BF2S Forums Should the drinking age be reduced?

Gene Ford wrote:

The U.S. has the strictest youth drinking laws in western civilization and yet has the most drinking-related problems among its young. And there seems to be a connection between these two facts.

Ruth C. Engs, Professor, Applied Health Sciences,
Indiana University, Bloomington wrote:

The legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school and university functions. In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected. This opinion is based upon reaserch that I have been involved in for over twenty years concerning college age youth and the history of drinking in the United States and other cultures.

Although the legal purchase age is 21 years of age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as an enticing "forbidden fruit," a "badge of rebellion against authority" and a symbol of "adulthood." As a nation we have tried prohibition legislation twice in the past for controlling irresponsible drinking problems. This was during National Prohibition in the 1920s and state prohibition during the 1850s. These laws were finally repealed because they were unenforceable and because the backlash towards them caused other social problems. Today we are repeating history and making the same mistakes that occurred in the past. Prohibition did not work then and prohibition for young people under the age of 21 is not working now.

The flaunting of the current laws is readily seen among university students. Those under the age of 21 are more likely to be heavy -- sometimes called "binge" -- drinkers (consuming over 5 drinks at least once a week). For example, 22% of all students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers. Among drinkers only, 32% of under age compared to 24% of legal age are heavy drinkers.

Research from the early 1980s until the present has shown a continuous decrease in drinking and driving related variables which has parallel the nation's, and also university students, decrease in per capita consumption. However, these declines started in 1980 before the national 1987 law which mandated states to have 21 year old alcohol purchase laws.

The decrease in drinking and driving problems are the result of many factors and not just the rise in purchase age or the decreased per capita consumption. These include: education concerning drunk driving, designated driver programs, increased seat belt and air bag usage, safer automobiles, lower speed limits, free taxi services from drinking establishments, etc.

While there has been a decrease in per capita consumption and motor vehicle crashes, unfortunately, during this same time period there has been an INCREASE in other problems related to heavy and irresponsible drinking among college age youth. Most of these reported behaviors showed little change until AFTER the 21 year old law in 1987. For example from 1982 until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50% after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after drinking" jumped from 9% to almost 12%; "missing class because of hangover" went from 26% to 28%; "getting lower grade because of drinking" rose from 5% to 7%; and "been in a fight after drinking" increased from 12% to 17%. All of these behaviors are indices of irresponsible drinking. This increase in abusive drinking behavior is due to "underground drinking" outside of adult supervision in student rooms and apartments were same age individuals congregate and because of lack of knowledge of responsible drinking behaviors.

Based upon the fact that our current prohibition laws are not working, the need for alternative approaches from the experience of other, and more ancient cultures, who do not have these problems need to be tried. Groups such as Italians, Greeks, Chinese and Jews, who have few drinking related problems, tend to share some common characteristics. Alcohol is neither seen as a poison or a magic potent, there is little or no social pressure to drink, irresponsible behavior is never tolerated, young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner, there is societal consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking. Because the the 21 year old drinking age law is not working, and is counterproductive, it behooves us as a nation to change our current prohibition law and to teach responsible drinking techniques for those who chose to consume alcoholic beverages.

47man wrote:

America simply could not handle itself if it was lowered, other countries can, simply because it has been that way for a while. Let's use Britain as an example, you can drink at a very young age there. You generally do not see people going out and getting drunk to the point of alcohol poisoning on their birthday because it's not a big deal. Alcohol here is seen as this wonderful thing that you must'nt touch until you are 21, after that nobody cares, go drink yourself to death.

Bertster7 wrote:

<[onex]>Headstone wrote:

Alcohol is as addictive if not more addictive than Cigarettes or any other drug.

That's not true.

47man wrote:

America simply could not handle itself if it was lowered, other countries can, simply because it has been that way for a while. Let's use Britain as an example, you can drink at a very young age there. You generally do not see people going out and getting drunk to the point of alcohol poisoning on their birthday because it's not a big deal. Alcohol here is seen as this wonderful thing that you must'nt touch until you are 21, after that nobody cares, go drink yourself to death.

<[onex]>Headstone wrote:

Bertster7 wrote:

<[onex]>Headstone wrote:

Wanna bet? I Know more Alcoholics and Hard drinkers than i do Drug Addicts and smokers. . Allot of Alcoholics WERE in my family, they are now departed.

That's you. It has been proven time and time again that nicotine is WAY more addictive than alcohol. Do you really want me to look up some figures, it is well established fact. The fact that your personal experience makes you think otherwise doesn't make it unture.

edit. Just checked and while nicotine is more addictive than alcohol, heroin is not (depending on which criteria you use for measuring addictivity), so alcohol is certainly more addictive than I had thought, but is as I said, less addictive than nicotine.

Its still a BAD idea in any sense. Introduction to alcohol younger in VERY small amounts might not be bad, But to lower the age to a state where its OK for a kid to get out of 8th grade and goto the pub for an Ale is Just crazy shit. Instead of doing there homework, they would be spending time drinking and chaseing after drunk pussy till the wee hours of the night. That doesnt sound good in my book. Oh then add in a car, Thats even better.

Bad enough we have a shortage of collage graduates to do specific jobs, Lets now lower the drinking age to somewhere around Mid highschool, and Then we will need to open the border and give away free educations just to fill the high paying jobs.

Jenkinsbball wrote:

All we need is idiotic minors getting drunk and driving. I know that they do it now, but if the legal age was 18, I bet the death rate among teens would quadruple in a week.

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

21 you buy beer in the US
18 you can buy a gun.

Which is more dangerous?

Jenkinsbball wrote:

Fuck you all if you didn't get my point. Yes, we have a bad problem with all of the drunk driving deaths per year. Lowering the legal age will only multiply that due to stupid teenagers that don't know when to say when and succumb to peer pressure on a daily basis.

Last edited by Bertster7 (2006-10-06 06:18:10)