there are two choices:
1) Raise the age of consent, conscription, and voting, to 21
2) Lower the drinking age back to 18.
I’m fine with either one, but it should be consistent.
The worldwide minimum drinking age chart is telling:
http://www.icap.org/policyissues/youngpeoplesdrinking/agelawstable/tabid/219/default.aspx
Here’s and easy fix. If your 18 and carry an Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard ID card, (that you have earned by completing the required training) your legal. Otherwise, wait till your 21.
yes this is a law in the US i will never understand.
i mean you are old enought to get shot in iraq but you are not old enought to order a beer?
I am really torn on this subject. I know that I hate being in places when a group of 21 year olds come in and start getting wrecked. What would it be like with a bar full of 18 year olds?
I think however, that if you are in the military, you can drink. Luckily, I was stationed in TX and it was still 18 while most states had gone to 21.
I also think that these college presidents are being very disengenious. They want the kids to be able to leave campus and go get drunk and die OFF campus and not in a dorm.
Why not make the drinking age 14 and really introduce safe drinking at an earlier age?
If 18 is an adult, then let the adult drink. If 18 is not an adult, then you can’t let them vote or throw them in adult prison.
When I was growing up the age was 18, I don’t think it is a big deal. You are considered an adult in every other way. I was watching on the news the other day where there are college presidents that want to look into changing the age back to 18. It was government blackmail that made states go to 21, apparently if you did not change the age it effected the states money for highways. Thats blackmail!
...we got enough troubles with adult drinking as it is...why add the 18 year olds to the mix?....if they want to drink on base, then let the military make the regulations.
Unless 18-year-old drinker wannabees go through a similarly rigorous training regimen re alcohol, its effects, and how to behave re drinking, they should have no more right to drink than an untrained civilian kid does to go into combat.
And if memory serves you can be fighting for your country at 17. I don't see anyone advocating drinking for them.
This reminds me of that stupid John Sally comment where he said it’s wrong that you couldn’t enter the NBA at 18 but you could serve in the military. The rule is meant to protect college basketball just as the 21 rule is meant to protect teenagers and communities.
just a question to americans. is it really that hard to get alcohol if you are under 21? i have made the experience (here in europe) that most kids if they are 14 or 15 do have no problems to buy alcohol. just go to the supermarket and buy it. if they really deny you (which happens only rare) well walk a view hundret meters to the next one. they will sell you.
How is the world did these two concepts get tied together? How about, if a kid’s old enough to cut the grass he should be allowed to sleep in front of the tv? Or, if you pay taxes you should be allowed to vote?
We repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Its makes no more sense, but yet here we are.
Drinking is not good for you, folks. Its not a treat that should be doled out for deserving recipients. The less drinking we have the better.
And, every alcoholic I know started drinking in high school.
This is one of my pet gripes, if you are old enough to serve in the military you should be old enough to drink!! We need to either lower the drinking age for everyone or I do think some on this thread have a great idea to allow drinking at 18 with military ID. I would go for that, great solution.
My son-in-law is in the military, is 19 and is deploying soon. It gripes me that he cannot legally have a beer with his pizza or a drink with dinner when we go out. Until recently he could drink on post, but the drinking age on post was raised because of community complaints or whatever.
1) There are 18 y.o. in High School still. Do we really want them to be taking off at lunch, bypassing McDonalds and stopping at 7-11 for a quick six pack on the drive back. Plus the likelihood of underage kids now more likely to get someone to buy for them. I foresee a rise in alcohol related deaths.
2) Back when I was in college, I knew many 22 or 23 y.o.'s who were binge drinking. Age does not stop binge drinking.
3) While I understand the old argument that an 18 y.o. can carry a machine gun but cannot frink a beer with his buddies, the 18 y.o. in the service tends to be much more mature and disciplined than if he were off at school. IOW, I think the college kid is more likely to abuse the drinking than the soldier. And IIRC, an 18 y.o. soldier can drink with his buddies, but the content is much lower (near-beer). and finally...
4) If the college Presidents see drunken students as a major concern, why open the floodgates? Where is the logic that says they'll stop? IOW: Why throw kerosene on a fire?
no, it's not perfect, but introducing 3 more ages to drinking could cause a lot of problems.
Hard to get around that reasoning: old enough to die for your country, old enough to take a drink.
Not this crap again.
We used the same argument when I was 18, got the right to drink then blew it with stupid behavior.