DRINKING AGE LOWERED ?

[Guest MIAMIROCKSTAR]

i was told today by a friend that they were talking about lowering the drinking age to 18 on radio, they say if they can fight in our wars why cant they grab a drink...what do you think about this and if it does happen what do you see happening

my thoughts as a promoter that throws partys is that more money is going to be made for us and clubs but on the other hand if this is true at the same time it will kill the older crowd partys

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/

[Guest pod]

This has been kicked about at a low level since the 21 and up policy was initiated in 1985.

Like the article says, it's actually up to the states to regulate drinking age, and to this day, there are certain situations where someone under 21 can drink in certain jurisdictions. The kicker is that a drinking age of 18 results in federal funds being withheld for highway maintenance in that state. Carrot and stick.

But anyway, a lot of what is kicked about is the perennial justification, that you have to be 16 to drive, 18 to own a weapon and fight in a war, and yet you have to be 21 to have a drink.

Personally, I think right now that the damage is rather severe to the drinking culture in this country. The raising of the drinking age and the overall demonization of alcohol, has led to people under, at and above 21 utilizing alcohol irresponsibly, due to it's taboo status. Alcohol education doesn't necessarily focus on moderation, it focuses on eradication. From kindergarten on up, alcohol is practically lumped in with hard drugs like coke, ketamine, and ecstasy, as something that is awfully dangerous, and to be not only abstained from, but eradicated from society. MADD, SADD, etc, are the modern day equivalents of the Temperance Societies of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ostensibly set up to stop a bad thing (drunk driving), they've expanded in scope to demonizing alcohol, and alcohol culture in general. Hell, some Southern Baptists say Jesus really didn't turn water into wine, that it was a mistranslation, and he (He?) supposedly turned water into "new wine", aka grape juice.

Should the age be lowered to 18? Sure, why not, the nation survived for hundreds of years with either no drinking age, or a lower drinking age. The 21 came about due to 20th century neo-Prohibitionists.

Half the problem we're dealing with here is that the initial settlers of this nation, were in fact Christian versions of Muslims practicing Sharia law. Yes, the Puritans and the Taliban have a lot in common. The Founding Fathers, were rational people, but the population as a whole consisted of a bunch of uptight weenies. Still does.

Now, I know getting rid of the puritanical Christian bent of this nation is nigh-impossible.

Thus, I do still propose that the major cities where people are allowed to more or less be free, be turned into Special Administrative Zones, with little to no federal oversight.

Give me my gun, booze, gambling, prostitution, and porn. I'll be at the bar.

[Guest The Devil]

Im from Ireland and i say "Let em all drink" ;D ;D ;D

Its 18 and up there. My country would revolt against the world if they try increased the age to 21 there. Its the drinkin hours that wat i would worry about more here. the beauty of late licences, god bless them

[Guest pod]

Well, like I said, this country was originally settled by religious fanatics. There's no other realistic term for it. If you look at the Taliban and the Puritans, there's some scary similarities.

Fortunately, for us, the Founding Fathers were, at a practical level, more tolerant. Protestants, Unitarians, even some closet agnostics. So they wrote all sorts of stuff into the Constitution which sounded great to the population, since they escaped religious and social persecution. However, with their freedoms guaranteed, it took time to trickle down to others, a bit of hypocrisy.

But, where alcohol is concerned, the Puritan roots of the nation led to stuff like Prohibition being considered "OK", and then spawning wonderful things like organized crime.

Some might come here and take an "America, love it or leave it" attitude, and yes, I agree with that, but on the principles of freedom that our Founding Fathers desired, not what those who are fundamentalist Christians believe. Their Jesus is a teetotaler, has an impressive mutual fund portfolio, and goes on benders in Vegas where he thinks no one is looking.

My Jesus carries a spare lens for me and a fistful of drink tickets.

[Guest The Devil]

ha ha ha, i like it. very nice ;D

[Guest pod]

I don't know, I just think a lot of facets of the neo-Prohibition movement in this country are really screwed up. The whole attitude reeks of "I don't drink so you shouldn't either".

Now, yeah, on some aspects I've been guilty of that in a way. I've seen lives destroyed by excessive drinking and drug use, so I tend to look down upon that. Now, for 'weekenders' and people who moderate, I have no issues with that. If I feel someone actually has a problem, I'll tell them, but in my mind, it's really up to them to control or eradicate their habits.

Though at the end of the day, I frown on restrictions to engage in those habits. It's your problem if you can't control it. And I would think taxation needs to be diverted to treatment options.

[Guest ICON]

I think ONLY people who have served this Country in the military should be allowed to drink under the age of 21.

[Guest pod]

OK then you'll have a rash of people duping military IDs. I know they have the chip in them now, but it wouldn't be too difficult to make a visual analog of that to pass a doorman inspection.

Just the thought is scary. I would hate to encourage that sort of thing. While in theory, yeah it's a good idea, the practical implication of it is quite difficult to do.

[Guest The Devil]

only vets or under 21 allowed drink. thats kinda shitty isnt it?

i see the point exactly with that but stepping back it kinda says, well, the rest of u guys are all useless so u cant drink? wat about other under21s who save lives outside the military. should really be put down to, well u helped us so here u go..... if u pay taxs maybe????

i think like pod hit at, its crap being punished because other people cant control wat they do. why should the rest be puinished.

[Guest ICON]

yea, i guess i see your point. never really thought of it that way. The drinking age actually doesnt really matter. I know a few youngins that live on my floor in the building i live in and have NEVER seen them get carded anywhere.... even in liquor stores.

