New Political Debate: Drinking Age

[Jason1]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

So, a question to maybe ask is:

If we lowered or absolved the drinking age would we remove the mysticism associated with drinking and in effect lower the amount of alcohol abuse amongst teenagers?

Another fair question to ask is: with no drinking age would teens drink under more supervised/safer environments?

Changing the drinking age could, over time, change the cultural views on alcohol.

Okay, I have been given this a lot of thought lately also, and since im only 21 now I have recent experience on the matter. While I might have felt differently a few years ago, after some thought, I dont think lowering the drinking age to 18 will make kids drink less often, in less quantities, or less at all. When I drank underage, I never thought "Since im not suppoused to be doing this, im going to drink a LOT" I can see where the other side comes from, im actually going to do something I normally dont do and agree with Bond here. Its more of a cultural issue. Kids like to drink, and they like to do it a lot, especially college aged kids. I mean, when you turned 21 and it was legal to drink, did you all of a sudden stop drinking large amounts? Of course not, its still fun to drink a lot wether its legal or not. If this happens (which it absolutley wont happen in the foreseeable future, no way whatsoever), I feel it will just lead to more DUI deaths.

There were nights in my youth when I wanted to drink, but couldnt get alcohol. I can only imagine how much more I would have drank if I could have legally bought it.