Drinking age of 21 doesn't work

Like this law will make any difference to an underage person that wants to drink. Reality check.

Aren't there real problems out there that need could use a group of bored college and university presidents and chancellors to look into for the good of humanity?

I sort-of agree... Germany's law works I think because they see alcohol as food. We in the U.S. see alcohol as a vice. Therefore, is someone drinks, the stigma gets to their brain and they act accordingly.

We need a revolution in thought.

I wonder what percent of the American population drank before they were 21? It's probably at least 80%. That's got to say something. I think that people should be allowed to drink earlier in a socially acceptable way instead of pre-gaming and getting in trouble. If it was allowed people might have two beers instead of 8 shots a night.

don't matter if lawmakers change the drinking age law, still young people will find thier way to the liquor.

while i was in old tenth grade history class, we were asked to raise up our arm to identify our favorite country...

of course, everyone said USA
and only 16 yr old me raised my arm for France...
the entire class "boo'd" me, but then i made them scratch their lame heads when i stood up for myself saying, "i choose this as my ideal country because if i lived there, i could drink and smoke legally."

Okay, what is the real problem here? Is it the age of the people that are drinking, or people that are irresponsible when they drink??
I know people that are under the age of 21, 25, 30 are not the only ones that are getting DWI's, getting drunk and acting stupid when they drink. Think about it!

Now they just go ape shit crazy on spring break in foreign countries. Thanx ma n pa repressed conservative for your laws and input; we are all ALL SO MUCH BETTER FOR IT.

I lived in germany in 1993 when I turned twenty one. the legal drinking age is 16 there. But the driving age is 18. the whole society likes drinking in general, but the youth learns about intoxication before getting behind a wheel........ it could be studied and brought into the discussion.

all us underagers should start fermenting our urine and drinking it and parties like it's mead....that'd show them

What about 22?

Ultimately, is it really the drinking age, or the cultural attitudes around alcohol in the US?

As with many things, this county seems to swing wildly between two extremes--binge drinking on one hand, and completely abstaining from alcohol on the other. The kids I know who drank the most? Were the ones whose parents held the alcohol-is-evil-and-horrible attitude. Given half a chance, those were the kids who were binge drinking and drinking with no other goal than to get wasted.

None of that is going to change without shifting attitudes, and getting away from the idea that alcohol is inherently bad, and that there's a level of moderation where you can have a glass of wine with dinner or a drink sometimes, and that's fine. It doesn't have to be a choice between not drinking, or getting drunk.

alchohol should be illegal. if you want some you could make that shit in the bathtub.

The drinking age should be at most 18. I think 21 is too high.

I never thought it made much sense that at 18 I could buy cigarettes, be considered and adult and die for my country... but not drink.

Personally I think the drinking age should be the same as the enlistment age. If you are to young to take a drink than you are to young to die for your country.

Personally I think the drinking age should be the same as the enlistment age. If you are to young to take a drink than you are to young to die for your country.

LMFAO this is news...

i think we all know the drinking age doesn't work.

EVERYONE knows that because young people can't drink in bars, they drink in their cars. If this country can ship a guy or gal off to war, they should be able to have a d@mn drink!

Everyday college students ignore this law... forbidding something only makes us want to do it more, and, like ProjectBat says, its just making us scared to call for help in a real emergency. My school is trying to stop this by saying that the police wont be contacted in an alcohol-related emergency, which is really helpful in my opinion.

Try a NO age requirement drinking law. Look at Mexico. I bet if you compare their drinking problems to the ones here in the USA, you would be surprised. The more you try to take away and change the laws the more you make these teens and young adults want to rebel.

Has anyone mentioned that the drinking age is actually a state law? The only reason all the states made their drinking age 21 is because in 1984 the federal government threatened to hold federal funding back from all states that refused to change their law.

Well, major factor to be considered here is the fact that people usually around two or three years under are the ones with the alcohol problems, (Such as poisoning). If the age is lowered or even highered, i dont think it will help. If it is lowered people will end up being around thirteen far more often than now, getting alchohol symptoms. i would rather the person be older.

well i'll tell you what....no matter what anybody does kids are always going to drink....I started drinking when I was 15 years old and I am 25 now along with a lot of my friends. I believe the legal drinking age should be 18 years old. Seriously, who couldn't get alcohol when they were 18? I guess maybe all the guys in girls fighting in the military who could die for less than clear causes could come home and have a nice cold dr. thunder.

the article is ambiguous, I personally think they should lower the age, in Italy we can drink since we are 16 but we can drive cars only when we are 18, the system works here.

