There has been a lot of talk in the news about changing the drinking age to 18. I personally don't understand the reasoning behind this. There's a perfectly valid reason that people aren't allowed to drink until they're 21. Once you become an adult (18), you still lack a certain maturity that one must have in order to consume alcohol. When you first turn 18, you're excited and immature and ready to party. It is a horrible idea to lower the drinking age -- it would just encourage drinking. The lower the age you start to drink at, the greater chance you have at becoming an alcoholic.

I'm all for lowering the drinking age to 18. Plenty of my teachers and adults/parents I know talked about having that experience and I'm pretty sure they all turned out OK!

And believe it or not it's not a "maturity" thing in the sense you're thinking, but it's more of a development of the brain type questions. I also don't think your alcohalism point is very good -- since when is Europe and the Carribean (among other places) flooded with alcohalics? And most people start at 18, 16, 14, 12 :O these days...! Yikes! Now I'm not saying that's good..!

What does it matter?

Increasing or decreasing age limits for drinking, or sex for that matter, doesn't stop people doing things they aren't meant to. In fact, look at the amount of people drinking, quite a majority could be drinking under the age of 18 already. Same with illegally downloading music and films, just because you're told not to, doesnt necessarily mean your not going to.

It should go down.
Think about it. You're allowed to drive a car at 16 (with an adult at 15) and you could very well get in an accident and kill not only yourself but others involved in the accident.
You're allowed to shoot a gun at 12 once you undergo "Hunters Safety" and, come on a gun at 12? Yet you're not allowed to put a liquid into your body at 18? You can put a permanent tattoo on your body, you can alter it with all the piercings you want, you can watch whatever you want, you can smoke, but you can't drink?
Having something so restricted just makes people want it more. If it was more casual then it wouldn't be such a big deal to drink.

It doesnt make a difference - the fact is that people just don't wait till they're 21 (18 in Hong Kong) before they drink!

It should be 14!!!!

the drinking age is 18 here, and it hasn't done me any harm. can't say i've turned alcoholic yet. not mature at 18? dont agree with that. by 18 most people i know are now living away from home at uni, they can feed themselves and do their own washing...if they want to drink to massive excess, its their liver. besides, from my experience the worst drinkers are the middle aged businessmen at midnight in the mcdonalds at liverpool street station...

im not a massive drinker, but i really dont get the 21 age limit. theres been (very unpopular) talk here about raising the limit, it wont make any difference. the kids that drink underage will still do it - there will just be a larger proportion of the population doing it. most people my age can have a drink and not go too crazy. and when they do? gotta enjoy it whilst you're young and your body can take it our last day at school turned into a bit of a pub crawl, which was pretty fun actually. if you dont want to drink, you dont have to but having the option is always good. made for good times and a good, fun, relaxed atmosphere celebrating the end of formal education. what more could you want?

21? So thats in America, right? It should go down to at least 18, 21 is ridiculous.

People should be allowed to drink at whatever age they like. If you're stupid enough to willingly want to harm your body, you'll remain that stupid no matter your age!

I believe you have just insulted MANY brilliant and very intelligent people...

18 was the drinking age back in my day. Raising it to 21 was ridiculous however if they want to keep it at 21 there should be a law in place that if your in the military you should be allowed to drink regardless of your age. You can fight and die for your country but can't have a beer.

Yeah, I realize that most people don't pay attention to the drinking age, but that doesn't mean we should encourage drinking at a lower age.



glücklich -- I realize that there are a lot of things that you can do, but drinking is different. Drinking causes people to become irrational and sometimes dangerous. Smoking a cigarette or putting a tattoo on you won't do that.



Shambler -- Wow...I don't even know where to begin. Like I said before, it isn't a matter of stupidity. It's a matter of maturity. People become more mature with age.

Well...whatever the drinking age is or should be, it's never going to be obeyed legally. I doubt there is one teen out there who is going to WAIT like a good little girl/boy until he/she meets the drinking age requirements. But really...that's what I think...

LOL yeah, only happens when you turn 18

BTW, when do you "first" turn 18? Surely you only tuen 18 once?

I know of one

I think the drinking age is 18 in England. I can see not getting served at a pub because the public don't want 12 year olds going round drunk, but if someones with family/adults then it's fair to let a kid have a drink or five in a resturant.