I’m not even sure why there IS a drinking age. I’ve been drinking since my dad would give me a beer starting when I was about 8 and I’ve never been an alcoholic, drunk driver, etc. Seems like the government oversteps their jurisdiction on this one, IMHO.
Amazingly, this is one area where liberals aren’t clamoring for us to emulate the sopposedly enlightened Euros. Go figure.
Agreed.
While I certainly can’t support the reasoning behind giving an 8 year old alcohol (brain is still developing) and I even have some reservations about young people even in their late teens and early 20’s (again, brain is still developing), the arguments to lower the age are valid.
All I can say is that when I was 18, in the state of Ohio, one could buy 3.2 beer and we bought a lot of it. My high school even advertised a high school “beer bash” at the local Y. Talk about incongruency. Nevertheless, I don’t think my peers suffered from alcoholism, truancy, or any other ill effects any more than those who later could not buy any beer until age 21.
In some ways, I do think the “forbidden fruit” comes into play here. And it does seem somewhat hypocritical to tell a young man he can have his legs blown off in service of his country but can’t go have a Bud with a few of his buddies.
I’m not a drinker. I will imbibe on special occasions and I think wine is actually good for a person. It just makes me sleepy though.
Precisely. I went to college in England for a semester and saw firsthand how drinking was not a big deal in the sense of “binge” drinking amongst 18-21 year olds ( who were at the bars I went to ). I was 21/22 at the time and it was weird to see kids who were obviously younger than me but they were raging drunks ordering shot after shot after shot.
I came to the conclusion that alcohol is a part of life there and was not pushed away but rather embraced as something that people can enjoy and use reasonably and responsibly. Of course there were really drunk people but no matter what age we choose there will be. I support 18 big time since it can be introduced to the newly aged adults by their parents and they can do it at home where the parents can discuss the affects and responsibilities of drinking instead of Joe Blow at college who loves to bong beer four at a time.
just my 2 pence, mate.