Drinking Age being set at 18?

[Giorgios]

So recently I've seen a petition being passed around to lower the drinking age to 18. The argument is that since you can buy ciggaretes at 18, and other various things as an adult, why can't you drink at 18? Additionally, some say that for those who drink at 18 anyway are afraid of getting help when suffering from alcohol poisoning and the like due to the consequences that could follow.

 

What do you think about this petition, and should the age be lowered?

[Matthew]

I don't believe the age should be lowered.  Alcohol affects a person differently than cigarettes and actually has a mind altering effect.  Make people wait till 21.

[icannotdomyjob]

If this is USA, then I don't care. Those that want to harm themselves with poison, can go ahead and do it on their own.

 

The only real good use for alchohol, is in chemical compositions and utilities, as a base: cooking, medicine, cleansing agent, metallurgy, etc..

 

Lowering, increasing, or remaining with the current drinking age law will not prevent misuse.

[TechnoWolf]

Drinking age in France is technically 18 ; but no kids respects that age. Even me, in some extent :

 

I got my first beer at 15 ; champaign at 16..... 

 

So you know....

 

 

I've never intentionnally got seriously drunk, though...

[56008]

I don't believe the age should be lowered. Alcohol affects a person differently than cigarettes and actually has a mind altering effect. Make people wait till 21.

I've never bothered to look into the reasonings behind the difference in age limits since I only occasionally drink and never had the interest to even try smoking, but I always assumed this was the case as well.  Although smoking has plenty of negative long-term side effects, alcohol's short-term side effects are more dangerous to the drinker and possibly anyone nearby.  So I'm not surprised that they would only want people a little more "mature" to handle it.</p>

[TechnoWolf]

I would like to add something.

 

 

Last night I was at my friend's wedding and got kind of drunk. I'm kinda used to it so I can determine how I will end up the next day. Which always gives me

enough self control to tell myself "okay, now I stop". And so I had the same reasoning this night, I got back home at 6 o' clock this morning, thinking I will

try to sleep for at least three or four hours and be tired for the rest of the day and take it slow, etc...

 

 

Boy, was I decieved. This morning, as I woke up, I was in one of the worst shape I had ever experienced. Not only was I completely dehydrated, but also coming down with one of the worst

case of stomachache I ever suffered. My brother witnessed several hours later how bad I was, and yet not "sick'", but just really really feeling bad. (We have a word : "?pave", which is the

french for "Wrecked Ship", we also use it to describe a person waking up from a baaaaad hangover). I still hardly believe what happened today : not even the absynth drove me in such a sorry state. And as I

was trying to determine if I was still sleeping or hardly awoken (in which case, since my next question was "Why is there a wolf head starring at me on my wall ?", I was gonna have to ask my friend

where did he get his champaign).

 

Let us be clear on one thing : I've had really bad hangover before, some which started at 3 or 4 o clock in the morning, with my face crashed into the roadside gutter.

 

 

But this was different. I did not drink that much. 

 

So I came to the realization that if we are to lower the age of alcohol for young people, and if we are to tolerate kids trying alcohol. We might at least warn them about some infos we may or may not

have learn ourselves the hard way.

 

As you all know, the more the alcohol ferments, ages, etc... the more its quality will raise. That explains some rhum, for example, being 5?, while some are 15? (pardon my europeanness, play along).

 

You may also know that some ailments such as bread, rice, pastas, help your stomach cleaning up the alcohol you have ingested and therefore help digeting (there are some meds for that, but you know, don't

get used to meds too soon, like I unfortunately did.....)

 

Another pro tip I can give : you may have already experience the next day of a drinking night, and having a severe headache, and another one where you had a bad time sleeping too but no headaches this time.

This is a bit technical and starts getting out of my knowledge, but from what I understand : cheaper alcohols contains a lot of sulphites, which is a particle that makes your blood clot. You guess what's next :

either you drink really really too much and then no more blood circulation = heart stop. Or, at a lesser degree, and what happened to a lot of us (I infer) : your blood didn't circulate that well, and your head especially

feels it.

 

"Good" alcohol (good here refers to the quality) have less sulphites. If you happen to get drunk over a good wine, bier, or anything else, you will still have a "bad" night of sleep, but your head won't feel as heavy as it would

with a bad one.

 

 

What happened to me yesterday was that the champaign wasn't a very good one. Which led me to the sorry state I described earlier.

 

 

Where am I going with all this ? Will I ever survive ?

 

 

Well, yes, I will survive. Have you seen me ?! I'm me !!

 

 

But seriously : Where am I going ?

 

 

I think if this is the future where kids are going to drink no matter what the severity of the consequences are, then instead of telling them just "Don't drink ! it's bad !! ", we should teach them what we know.

Not just the tips about "how to survive your night", but the whole oenology thing about what composes alcohol, how you can determine if an alcohol is good or bad, what price you should at least put, etc etc...

 

This is an idea I've been entertaining for a long time : like we like to do with videogames, some people like to spend their evening drinking. Not a problem, but they should know (and not just "why", but "how"), they should

be informed and be given a sense of responsibility. Now I know this isn't the perfect solution, but no solution is perfect. I still think it would not only help the "young drinking problem" but also help the entire "mentality problem" our society

is being plagued with ; and without straying away from the thread too much ; I think the society is plagued with the same problem each time (alcohol, drug, violence...). People aren't responsible because they've been taught

again & again that "in the end, it's not their fault". It's very very clear in my place. Whenever I hear a case of murder, or rape, there's always somebody to say "what if the man deserved to die ? or in the rape case : what if the woman

DID play attractive just to play hard to get right after ?" (and yes, I know, these arguments are shit, but know that judges DO consider those and sometimes put the criminals, who I might add are younger and younger as time passes, in jail for a small two months......)

 

If people where given the keys to start thinking for themselves, there would still be the lost causes, but I think some people would get the message.

[icannotdomyjob]

@TechnoWolf

Agreed. I admonish my closest ones all the dangers of Alcohol, and why it's better to just drink apple juice or malt. Still, the age is not the problem, education and ignorance is.

[TechnoWolf]

And now I get the feeling drinking for me is going to be very very important if I want to keep my sanity.

[Volux]

I think it should stay at 21. People break the law with it...like 90% of people under 21, but I still think it should stay at 21.

[Flaria]

Even at the age of 21, so many irresponsible teenagers will always drink and smoke due to peer pressure from any situation and now I have heard and read that they are raising to the legal age of 25. Which isn't surprised me, especially in US. Glad that I'm not alcoholic type, I like to drink socially with people I know and only gets drunk once. I preferred wine over beer due the fact that my body likes semi-sweet flavor of mixed drinks. When I was turning 21, I didn't go out and drink right away, it took me several days or less and only drank ONE. Sadly. xD

 

My point is that if we have more responible young adults then we wouldn't have to raise the legal age. :/ I pity to some people that really into it and can't get out of it.

[TechnoWolf]

I preferred wine over beer

Even though I'm more into beer & train myself to make cocktails everynow and then.