When I was 18 the legal drinking age in my home state of New Jersey was 18. It has since been charged to 21. Do you think it is right that an 18 year old can serve and die for his country yet not be served a beer in that same country?
I do not. If you can buy a pseudo-assault rifle but not a pint, something is severely fucked up.
No. In the Marines, I saw many young boys and girls that were not responsible enough to handle alcohol (or even life in many cases). My thought is since the human brain is not fully developed till around early-mid 20's we raise the service age to 21 (at least). I also support we get our heads out of our national ass and sign the world accord against child soldiers (do away with high school and college ROTC programs). Last I heard we refused, along with countries like Somalia. Not a group we probably want to be included in IMO.
It's important to teach people how to handle alcohol in a sensible way. That would typically start from about 15 years of age. So private drinking from that age makes sense. Public drinking from 18 works just fine all over the world - just not the US - which says more about the US then everybody else.
It's strange to trust people with cars and guns at age 18 - but not with alcohol.
Again - make people able to handle it in a good way is not an age thing but a behavioral thing.
My dad took my to the pub when I was fourteen and bought me a port and lemon (a popular drink for women in those days in the UK). Then he said ‘Now you know what a pub looks like inside you won’t be so curious to find out on your own’.
I’ve never been much of a drinker but I regularly went into pubs with friends from age 16 as I looked old enough, just for the social aspect. Legal age in the UK is 18 but you can drink wine, beer or cider with a meal in a restaurant at 16.
There's no real answer when it comes to age. I think if someone can be proven smart enough not to drive a car when they are hammered, that would be an improvement.
Good luck with that, considering how many people drive like idiots when sober.
I think no adult should be penalized for drinking or possessing alcohol. I do think that the issue caused by having 18 as the legal drinking age is that, an 18-year-old might be inclined to share with their younger classmates, where a 21 year old would rarely provide alcohol to a 14 or 15-year old.
My solution would be to decriminalize consumption and possession, allow 18-year-olds to be served at bars and restaurants but keep the age to buy and take alcohol at 21.
The World Health organization has determined that no amount of alcohol is good for you. There was also a time when cigarettes were freely provided to military personnel before it was determined that they were highly addictive and carcinogenic. War is not the answer. However, if you agree to die for your country, you should be able to drink, smoke and engage in unprotected sex as you wish without government dictating your manner of dying.
Way back in the 60's in Illinois, the age was 21 for drinking. The same issue existed. Couldn't vote, couldn't drink, but could die in service to our country. I drank at 16 -- had to know where to go, not excessively. My parents never hid alcohol from me -- I could drink whatever (didn't like whiskey or beer until older). I taught my son the same way -- not to excess. Hiding things from children is always a mistake -- however, teaching by experience is one thing -- but I couldn't teach by experience the topic of sex. Interesting conundrum.
Especially men, are often maturing more slowing. Before 21 a lot of men, especially under the influence make terrible mistakes and commit crimes. I think young adults deserve a better reputation and future and honest law abiding citizens deserve lowering the risk of being a crime victim and having unproductive adults. Like the plight of smokers, I don't sympathise be honest.
I would abolish the drinking age entirely. Make getting hammered in high school no big deal, diminish it as an act of rebellion. "oh, you snuck a beer? My little sister can drink beer too."
It amazes me as they’ll let you get married as young as the age of 13 in NH I believe... although you won’t be able to have any champagne with that.
I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we were the closest big city to North Dakota with 700,000. The bars are full of people because our legal age is 18... and now marijuana.
I think beer or lower alcohol content drinks for 18 would be fine, but when you're young and your brain hasn't fully developed yet, it's much easier to do stupid things, like binge drinking liquor. Been there, done that. While you can go to kegger and get hammered, pound beer after beer, I think it's less likely that you'll kill yourself that way. On the other hand, I've watched too many friends and myself included, turn up a bottle of bourbon and chug away. That's dangerous.
I also don't think it's OK at all for 18 year olds to go into active military service. Especially after being pressured by these recruiters incessantly.
Military enlistment for 18 year olds should be OK, but I think they should not be allowed in combat situations until they're older and more mature, better trained, and have a real understanding that dead is dead. It's not a game. If they need them to be deployed, I would hope they would serve as back up and support personnel rather than actually being in combat.
do you think its right that in England a man/boy can have 2 legal children and serve before he can watch porn? I think drink should have a health warning myself.
While it's ironic that in the UNITED KINGDOM, one can have sex before watching porn, it's not really that harmful. As for children, one can only get married at 16 with parental permission. Same for drinking, actually; 16 year olds are allowed to drink under the supervision of a guardian.
I put the United Kingdom in capitals because this mistake is made all too often; people, usually Americans, conflating England and the UK as a whole. It's kind of the reverse of referring to the USA as "America".
@JosephHarrison governments want us clever enough to work and vote for them but stupid enough to do nothing.
@LeighShelton Not sure how that's relevant to the discussion, but OK. Here, the education is far better and mandatory to 18, with options for practical education i.e apprenticeships.
@JosephHarrison they don't care about what we think