Comments on: The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age

60 Minutes: Some Say Age Should Be Lowered To 18, But MADD And Others Strongly Disagree

[ele1989]

After viewing this video, and conducting research of my own, I have come to the conclusion that the society would benefit should we lower the MLDA (minimum legal drinking age). Being a full time student at USF, I have witnessed first hand how the current MLDA has led to alarming problems that are occurring nation wide. Young adults, aged between 18-20 have formulated a new subculture on campus, one in which they drink excessively within the confines of their dorm rooms or fraternity houses, hidden from law enforcement. Statistics show that their is an increasing rate of young adults being admitted into the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Their has even been an increase in alcohol related deaths across campuses.
If the age were lowered, I believe that we will start to see these numbers change, students will not be forced to drink excessive amounts over short periods of time ( pregaming) and due to the legality factor, will not hesitate to seek help if needed.
The society will benefit from this change.

[kls314]

I am doing a paper on this debate. My paper is on the drinking age being 18 or being 21.
Through alot of my research i have found so many different views on this. If ny one has anything to help me with this paper I would love to hear from you.
email is [e-mail]
thanks!

[lmondra]

I will have to agree in that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 again. One I will be 21 in August and to tell the truth i already had a beet and hard liquor. My first drink was when I turned 15 since then i had drinks here and there. I drink in my own home i live with my fiance and he is older than me so he buys the alcohol for me.
So don't matter what is the drinking age most of us will get that first drink under 21 and 18 yrs of age. if we can smoke at 18 why not drink at 18. if you can get in a club at 18 why not drink at 18. you are consider an adult at 18 and can be trail in court as an adult at the age of 18 why not drink at 18? you can get a credit card at 18 why not drink at 18? so many things that you can do at 18 why not drink? makes no sense why you can do all of these other things but that.

[Scott_Wr]

The drinking age was rasied to 21 in very close time proximity to the enactment of mandatory seat belt laws, Consequently, the drop in driving fatalities might be due to seat belts, not an increase in the drinking age.

[pherri]

Is anyone seriously arguing that 18 year olds today cannot get their hands on alcohol? I snuck my first beer at 14. The parents knew we'd done it and kept an eye on us from then on. No one is fooling anyone, booze is widely available.

You can believe 18 year olds can handle alcohol and therefore teach your 18 year old how to handle it; or you can let them figure it out the hard way.

The rest of us cannot know which path you'll take, and the "hard way" becomes a public policy issue, whether you are 18 or 25 or 70. You give up your rights when you screw up, by becoming drunk, by driving drunk, by losing control of your senses and judgement. You are most welcome to drink yourself silly at any age, but when you stumble outside your property into a public space, now you're affecting others.

Interesting that 18 year olds who've killed others in drunk driving incidents rarely step up and say "I'm an adult, I knew what I was doing when I got behind the wheel, try me accordingly." Instead, they say the alcohol impaired their judgement and therefore they are not accountable for their actions. So which is it -- are 18 year olds accountable adults or not? You ready to go to jail for life because you tried to drive home from a party and you drifted across the centerline for just a fraction of a second and killed someone?

I had cool parents watching me from 14 to 21, and I still drove under the influence a few times. I got lucky, and I got my a** beat by my dad the one time he found out. Maybe you have better judgement than me, but what about 10 million other teens?

Stop signs are everywhere, and people roll them all the time. But if too many accidents occur at a given intersection, they'll put in traffic lights because statistics show it will reduce injuries and fatalities at that intersection.

And enough about being 18 and serving the country...you get months of training before you are ALLOWED to serve. You have to pass a driving test to drive a vehicle, plus you have to buy insurance in case you screw up and have an accident. To drink, you just have to find yourself in the same room with some beer, wine or booze. Stay inside and you're fine. If you kill yourself there, well, that was dumb. If you step outside, you are society's problem, and since you don't have control of your body or judgement, society gets to impose anything it wants.

[Wisguy]

A few quick thoughts...

-All of the dire things that I have skimmed so far in the comments and on the show are happening under the present-day conditions of *unregulated illegality* - very much like how things were all over the USA 80 years ago with the illegal 'speakeasy' bars and pretty much everything else, when beverage alcohol was illegal for everyone.

-The long-standing university campus cliché is ever true - one can easily tell which of his or her classmates were raised under strict prohibition - they're the ones always getting into the worst trouble with alcohol.

-The *ONLY* countries on the planet that are more bent out of shape over beverage alcohol than the USA are *ALL* in the Islamic world. Nowhere else in the 'western' world is there a legal minimum drinking age that even approaches that of the 21 YO one that we have here in the USA (if they have one at all) and in most other western countries that have minimum legal ages, enforcement is a LOW priority. They are much more interested in going after people who misbehave while drunk.

-With their much lower (if there are ones at all) legal drinking ages in Europe, Europeans learn YOUNG how to *properly enjoy* the stuff, the continent is NOT being overrun with drunk kids and if you are, let's say a late teens or 20ish German and your friends ask you to go out for a beer, it's 'no big deal'. (Beer is defined as a food item in Germany, BTW.) And instead of it being an excuse to out and get legally sloshed, one's 21st birthday is 'just another birthday'.

Mike

[bestgroupcrhs]

I think we should lower the drinking age to 18 because thats when you are considered an adult. You can be 18 to work at a bar. If you can serve your country you should be able to drink a beer...

However to drink at the bar you should be 21 to lower the risk of teenage drunk driving.

Also Kids can ask anyone who is of age to get alcohol for them regardless of what the legal age is so...

[maxcrhs1]

according to prior evidence we have come tro the conclusion that the age of maturity for drinking should not be decreased in any manner. Cuz we feel that there will be an increase in fatalities involving alcohol.keep it the way it was.eric wants to say that there should be new rules should be input, licensing for drinking. better education

[mikecrhs]

In America, you are viewed as an adult when you turn 18. You are allowed to shoot a gun, go to war, buy cigarettes, vote, and move into your own house. If you can do all of these grownup things, then you should also be able to decide if you can have a drink. On the topic of drunk driving, age will not make a difference. The only difference age makes is that teenagers will feel more comfortable calling authorities when someone underage is exessively intoxicated. If the goal is to reduce fatalities with drunk driving, the would be to make harsher laws concerning drunk driving, not keep a high drinking age. Nevertheless, what is age but a number? hmmm..

[ruthcrhs]

People will always disagree with the drinking age, because each age creates different issues. It is proven that lowering the drinking age to eighteen increases the amount of drunk driving casualties. At the same time, lowering the age to eighteen may result in a decrease in the amount of drinking at home deaths, because teens will not be afraid to call 911 for a friend who has consumed too much alcohol.

There is no answer for this issue, and policymakers must decide what is most important to them.

A possible solution to this issue could be setting the drinking age to 19. This way, teens have been out of high school and lived on their own in the world. This one year means a lot maturiy-wise. It is unreasonable to imagine kids not drinking in college, the army, or whatever they end up doing after they graduate. Setting the age to 19 should be seriously concidered, and may end up being the best solution.