Debateful

Do you think it's fair that the drinking age was set to age 21? Due to MADD's(Mother's Against Drunk Driving) persuasion and help, the minimum age for drinking is 21 years old. Candy Lightner was a mother who lost her daughter at the age of 13 years old; her daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver. For that reason, she decided to form MADD and it started to become huge. They decided that it was much more simple to have a national law passed than to have each of the 50 states approve. If the states did not change their minimum drinking age to 21, the federal government would withhold 10 percent of all federal highway aid from states if they failed to do so. The legal drinking age had been changed to 21 by the end of of 1988.

Why is it that 18 years old are allowed to fight in war, buy cigarettes, guaranteed franchise, get married and have consensual sex, have children, adopt children, and so much more? If they can do that, why shouldn't they be able to drink? It has been proven with statistics that due to the change of the minimum age for drinking, less people are being killed via drunk driving. Is this really beneficial to society if it means taking away a partial amount of our freedom? Would you consider this being part of our freedom?

Do you think it's fair that every single state in the United States had to change their drinking age to 21? Do you also think it's fair that the government could withhold 10 percent of all federal highway aid from states if they didn't concur to the minimum drinking age of 21?

I think that restricting anything to the age of 21, such as drinking and ownership of handguns, is ridiculous. As a 20 year old Airman in the USAF, the government trusts me to know how to operate and maintain a multi-million dollar piece of surveillance equipment, keep and hold top secret military information, qualify on the M16 rifle and M9 pistol, but I'm apparently not responsible enough to relax after a 10 hour flight with a bottle of beer, or to protect myself off duty with my own personal firearm.
The only DUI I've ever experienced was when a middle-aged man rear ended me while he was drunk. Maybe we should raise the age to 50?
And the whole highway thing, that's just wrong. Its like a form of blackmail by the national government against the states, and is totally wrong.

"Researchers found that teenage deaths in fatal car crashes dropped considerably - in some cases up to 28% - when the laws were moved back to 21."
Source: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://madd.org/stats/4846">http://madd.org/stats/4846</a><!-- m -->

Obviously, the deaths of people due to drunk driving decreased when the law said that the minimum age for drinking alcohol is 21. Would you want reckless teenagers drinking and then driving causing the deaths of innocent people? I concur with other people that 18 year old are considered adults by the amount of privileges they have, however, if they do gain the privilege of drinking, how much deaths will occur due to it?

Aha! Excellent topic to discuss, NO, the drinking age should not be 21, nor should it be 18, or any state-set age limit. Know why? Because "underage" drinkers frankly don't care about the law. They drink because their parents put so much faith in the law, thinking that they couldn't possibly get beer because they aren't 21. So what happens? When the parents are out, they binge drink and consume as much beer as they can because for one, they don't know the full power alcohol has on the body, and two because that's the only time they will be able to drink and experience the effects of alcohol, even if they are being abused. So the consequence of the age restriction is an over-reailance on the state to make sure our kids don't drink, when they can easily drink and abuse alcohol through ignorance and childish stupidity. Just as in the Prohibition, alcohol abuse is rampant when alcohol becomes scarce and man is in the dark about its impact on the body.

If kids were allowed to drink, then wouldn't more kids do so knowing that they're not doing anything illegal? Sure, if it's against the law and their parents don't want them to do it, they could simply show rebellion by drinking beer. However, if there was no limit set on beer, you would probably see kids at a very young age walking around drunk. I'm almost positive that people would strongly disagree on that which is simply one of the main reasons why there's currently an age limit to drinking.

There's two reasons why teenagers smoke pot. The first reason is for a small percentage, and that's because they genuinely enjoy the taste and the high and all of that. The second reason is because they are breaking the law and it's a rush. "I'm going against what the law says and doing something wrong." Oh boy! So, if marijuana were legalized, loads less people would smoke it. The same goes for alcohol. The fact that people CAN'T have it means they want it more. Here's an example: Guy really likes a girl, but she won't give him the time of day. The guy then starts dating another girl. The first girl suddenly wants him. Why? Because we, as humans, want what is unattainable.

I don't think the drinking age should be twenty one. I think it should be eighteen. If proper education about alcohol is given to people and they are allowed to learn about it, they will be fine. I have been drinking since I was fifteen. I have only ever ONCE gotten in a car with an inebriated person and never before. We were not in an accident and we were fine. If people are TAUGHT about the effects of alcohol and they understand what it means to be drunk at a lower age, they will be able to appreciate its effects. I don't have time, but could someone find the statistics of car crashes in Britain where, if my memory serves me correct, there is no drinking age?

And one final word for thought...Imagine if we did lower the drinking age to eighteen. Can you imagine how much MORE money in tax revenue the country could make if those three extra years of people were allowed to drink? We'd be getting closer and closer to getting out of our deficit. Same as if we legalized marijuana. And, if you don't like the government, consider it like this...Imagine the economical boom if more people were allowed to drink. Little Mom and Pop corner stores would sell more alcohol and thus, make more money. It'd help the economy. So, in reality, what we need most is proper education. With that comes more responsibility. But no matter what, people will be idiots.

I think that it would be fine to lower the drinking age to 16 or even 15... If people as a whole here in the states frowned on being drunk. If it was part of our society that yes, younger people could drink, but they were looked down on getting drunk then there wouldn't be a problem. And that change can't and wont happen very quickly.

Now, statistics show that the number of drunk driving incidents for young people have improved since 21 became the drinking age. I think that is good. If less people are getting killed then let's stick with it. I would rather not get my car smashed up because some kid decided to drink and drive. And I believe, as bad as this sounds, that if people can't be responsible with some of the things we are allowed to do before we turn 21, and have to complain about it then maybe they should up the age for everything to 21, instead of lowering the drinking age when that proved to cause more accidents.

So long as 18-year-olds can go to war and die, the drinking age should be set to 18 as well.

How about we let those in the armed forces drink. Seems the only people mentioned so far that can't drink are soldiers under 21.

I was just saying that if we allow 18-year-olds to make decisions for themselves such as going to war, and if we call them adults, then I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to drink as well.