I'm afraid it's too late to turn it back. In European cultures it's a accustom to raise a child drinking wine or alcohol. But in our society we shun drinking with a puritan determination. We have turned drinking into a "want" rather than just a thing you do with relatives and once during dinner. We would have to make a great cultural shift to change the drinking age otherwise I fear more deaths and stupidity.

this is an uphill fight, but it's one that needs to be done. kids are "adults" at 18 and are allowed to fight for our freedom, but aren't allowed to knock back a few shots of patron!?

i am going to say something that is not popular but if you can die for your country at the age of 18, you can get married at 18 , you can smoke at 18, your parents can legally kick you out at 18,why is the legal age for drinking 21? they have to lower the drinking age or perhaps higher some of these other ages. I came to this conclusion when i was 19 and had just given birth (i was married and could support my child) was in the hospitol when they offered champain as a toast but i could not participate because i was not 21 .i was thinking i can give birth ,go to work and pay taxes but i could not toast the birth of my son.that just does not make sense to me

That's fine. Lower the drinking age to 18 and the make the punishments for driving drunk higher and make those that drive drunk and kill the other passenger available to be charged with murder in the first degree.

Yes I know it has something to do with premeditation, but everyone knows driving drunk causes massive problems and even death. Therefore if someone drives drunk they are know that they have a chance of killing someone and if they do they did so knowingly.

No matter there can be an exception to the law as it is now to make allowance for drunk drivers or anyone under the influence of anything.

Hinged it on the way the family feels.

That way the punishment can fall on the family and their rational thought. Allow them to either be vengeful or forgiving. It was their loss not the state's or the fed's.

This is sick, tax this, add this new law, tell people what they can and can't do. Leave us the fuck alone, this isn't Russia or is it? All you politicians and law makers, remember that you are still Americans.

this seems to be one of the best plans i've heard in a long time. people (especially us Americans) have an innate want to do whatever they are told not to do. take me for example. i'll admit to having more than a few drinks before i was legal. and i'll also admit that a big part of the appeal for me and my friends was that "we were NOT supposed to". but my mother came from the idea that "if she's going to do it, i'll be there to take the keys and keep an eye on her". so i quickly realized that i wasn't really "getting away" with much, so that part the appeal disappeared. and the partying thing lost it's appeal, because frankly, it was cheaper to drink at home with a few friends.
now i'm not saying that there aren't those who abuse alcohol. but they'll always be there. some way, some how, those who use it for whatever negative reasons will ALWAYS be able to get it. look at marijuana. most if not all of us have tried it. and more than likely a friend introduced you to it. it's illegal, how do you think he got it? or how about the heroin addict?
at age 21, many are going out into, or have been in the world on our own. we are forced to make ADULT decisions for ourselves for the first time. we are expected to be adult it pretty much every way. we can marry, to either be happy, screw up our lives forever, or divorce. and yet to expect that we can make those kind of choices, and not whether or not to have a drink is just backwards. we might as well not be considered legal adults, and be expected to live under the supervision of our parents still.
i simply cannot understand how people can so easily forget how BADLY prohibition went in the twenties. alcoholism grew, and everyone who did take a drink was a criminal. do we really want to make the country's young adults all criminals? because i can guarantee that 2 out of 3 will have a drink at least once, and caught or not, technically they have broken the law.
but hey, that's just how i feel. and while i can understand why people worry, and am sorry for those who take things too far. i just have tor tell you, that drinking just like smoking, will never change. it's been around for nearly as long as the human species has. and while controlling it seems like a good idea, on the whole, very little good can come of it. lasting or not.

^_^;; whoops, i think i made this more about drinking in general rather than about age.... oh well, i think i got my point across

if the drinking age was lowered back to 18 you'd probably after a few years have alot more mature college students who could moderate their partying with their studies.

I think raising the drinking age to 21 (basically your Junior year) has I think contributed to the 13th Grade mentality on many campuses - students not acting much different than in high school with the exception of less supervision. Although they are in college and away from home they are basically fobidden to do the same things as in High School such as drinking so of course they are going to drink like crazy because all the cool kids are doing it.

im already 21. over it.

Reading the article I am struck by something. Every piece of actual data this guy quotes refutes rather than supports his point.

it seems to be what he is attempting is to say that the concept has failed because it does not make under age people actually stop drinking rather than to get them to merely stop driving drunk, Even though it did an admirable job of that, and was the stated purpose of the bill. His point actually seems to be not that it didn't work but that it may no longer be necessary due to sociological and technological innovation.

This might be true but there is no way to know without testing it by repealing the law in some area and seeing who dies. This is the kind of thing that people generally wish folks would try with someone else's children.

.. .. .. . BS!!!. people are gonna drink regardless the age.

it definitely needs to be lowered. we can smoke, fight in a war, and play the lottery at 18, why not drink too???

in puerto rico it's 18, why not for the states???

but overall, in my opinion, get rid of it and legalize weed.

Is it obvious day at stupid camp?

We are a nation of problem drinkers and we learn it at a young age. I've had way too many friends die, suffer permanent brain damage, or otherwise fuck up their lives because they can't get their drinking under control. It's not just America though. I hung with a bunch of Russian exchange students and their drinking put ours to shame. I've also heard that exchange students in Ireland had a hard time keeping up with the social scene there because of all the drinking.

