As I said before, I don’t drink alcohol. My friends don’t, so I don’t. Sure, a glass of wine on Thankgiving and Christmas. But it’s not something I do usually.
And there should be existing laws, I don’t think they should be taken away because they’re violated. But the 21 age limit creates stigmas and taboos that lead to binge drinking and a social feeling of doing something wrong which makes underage drinking ‘cool’. The binge drinking culture in countries with drinking ages of 18 or younger are virtually nonexistent. I think it’d be better for society if we could be trusted to drink at age 18, just like how we’re trusted to become soliders at such an age.
Drinking age in Venezuela is 18, and there is binge drinking here, anyway. Lot of drunk people everywhere, so I don’t think the age limit is what actually creates that, but rather the culture of the people and collective intelligence.
I also agree that forbidding things make doing them appear “cool”, but sadly humanity hasn’t come with a better alternative, except education. But that’s a long process, and it’s not always effective.
The day people understand what’s good and bad for them and the society, I think it will be safe to suppress the rules.
The alcohol age limit thing is so iffy. I’m not sure I like the idea of lowering the drinking age to 18, because that still overlaps with high school, and we already have enough problems with our education system and dropouts. Plus, it would make it sooooo easy for older seniors to distribute alcohol to other students—more so than right now, even. However, many folks between the ages of 18 and 21 are obviously college students, and if the students desire to drink alcohol at a party or just at home, chances are they’re gonna get some booze. I think a better compromise would be to change the drinking age to 19, if anything. Or maybe it could be either 18 and you have a high school diploma/GED, or wait until you’re 19. I’m mostly kidding about that last one.
There should also be more reliable studies about binge drinking at certain ages, such as how much it increases/decreases under the age of 21. I also wonder what other precautions could be taken with drunk driving, because that’s really what concerns me more than anything. If the drinking age were lowered to something like 18, I think it would take a few years, decades, or even generations for the “coolness” of a once forbidden activity to wear off. But overall it could be a more effective solution to our young citizens’ drinking problems.
One more thing: I’m no expert by any means, but I think unsafe alcohol consumption is more concerning that something like, say, marijuana possession. That’s a whole 'nother debate in itself, but yes, I would rather police officers or campus safety people enforce safer drinking behaviors (no matter the drinking age) than bother with the weed-smokers (I haven’t smoked it myself, I swear). I read my campus’s newspaper regularly, and in the crime activity column I easily see more students caught possessing marijuana than anything relating to alcohol, despite the latter being an existing problem. People seem to forget that, even though you can purchase alcohol at a supermarket or a local corner store, it’s a drug.
Why do some people wanna lower it. It’s a drink! You don’t need it to live or anything. It’s good to have some at partys with some friends, but it won’t really change you’re life for the better unless you own one. I will drink laqter on, but to me, it’s not a big part of my life.
There are a lot of pros and cons for both sides, but what you’re arguing is why people should drink alcohol in general. I don’t drink it myself—in fact, upon turning 21 I was more excited to be able to purchase my own wine for cooking (seriously ). People are going to either like or dislike alcohol, or even worse they’ll become dependent on it. It’s gonna be hard to persuade people not to bother with alcohol excessively based off your own opinion of drinking (which I mainly agree with, by the way).
I just turned 19 this past summer, but I still can’t believe that I’m actually going to be 20 this year! I know I’ve got lots and lots of life ahead of me, but I still can’t help but feel a bit old at that thought.
Well, I know Spirit of Adventure is older than me (probably by several months), seeing as this thread was created in July of 2010, and Spirit was 21 then. I was still 20 at that time, getting ready to turn 21 in November. So it wouldn’t be me.
I know I’ve got lots and lots of life ahead of me, but I still can’t help but feel a bit old at that thought. 
)