A New Reason to Reduce the Drinking Age to 18

[kakitaseigi]

This topic randomly approached my mind today, and I thought of yet another reason why America would be better off with a drinking age of 18

Comments

[paintrain56]

I approve of that logic, especially the if you can die at 18 for your country, why not be able to drink.

[kakitaseigi]

Yeah, I think that's the biggest argument I hear, the whole age of military draft comparison.

[origamidude03]

Actually, it's legal for you to drink at home at 18. My sister even went into the liquor store with my mom before her 21st birthday and it was okay because it was her parent. I think what should happen with this is that there should be a culture change so that parents educate there children about drinking in more ways than just "don't".

I'm not saying that the drinking age shouldn't be lowered, just that it's already legal to drink at home at 18.

[kakitaseigi]

I didn't know that. I remember there being people in high school who spoke of drinking wine with their parents at 18, but I didn't know it was legal. I just thought their parents allowed them to, and it was private so they didn't get in legal trouble.

That's kinda what I'm getting at. If the child's dealing with all of the effects of drinking, going out and coming home and having to get up and be productive the next day, things like that, while still at home, the parents can help. This relies on parents to be in touch with their children, and that's another great American failure entirely, but this would at least help.

[fireriven]

That's state-dependent. Alabama prohibits consumption of alcohol by people under 21 without exception. So does D.C. Here's a very informative page with an excellent map illustrating my assertion.

[clarus]

It certainly would curb a lot of problems, but a large part of the issue is the fetishization of indulgent behaviors, and the absolute lack of knowledge and honesty on the issues. People don't talk about sex and drinking and drugs because they think if their kid knows about it, their kid will go do it. It's a fearful, Puritan kind of culture.

[kakitaseigi]

Well, that's what I'm getting at, that maybe if young adults were reaching legality while in the household, knowledge and honesty would happen. Some families DO talk educatedly to their kids about sex before sending them off into the world. However, they might not talk about alcohol quite as much because they know that's a few years off.

It is a fearful, Puritan kind of culture, though. That I certainly agree on. We're a new country, relatively, and the nation was born out of Puritans. We've still got another 400, maybe 600 years to go, when you consider when many nations in the world had their "Enlightenment."

[clarus]

I think you're very optimistic about honesty between parents and kids on issues like these. :)

[kakitaseigi]

Oh yeah, definitely, but it's not because I'm out of touch with reality. It's because I sit around musing about how much better things could be if parents did a better job. :P

[spooks21]

I think your theory is way to optimistic to hope parents would guide their children, or that they could guide their children at that age. It's a shame, but saying parents would "be there" for an 18 year old would probably not be the norm. Now I'm not saying that we should expect the worst, but we did lower the age to 18 before and that didn't work out for various reasons. Granted, it wasn't long enough to adjust, but I can't see it getting the time to adjust now either. Meh.

[kakitaseigi]

Yeah, I view it as somewhat optimistic myself. I'm certainly not in charge of anything, so everything I say is musing anyway, and this time it's idealistic. We're never going to quit being uptight about alcohol.

I didn't know we'd lowered it to 18 before! Interesting. I'll have to look that up. Thanks for the info.

[spooks21]

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13246.html Got that after googling "drinking age 18 america." A little biased, but it works.

Nothing wrong with idealistic musings. :D

[kakitaseigi]

Good link. I bookmarked it, even though I'm not sure when I'll muse on this topic again.

Interesting that we lowered it from 70 to 75.

[fireriven]

I agree that the drinking age should be lowered. I also think that the driving age should be higher - 1. 15/16-year-olds are just not mature enough to handle the responsibility of driving. There should be either more restrictions or a higher age requirement. 2. If you learn to drink before you learn to drive, you might know your limits better and be less likely to get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence.

[kakitaseigi]

I completely agree on both points. I don't really have a lot to add, other than to say I agree. You stated it pretty well. 15/16 yr olds are pretty much insane.