Wow, I totally thought this meant that they thought 21 was too low, I didn't get it at all, too vague maybe, but I assumed that and was like, oh mygod...
No they should try to lower it

The drinking age does not determine the age people start drinking.

There are plenty of people that are 21 and older who are willing to buy alcohol for any teenager that asks--particularly on college campuses.

If the drinking age is meant to prevent younger people from drinking, it has completely failed. Most people I know had their first drinking experience when they were freshmen in high school--not college.

The drinking age was originally 21, then it was lowered to 18 twenty-five years ago mostly based on the idea that if you could be expected to die for your country, the you should be old enough to drink alcohol. But that didn't work out. Too many deaths on the highways. So the age was raised back to 21. Now they're telling us that age 21 isn't working out. So it's only logical to raise the age to 25.

Recent medical research has shown us that the human brain doesn't complete maturation until about age 23-25, and that judgment is the last area of the brain to mature.

Drinking requires judgment. Recognizing when drinking makes your driving a risk to yourself and others requires judgment. As Kanye West has just learned, knowing when to go on stage and when to keep your mouth shut requires judgment, too.

When you don't have the ability to make mature judgments, you shouldn't drink.

A number of people I know said they started drinking less after they turned 21 because the thrill was no longer there. Saying "I got so drunk last weekend!" didn't sound as cool as it did when they were 19.

We need to stop babifying the nation and let people make their own decisions and yes their own mistakes.

If at 18 you can be responsible enough to vote, serve prison time as an adult, and kill in the military then logically you ought to be able to choose an alcoholic beverage or not.

Charge the people that give the kids booze with a crime charge the kids with a crime and put them all in jail. Take away the hand holding and the it's not your falt and Make these kids responable for there actions. If they are getting goverment grants take it away and make room for the students that want to be there to learn. collage is not a place to party it is a place to learn. Those that want to party should be flipping burgers some where.

i'm hoping the author was joking when he suggested a permit to drink like you would for driving. i believe keeping the age up is psychological necessity. when we're young, we think "wow, i have to be THAT old to drink?" and in a sense relate it more responsibility. every younger teen looks up to someone at THAT age and for the most part gives respect for something that they deem as foreign - because it is to them. sure, at some point under the age of 21 and also over we've seen irresponsible drunks, we may have even been one every once in a while, but the point is that the majority of kids associate 21 and the drinking age with a certain social stigma that is treated with respect. i believe it would be a disaster to drop this age. the flip side to the coin is the argument that lowering the drinking age would give younger teens more responsibility and thus they would display more responsible behavior - but i've traveled across the world to many countries with lower drinking ages and this argument just doesn't hold well. this is also the same thing with driving - just because you give a 16 year old responsibility doesn't mean the teen acts more responsible. if the mentality of the 16 year old is to act responsibly then the increased responsibility will be handled accordingly.

this applies to drinking. it's a stable mentality of maturity that stops binge drinking - one that easier ascertained for the majority of americans at an older age. changing the age won't change binge drinking - you have to change the harshness of the penalties for partaking in the activity. harsher penalties for underage drinking when not in the company of your legal guardian.

Make something forbidden and people can't get enough of it.

While in college I saw the effects of binge drinking on a number of students who fell behind in their studies and eventually dropped out or were expelled. The time used for drinking escapades takes away from study time and hangovers reduce comprehension in class. It's too bad that it's almost a tradition in this country for kids in college to drink and do drugs (sowing wild oats) while they could be enriching their knowledge and their future.

Seriously, if they change it. Can anyone who was 21 before the law change still drink? Just asking.

Oh come the fuck on! Everytime I'm about to reach the age of something they take it away! WTF a year before I turned 16, they knocked up the driving age, now I'm 20 and these dicks want to knock up the drinking age! I hate this crap, it's like they just hate kids born in 1989, we get somewhere and the go fuck it up!

What's next, porn age knocked up to 30? Strip clubs knocked up to 40? Keep you government hands off of my fucking age rights! The drinking age of 21 hasn't been working for years you dumb ass, just because the a few assholes get wasted and get behind a wheel, we have everything to tell retards that drinking and driving isn't cool, but they still do it and they are accountable for who they kill and hurt.

The real problem is keeping it out of the hands of the stupid children who drink before the age of 21. Worry about them, damn assholes.

I say do away with heavy liquor. that stuff just gets you into trouble with the surprise buzz. do beer/wine only and make the drinking age up to 24, liver doesnt mature till 23 ish anyway

better yet, stop drinking this age old idiot drink and learn to deal with you problems and recreations in a more constructive way. ;)

Lol as a college student I can assure you that I see this law not working every day. If anything, it makes it even more unsafe. How many people are willing to call 911 even if we think someone might have alcohol poisoning? None. Driving it underground and making us scared to get help.