Lowering Drinking Age
The lowering of the drinking age may not be as vital to our non-US members who are used to a lowered drinking age, but I just ran across this story talking about lowering the US drinking age from 21 to 18, particularly for US troops. They say if you can take a shot (bullet) for your country, you can have a shot of alcohol.
Here is the story, curious on everyones thoughts.
States weigh lowering drinking age
LOWERING THE BAR
Seven states are considering lowering the legal drinking age, including:
• Kentucky
• Missouri
• Minnesota
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin
• Vermont
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
Debate over lowering the drinking age is heating up in several states, fueled in part by legislators who contend that men and women who are old enough to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan are responsible enough to buy alcohol legally.
Legislation introduced in Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina would lower the drinking age for military personnel only. A planned ballot initiative in Missouri would apply to everyone 18 and older. An initiative in the works in South Dakota would allow all 19- and 20-year-olds to buy low-alcohol beer.
Vermont's legislature is considering a task force to study the issue. A Minnesota bill would allow anyone 18 and older to buy alcohol in bars or restaurants, but not in liquor stores until they're 21.
MORE: Vermont mulls lower drinking age
"There's a public interest in reopening this debate … and the idea is picking up steam" says John McCardell, a former president of Vermont's Middlebury College who founded Choose Responsibility. The non-profit group supports allowing 18- to 20-year-olds to drink legally after they complete an alcohol education program.
Proponents face opposition from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and a potentially costly obstacle: Congress voted in 1984 to penalize states that set the drinking age below 21 with forfeiture of 10% of their federal highway funds. That threat "may prove to be a deal-breaker" for his bill, says Minnesota state Rep. Chris DeLaForest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says laws setting the drinking age at 21 have cut traffic fatalities involving drivers ages 18-20 by 13%. "We welcome the attention to the drinking age," says MADD CEO Chuck Hurley. "The data is in fact overwhelming."
Those laws haven't ended underage drinking, says state Sen. Hinda Miller, who wants a task force to study the issue and report to Vermont's legislature next year. "I want to start talking about it," she says.
A 2007 Gallup Poll found that 77% of Americans oppose lowering the drinking age to 18, but state Rep. Fletcher Smith, sponsor of a bill that would allow military personnel 18 and older to buy alcohol in South Carolina, disagrees. "If you can take a shot on the battlefield," he says, "you ought to be able to take a shot of beer legally."
State Rep. David Floyd, whose bill would apply to Kentucky troops 18 and older, says it's "common sense to recognize as full adults the young men and women who serve in the military."
At a U.S. Senate hearing last fall on the issue, deputy transportation secretary Thomas Barrett, a retired Coast Guard vice admiral, said, "I hear this bandied about that if you are old enough to fight for your country, you are old enough to have a beer. … I don't think it's the same type of maturity."
Missouri 18 To Drink has concluded it can't collect the 100,000 signatures needed by May to put its initiative on November's ballot and is now aiming for the 2010 election, says organizer Michael Mikkelsen. South Dakota's legislature "is understandably apprehensive about the topic," says lawyer N. Bob Pesall, who drafted that state's petition.
"We're going to need a groundswell," says state Rep. Terry Musser, sponsor of the Wisconsin bill that would allow troops 19 and older to drink legally. "We're going to have to have real people out there say 'enough is enough.' "
Alexander Wagenaar, an epidemiology professor at the University of Florida who studies alcohol issues, doubts that will happen. Interest in lowering the drinking age is "a surprising trend," he says, because studies consistently show that raising it "has substantially reduced the amount of drinking and the amount of damage due to drinking."
Here is the story, curious on everyones thoughts.
States weigh lowering drinking age
LOWERING THE BAR
Seven states are considering lowering the legal drinking age, including:
• Kentucky
• Missouri
• Minnesota
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin
• Vermont
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
Debate over lowering the drinking age is heating up in several states, fueled in part by legislators who contend that men and women who are old enough to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan are responsible enough to buy alcohol legally.
Legislation introduced in Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina would lower the drinking age for military personnel only. A planned ballot initiative in Missouri would apply to everyone 18 and older. An initiative in the works in South Dakota would allow all 19- and 20-year-olds to buy low-alcohol beer.
