The drinking age should not lower to 18.

Thoughts anyone?

I can honestly say from experience that they us age should be higher yeah yeah alot of people will and are going to disagree, but when i was 7 my cousin and my uncle got in a fight while they were drunk at a wedding reception and when people got them inside i saw my cousin's leg and it was bleednig like crazy because my uncle threw glass at him. and no my family isn't a whole bunch of drunken douches./ it was one time.

I guarentee you that almost all my friends have had at least tried alcohol, and most of them do wish the drinking age would be lowered. But I can see why, in the US, the alcohol age is 21. It's clear to see that many people just dont know how to handle themselves, and they dont know how to control themselves, not saying that everyone is like that, but there are many people that just lose it. I mean, if u want alcohol that bad, go move to a place where the drinking age is lower!

The drinking age is 18 in a lot of places but it doesn't mean that people younger won't drink, they will do it regardless of age limits.

18 in Alberta too. Kids often make road trips down there from my Province.

In some Canadian provinces, like Quebec, it is eighteen.

yay for culture and fuck alchohol it just messes you up.

It's not the age, it's the culture. In european culture the legal drinking is 18 and yet you don't see as many drunk driving accidents as in the US.

Teenagers here have easier acces to alcohol so getting drunk ocasionally isn't a taboo issue, it's seen as normal in adolescence.
There is another important factor and that is transportation, here you have acces to a huge public transportation network, so when people know they are going to drink they don't take their cars.

I've spent time with some pretty mature 12 year olds. But I was talking about scientific evidence. Peer-reviewed, preferably.

quote:

What evidence do you have to back this up?

Spend time with a 12 year old.

quote:

It should be noted that even 21 year olds are not fully mature.

I'll agree, some 21 year olds are immautre, but almost all are more mature than a 12 year old. I'm assuming your not talking about physical maturity, but emotional.

quote:

Bushsupporter:
12 year olds are not responsible enough to drink.

What evidence do you have to back this up?

It should be noted that even 21 year olds are not fully mature.

quote:

The major cause of death for 16-20 year olds are car accidents. They clearly are not that responsible either.

Who was driving?

I don't think the drinking age matters as much as people believe. There will be people who binge no matter what, and people who abstain no matter what, with many people falling in between. It is ridiculously easy to get alcohol.

I don't know what I feel the drinking age should be since there are pros and cons to a variety of ages and I really don't know enough about the European systems to comment on them.

12 year olds are not responsible enough to drink.

The major cause of death for 16-20 year olds are car accidents. They clearly are not that responsible either.

And as I have long ago: the drinking age, as it is now, allows for people who are friends with 21 year olds to have access to liquor. If the drinking age were 16, people who were under age and friends of 16 year olds would have access to booze. That means that we would have 13, 14, and 15 year olds consuming alcohol in much higher numbers than we do now. That is why I do not support the lowering of the drinking age.

quote:

Bushsupporter:
I have known many English people, and almost all of them were alcoholics. Seriously.

Hasty generalization. The idea that all English people are drunk does not logically follow from this statement, making it effectively pointless.

What reason is there for not lowering the drinking age, aside from the previous statements here, which have not actually said anything other than "I don't want it to be lowered."

quote:

I have known many English people, and almost all of them were alcoholics. Seriously.

I dispute that. I have not known one English person who was not a drunkard. I knew one, but I later found out she was welsh.

I think that 19 is a good "legal" age for people to drink. By then most people have moved out and either are at school or have a full time job, by then its harder to control what. Kids will always drink underaged, its part of our culture, whether the drinking age is 16 or 19, as soon as you tell a kid they can't do it they'll want to do it.

I am sure you think that everything done in other countries is better here.

I have known many English people, and almost all of them were alcoholics. Seriously.

I think other countries that do not have a drinking age are the smartest...it's not a novelty that needs to be abused for those kids.

Then there are Metro Detroit college students who aren't legal to drink in the US yet...so they go to Canada in order to take advantage of their age 19 limit.

Indeed, why not?

Let's lower the drinking age to 12. And keep the driving age. Then they will still have four years to drink. Why not?