However, i dont see many 18, 19, and 20 year olds that are cops, firemen, or doctors.... takes a few years to learn that stuff.... but, there are quite a few 18, 19, 20 year olds in Iraq.... Let them kick ass over there, and come home to a nice cold beer.

[Guest pod]

I would be all for giving people in the military under 21 the right to drink when they're home. However, the cottage industry of falsifying military IDs that would spring up scares the shit out of me.

In that case, it's all or nothing. At the least, hopefully it would cut down on the current cottage industry of people falsifying IDs, as there'd be less of an impetus to do so.

The remedy to this is alcohol education, not alcohol abstinence.

The people I know who have the most problems with booze are the ones who had the most restrictions on it growing up. Of course, that's not a blanket statement, but with their parents going "ohhh alcohol/drugs/porn/etc is evil", of course they're gonna get into it.

[Guest swank]

I'm from Montreal....drinking age is 18 and we usually started at 16. We didn't have more alcohol related deaths or higher rates of alcoholism. I find it INSULTING that here in the U.S. you can be found of age to go die in someone else's war but not old enough to have a drink in public.

disgusting double standard >

[Guest pod]

True enough. Plus, you get a lot of cross border bullshit from US kids coming up your way to drink...wasn't a huge drinker when I was a young'un (didn't have people to drink with really) but there was a few times where the one or two friends I had would go cross-border to tip back a few. We'd be smart and sober up before going back, but less intelligent people would roar on back roaring drunk.

[V. Barbarino]

I don't see 21 being a problem. I don't see how lowering it, helps. Binge drinking is something you grow out of, not sure why our parents from the 60's are telling us, that binge drinking is out of control because some ass clown survey company says so..

Drinking and driving is 1000000000000000% worst. They could end DUI's they choose not to.

[Guest pod]

But is binge drinking really out of control? These companies, in cahoots with MADD, redefine binge drinking every few years. Now, just breathing in a bar will be considered a binge in a few years.

5 drinks in a row is probably par for the course for most of us. Probably your parents, too, when they were younger.

The problem is, we're teaching that alcohol is taboo, rather than how to respect and moderate consumption.

[Guest ICON]

Have you ever seen the movie ANIMAL HOUSE? Its no different now then it was then in what? the 60s?

The only thing that is different these days: FOX NEWS, CNN, MSNBC, Local News, Talk Radio, Magazines, etc.

Back then they didnt have all of the media resources that we have now so people then never heard about anything like they do these days... so there really was NO problem back then... which is complete bullshit.

The shit about Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton and all of them drinking and partying is no different than what the majority of the people on this board do every weekend... The <u>media</u> hypes the celeb situations up with this shit and EVERYBODY HEARS ABOUT IT. Parents hear about it and say "wow, these people are out of control".... All because of the media.

[Guest pod]

True enough. People have always done crazy shit on drugs or alcohol. Now it's just noticed more due to the media.

And now, even more so due to the fact that everyone has a digital camera, camera phone with video, or pocket video camera, and posts their exploits on Youtube.

[Guest cire]

I might agree with lowering the age, but the arguement about 'they fight in our wars, why can't they have a drink (legally)?'. I don't buy it due to the fact that a small percentage of 18 to 20 year olds actually go into the military. If they lower it, it should be lowered to 15 or 16

[Guest The Devil]

sur why not ;D

We all only live once! The world is on a downward spiral anyways. Lets spin the shit out of this bitch... weeeeeeeeeeee!!!

lol.

[Guest cire]

Lets spin the shit out of this bitch... weeeeeeeeeeee!!!

lol.

---throws hands up and...>Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee...lol

[Guest dahzel]

so what about the stressed out nerds who spend all semester trying to get good grades and stress out if they get a "b"? do they not deserve to grab a beer now and then? there is no way you can say 1 group of people can drink at a younger age and another can't.

IMO, most people still aren't responsible enough to drink at 21. lets give some of these rich kids and their $40,000+ sports cars another reason to drive wreckless :

[Guest Devilicious]

should never have been changed to 21, but now that it has, I think it would be disasterous to lower it to 18.

What was wrong with drinking beer at 18 and waiting till 21 for liquor, I don't know. :

[Guest pod]

Like I said earlier, there's been a lot of damage done as a result of the drinking age being raised to 21. Think about it. The bulk of us went through our Ingsoc Indoctrination primary education post 1984. Hah, the irony of that statement.

So, with the passing of the 21 and up law, guess what? It became a tenet of the oh so wonderful public education system in this country to demonize alcohol, and put it almost in the same class of substances as heroin, crack, cocaine, and so forth. Then the wonderful organizations like MADD, DARE, and SADD came about, and it was all over.

We could lower the drinking age, I think we still should, but at the same time, a 'de-demonization' has to occur.

Along with education about being responsible about the whole damn thing, and severe penalties for people who break the newly relaxed laws, i.e. "OK, you got what you want, now play nice...".

[Guest swank]

I might agree with lowering the age, but the arguement about 'they fight in our wars, why can't they have a drink (legally)?'. I don't buy it due to the fact that a small percentage of 18 to 20 year olds actually go into the military. If they lower it, it should be lowered to 15 or 16

The minute you let "ONE" person go to war at 18 you are sending a child to war...so why not let the same child drink?

[Guest Buck White]

Think about it. The bulk of us went through our Ingsoc Indoctrination primary education post 1984. Hah, the irony of that statement.

Without sounding sycophant-ish......^ that is genius.