Vermont's legislature is considering a task force to study the issue. A Minnesota bill would allow anyone 18 and older to buy alcohol in bars or restaurants, but not in liquor stores until they're 21.
MORE: Vermont mulls lower drinking age
"There's a public interest in reopening this debate … and the idea is picking up steam" says John McCardell, a former president of Vermont's Middlebury College who founded Choose Responsibility. The non-profit group supports allowing 18- to 20-year-olds to drink legally after they complete an alcohol education program.
Proponents face opposition from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and a potentially costly obstacle: Congress voted in 1984 to penalize states that set the drinking age below 21 with forfeiture of 10% of their federal highway funds. That threat "may prove to be a deal-breaker" for his bill, says Minnesota state Rep. Chris DeLaForest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says laws setting the drinking age at 21 have cut traffic fatalities involving drivers ages 18-20 by 13%. "We welcome the attention to the drinking age," says MADD CEO Chuck Hurley. "The data is in fact overwhelming."
Those laws haven't ended underage drinking, says state Sen. Hinda Miller, who wants a task force to study the issue and report to Vermont's legislature next year. "I want to start talking about it," she says.
A 2007 Gallup Poll found that 77% of Americans oppose lowering the drinking age to 18, but state Rep. Fletcher Smith, sponsor of a bill that would allow military personnel 18 and older to buy alcohol in South Carolina, disagrees. "If you can take a shot on the battlefield," he says, "you ought to be able to take a shot of beer legally."
State Rep. David Floyd, whose bill would apply to Kentucky troops 18 and older, says it's "common sense to recognize as full adults the young men and women who serve in the military."
At a U.S. Senate hearing last fall on the issue, deputy transportation secretary Thomas Barrett, a retired Coast Guard vice admiral, said, "I hear this bandied about that if you are old enough to fight for your country, you are old enough to have a beer. … I don't think it's the same type of maturity."
Missouri 18 To Drink has concluded it can't collect the 100,000 signatures needed by May to put its initiative on November's ballot and is now aiming for the 2010 election, says organizer Michael Mikkelsen. South Dakota's legislature "is understandably apprehensive about the topic," says lawyer N. Bob Pesall, who drafted that state's petition.
"We're going to need a groundswell," says state Rep. Terry Musser, sponsor of the Wisconsin bill that would allow troops 19 and older to drink legally. "We're going to have to have real people out there say 'enough is enough.' "
Alexander Wagenaar, an epidemiology professor at the University of Florida who studies alcohol issues, doubts that will happen. Interest in lowering the drinking age is "a surprising trend," he says, because studies consistently show that raising it "has substantially reduced the amount of drinking and the amount of damage due to drinking."
Views: 102
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by CorpseQueen on
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ditto.
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Permalink Reply by Cassy on
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I think that letting people that are 18 drink in bars and resturants is an okay idea. I also think that an alcohol education program is a great idea and should be a required liscense, just like a drivers liscense. If you fuck up it gets taken away and you can't drink. It would keep irresponsible drinkers from drinking, even if they're over twenty one.
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Permalink Reply by Bob on
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That's a great idea. I'm sure the people at Budweiser, etc. would strenuously object, though.
Also, at least in the United States, government may be reluctant to curb alchohol consumption - it's heavily taxed and a large tax generator.
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that is a really great idea! if it only our government would go for it..
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Permalink Reply by Matchstick on
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I live in Minnesota, so this would apply to me. I agree with the whole lowering the drinking age debate. The majority of the people in my area (St.Cloud=Central MN) are of German Heritage, and beer is a big part of their culture and it always has been. I am of german heritage as well.
I think that the reason why kids are into getting wasted every weekend is because of the status we put on alcohol. Society has tabooed it and turned it into a forbidden fruit, and this draws attention to kids my age because they love the exitment of doing something illegal. I myself do not drink often, and if I ever do, I do not get drunk. I enjoy an occasional beer or drink, and it sucks that iresponsible people ruin it for me and others.
And yes, if you can take a bullet, you can indeed have a beer.
