Lowering the drinking age?

I had lived in several countries before I landed in the US, and every single one of them had set the legal drinking age at 18 years of age.  Excessive drinking will always be a problem with teenage kids and young adults, but through education many of those issues can be avoided. 

Back in my home country at the age of 18 we face mandatory military service to protect our country, therefore the legal drinking age is 18.  I never saw young people abuse this right, after all, those who want to abuse alcohol will find a way to get around the age limit, which I think, makes it worse.  Think about it: a 20 year old making a fake ID just to get alcohol!  Not only they are breaking the rules for the legal drinking age, now they are also falsifying documents! 

A good friend of mine in high school was a German exchange student, where the drinking age was/is? 16. He got the biggest kick out of watching us scheme our way to a 6-pack and was amazed at how immature we were when it came to drinking. 

I do tend to think that a lower drinking age would be fine, but I think the problems extends beyond naming an age. In Germany (and most of Europe), alcohol is another drink. In the US, it's a mysterious, corrupting, vile influence on our populace. But only until you're 21. Then it's ok. 

We would have to rewire our nation's understanding of the drink- 

jonathan.bennett@jacksonville.com 904.359.4538

I spent several years travelling the world courtesy of Uncle Sam, and my experiences match yours. 

When I lived in Germany I had a "beer-man" deliver beer to my front door much like the milk-man did here when I was a kid. Road work crews frequently kept cases of beer out in the open on job sites, and workers drank beer much as we might drink colas. I saw 14-year-olds sit in beer halls socializing but not drinking. There was no taboo against drinking, thus no cache attached to it either.

But its worth noting that as much as I enjoyed tooling along at 200 kph on the autobahn, I wouldn't want to drive on an American Interstate highway at similar speeds. Too few drivers here lack have the skills to handle that kind of speed and too many suffer from road rage. 

I think it is possible that as a country we may not be suited to the faster roads and looser rules common in Europe.

But I am skeptical of abstinence as education. I think kids need to be prepared for the world they are going to live in.  

You cannot compare the life of a teenager in Europe to a teenager here in
America.

The amount of people on the autobahn does not even compare to the amount of people that drive the roads in America. Maybe that back-road in Dump-f--k, Idaho, but have you been on the Long Island Expressway in New York?? I didn't think so!!! It takes more than just putting the car in drive and hitting the gas!

According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), the Long Island Expressway handles approximately 210,000 vehicles per day (AADT) through the borough of Queens, approximately 190,000 vehicles per day through Nassau County, approximately 150,000 vehicles per day through western Suffolk County, approximately 100,000 vehicles per day through central Suffolk County, and approximately 30,000 vehicles per day near its eastern terminus.

What are the autobahn satistics? So, no, we are not "as a country" suited to the same roads and looser rules common in Europe.
There are just more of us, and we, unfortunately, as a whole a society that relies on that car in the driveway. We don't offerespecially in this area, anything in the way of public transporation as they do in Europe.

Yes, teach kids to be prepared in the world they are going to live in; respect, and control. I think those are the first requirements. Respect other people. and control your environment; don't let peer pressure take over.

Food for thought ...

     Over the last 4 years we have lost 4000+ troops to terrorist acts. Each year in the U.S. we lose 17,000 -20,000 lives due to DUI related incidents. So, if you do the math ... we are pushing 80,000 deaths over the same period of time.

     Which war are we losing?

The public outcry over teen alcohol abuse has been raging for years. NOW someone honestly wants to lower the drinking age to 18 again? WOW! Yeah! THAT'S the way to address the problem of teen drinking...just make it LEGAL!

Comparing our culture to those in Europe where the attitude about alcohol has been much different for centuries is not a valid comparison in my book. There are MANY differences in foreign countries, for instance: Driving drunk in Sweden..UNHEARD OF! It is just not tolerated and the people just do not do it!

Littering? In England, Kenya and Spain...again...just not tolerated and the people don't do it.

Whereas OUR colleges allow frats and sororities to have huge drunken parties all the time where binge drinking kills several college students yearly. Yeah...THAT'S taking responsibility and drinking responsibly....NOT!

It's time to STOP caving in to the "Wild in the Streets" crowd, (remember that movie?), and set limits and see that our teens adhere to them. Accomplish that compliance anyway that works for you, the PARENT: Talk, establish a good report', threaten, punish...whatever works.

I drank as a teen. I drank as an adult. One day I looked in the mirror after a particuarly hard night of drinking, I looked like sh*T! I felt like sh*t....I said to myself outloud, "I'm not going to f**king die like this." I quit that moment in my life and have never been "drunk" again. I discovered something that I wish I had discovered when I was a teen: You don't have to DRINK to have FUN! If you believe that you MUST drink to "have fun", then you just don't know how to have fun!

Lowering the legal drinking age shouldn't imply that everyone under the age of 21 will get wasted just because we made it legal. I believe in education. Parents should educate their children rather than hide alcohol related issues from those children.

Opening the door to alcohol to an 18 year old could be dangerous, but it is not more dangerous than granting that youth the right to buy a gun.

Having a social drink occasionally won't kill anyone, and won't make the roads any more dangerous than they are right now. The speed limits work to a certain degree, but we will always have a few bad apples speeding and endangering the rest of us on the road. Same thing with alcohol. We can set limits, but we'll always have a few bad apples that will abuse alcohol and will choose to endanger everyone else.

The first drink is always your choice, and regardless of how old you are, you should know the consequences of abusing alcohol. Make your kids responsible rather than ignorant. Alcohol can kill, but ignorance is the trigger.

Just like most kids aren't developed enough and haven't the experience nor skills to drive a motor vehicle at 14, 15 or 16 years old, at 18 years there is no "magic" that instantly bestows that experience and wisdom upon them either. (Gosh! Yesterday I was a naive 17 year old kid!, but TODAY I turn 18! NOW I have everything I need to act all GROWN UP!...Yeah...Right!)

While "Animal House" was an exaggeration for comedy's sake, (and fiction), I've been to and around several colleges in my lifetime. And YES, when the students drink, they "binge drink". Many college kids, (supposedly the smarter of our kids), DIE from alcohol poisoning due to heavy drinking at "parties". Males and females alike indulge in this activity. Is it the "majority"? Probably not, but it is in significant numbers that the argument of the "few abusers" doesn't apply either.

So, let's review: At 18 years old we allow them to have guns, get drunk, drive cars, go to war if they volunteer, make babies, (legally), with others 18 and over. If "parenting" was so GOOD in this country, we wouldn't have all the "problems" with teens and older teens. It's nice to say, but the reality is we do not have enough good parents in this country to allow ALL older teens to drink. The ones that will drink REGARDLESS will do so if it's legal or not, so let em take their chances.

Were definitely not suited to take after Europes way of life of younger drinking, if anything i think most countries if not all in Europe have a younger drinking age then the US and are fine with it. I dont think we need to lower it in this country but make DUI/DWI have stricter penalties not jail but community service making people wear signs say I drove drunk in public etc embarrass the person take their license away etc. And for repeat offenders have them attend a MADD meeting and get grilled by every mother who's lost a child to drunk drivers, then send them off to drug treatment and make them live with real addicts

In my opinion, lowering the drinking age will only fill up the rows of those teenagers that end up in an alcohol rehabilitation center. If now they’re drinking like crazy everywhere in campuses, while they know not all of them are 21 yet, imagine how it would be if government legalized alcohol for them. I don’t see this as a solution.