? You can't compare the two no matter how you mince words.

Speaking from personal experience, I would say that lowering the drinking age to 18 would significantly cut down on the (already low) number of times that my friends and I would drive under the influence (we never do it completely drunk).

Last semester, when I was still living in the United States, my friends and I drank mostly at parties, sometimes in our dorms. The main thing about parties is that you usually have to drive to them. They're out of the way, whereas the bars that we can't get into are within close walking distance.

This semester I am living in the UK, however, and I never drive drunk. Granted, I don't have a car to drive here, but if I did I still wouldn't drive drunk because I can just walk to and from the pubs. Additionally, even if I couldn't walk home (wow), the UK has decent public transportation that could get me near to home.

Additionally, and I'm speaking merely for myself here, but now that I can legally drink, it's not as important as it was back in the US. Personally, I don't drink that heavily anyways. However, I know that a lot of my friends in the US drink a lot when they go to parties because they don't really know when the next time will be that they can drink. Here in the UK, however, that's not a problem. The biggest problem with having the drinking age so high is that the illegality of it makes people want to do it even moreso. In any event, I also think that it's ridiculous that you can't drink until something like 1/4-1/3 of your life is already over. What a waste!

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The legal drinking age where I live is 18. Crazy albertans.

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Originally posted by Omegasox So Marijuana should be legal because the government would rather send you off to die than let you smoke? You can't compare the two no matter how you mince words.

yeah marijuana should be legal too

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Originally posted by Omegasox So Marijuana should be legal because the government would rather send you off to die than let you smoke? You can't compare the two no matter how you mince words.

yeah, I guess there should be no speed limits either, and stealing should be legal too, I mean, if you can die for your country, you might as well be able to steal and speed.



apples and oranges. drinking and war are two different animals.

drinking age USA : 21

drinking age Germany : 16
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driving age USA : 16

driving age Germany : 18
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deaths per 100,000 due to car accident in USA : .84

deaths per 100,000 due to car accident in Germany : .74
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result : germany has lesser drinking age by 5 years, only 2 year difference in driving age, no speed limit on the autobahns, and STILL they have a lower fatality rate on the road. clearly, the gov't had no understanding of drinking, and driving.

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Originally posted by DJ Lac 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.

well, in europe, a great majority of people dont drive. they walk or use the very dependable public transportaion. so you can get drunk there and most of the time, not have to worry about driving.

but in america, eveerything is miles away, the food store is like a 10 minutes drive from your house, and then, school is like 15 minutes away. that is why USA has school buses, because kids cant get to school from parents niether can they themselves go using bike, walking or public transportation.

also, public transportation in america is shitty. you have to wait 30 minutes for the damn bus. in tampa, there is no train or subway, and i rarely ever see a bus. cabs are like .75cents every 1/4 miles. i know because i had to take one home last week from school.

what shopuld be done is raising the driving age to 18, making getting the license a tad bit harder, because in germany, it costs 1500 Euros and 15 hours of driving school to get a license. you also cant have a criminal record and have to have graduated from high school. then lower the drinking age to 16. haha, germany is a fine model. do what they do.



P.S. Brazil has NO drinking age at all. do u hear them complaining of problems over there NO!

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Originally posted by Heinz well, in europe, a great majority of people dont drive. they walk or use the very dependable public transportaion. so you can get drunk there and most of the time, not have to worry about driving. but in america, eveerything is miles away, the food store is like a 10 minutes drive from your house, and then, school is like 15 minutes away. that is why USA has school buses, because kids cant get to school from parents niether can they themselves go using bike, walking or public transportation. also, public transportation in america is shitty. you have to wait 30 minutes for the damn bus. in tampa, there is no train or subway, and i rarely ever see a bus. cabs are like .75cents every 1/4 miles. i know because i had to take one home last week from school. what shopuld be done is raising the driving age to 18, making getting the license a tad bit harder, because in germany, it costs 1500 Euros and 15 hours of driving school to get a license. you also cant have a criminal record and have to have graduated from high school. then lower the drinking age to 16. haha, germany is a fine model. do what they do. P.S. Brazil has NO drinking age at all. do u hear them complaining of problems over there NO!

hell yeah, you can tell our politicians have had a lotta support and funding from auto companies. They would lose so much money if they invested in better public transportation.

no votes from the UAW would kill a candidate.

I'd be happy w/ the 21 drinking age if they raised the draft age to 21. You might not be mature enough to drink at 18, but you should have the right if your country can send you off to die.

I remember being in Germany though and the kids there go out and get drunk but they know when to stop once they're drunk which is the opposite of parties I go to in America where people drink themselves out of their minds. Not to say no Germans abuse alcohol but I saw much less abuse compared to the US.

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Originally posted by A_M_8 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!

what the hell, you got me all excited.. haaaaha

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