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Permalink Reply by Sonic Architect on
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well first I would say that being 18 and joining the military is not a sign of responsibility, maturity, or anything of the sort but often a lack of knowledge on other options...but that is a whole different discussion for a different topic.
As for drinking age...its a joke anyway and anybody who thinks that it really changes anything are probably living under a rock. I live in a college town that is not only full of freshman college students, but high and middle schoolers as well and every weekend a lot of those kids are drinking alcohol somehow anyway. Just because it is not in a bar makes it no less dangerous or anything of the such.
Got to a punk rock show where a lot of the audience are quite underage and plenty of them are just as tanked sadly. this past winter at a show an underage kid drank so much he completely passed out and had to be taken to the hospital for possible alcohol poisoning. This has been a regular occurrence in my area at shows and not just from legal aged drinkers. 18, 17, 16 year old kids getting trashed regularly.
So ultimately having it be illegal under a certain age is not working and if somebody does get busted at a party, they usually get a fine and no real punishment so what is the point? All the laws and organizations in the world are not going to curb the binge drinking we have going on. People still drunk drive as much it seems, get wasted as much for sure, with probably even more people doing it.
I myself am completely straight and do no substance at all. This is not to say I hate every person that drinks in a social manner but I think there is a line between what people think is social drinking or actually being into the culture, and just use it as a blanket statement to justify them getting trashed at parties. Again, this does not apply so much to people who come from cultures that value things such as fine wine or tasting etc or having wine with dinner etc. but the point of most parties is to get as inebriated as possible. It is a bit sad that somebody who blacks out or passes out from drinking at a kegger is somebody people on a campus associate with cool or higher up the ladder than say somebody doing work with a local health clinic or progressing good things in society.
So lower the drinking age, raise it, not gonna matter because people are going to do it anyway no matter what and they will do it in excess. This will continue until the root problems of WHY people feel they need to drink so excessively (or get high or fucked up on drugs etc) are addressed and tackled.
To clarify anything, drinking in itself is not bad if done in moderation and people exercise self control. THOSE are the things that people and companies really need to step up on, getting people to have self control. Then start working on root causes of excessive/addictive/binge drinking and work to correct it a bit.
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Permalink Reply by Mohawk Joe on
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As posted by Sonic Architect "well first I would say that being 18 and joining the military is not a sign of responsibility, maturity, or anything of the sort but often a lack of knowledge on other options...but that is a whole different discussion for a different topic." I laughed when I read this because it is so true. Couldn't have worded it better myself =)
Now to the drinking issue: I turn twenty on saturday, but that means nothing to me. I will still drink at my party. My roommates don't care, my parents don't care because they know that I can control myself, and that's what it's all about.
I have had the experience of hanging out with people who sit around in the park and drink all day. I wanted to know why. I wanted to know why they weren't on the streets advocating their cause. Why did they just drink?
I actually was at a mexican restaurant in the city once and they served me alcohol even when I told them that I was under 21.
So I think that most people agree that it all boils down to the issue of self-control. Can you go to a show, have a few beers, and enjoy the show. Or are you going to get wasted, throw up on everybody, everything, and not remember the show? The choice is yours, no matter what your age is.
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Permalink Reply by Clint Casualty on
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About 80% of my underage friends drink.. and get drunk.. But I see nothing wrong in getting fucked up once or twice a month..
Yes, I know everyone says overtime the habit will get worse, but I Know I have enough self control'
Like smoking.. about once a month I'll take a hit of bud but I wouldn't waste my money' or life doing it every day..
I can't say the same for my friends who are addicted.. But I believe if they wanted to' they could stop, and it's only in their heads
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Re: But I believe if they wanted to' they could stop, and it's only in their heads.
And therein lies the problem. The brain can be an extremely difficult thing to change....
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Permalink Reply by 188 211 88 on
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yea i agree if your old enough to be put in prison, get blown to shit in a country uve probly never heard of or could give a fuck about for your country then you should be able to get some alcohol. even if it doesnt get lowered people under 21 are still goin to get alcohol they jus get people 21 and over to get it for them ive had to do this since i was 15 or 16 yea its a hassle and a pain in the ass but who cares as long as you get your fix. hopefully they do lower it to 18 tho.
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