hello im in the NYRA (National Youth Rights Association) and im doing a poll on what they should do with the drinking age. and did you know that by allowing people to do certen things just because they are older is discrimination? if you want to do more to help our cause and make the youth's voices heard go to the NYRA website youthrights.org and see what you can do to help out.

thanks
jcreuter

Get rid of it, or Jj go to Germany!

dave u got me all exited thinking ooo someone posted but then i found out it was u and i was like oh well but i like ur comment thanks

I hate that people throw their lives away by drinking when they're really young. Same thing with drugs. I don't understand the absolute fascination with alcohol, but efforts to stop it from going out of hand are very ineffective. Posters won't stop people from drinking. My peers, myself included, are still immature. To put alcohol in the hands of these children who are just getting into high school and college is an absolute travesty. We're still children, like it or not. Just because you can drink even a little bit does not make you an adult. It makes you stupid. Wait until you can handle it. I get incensed by any mention of teen car accidents involving drunken drivers because it's like...that could have been prevented so easily. You didn't have to drink OR drive, and yet, you get into your car and you kill people. It's not a personal thing either. It's a moral thing. How could you possibly do that?

Ugh, also, the smell of alcohol makes me nauseous. I think that factors in at all. I don't think we should raise the drinking age because 21 is when you get out of college. If we practice moderation and make sure younger kids don't get their hands on substances while we can control it, society will be all the more better for it.

i belive that if everyone grew up around it then less kids would drink it to rebel from there parents witch could lower the abuse of it but i agree that too many people have messed up their life with it and i think if we get rid of the drinking age then it will lower that #

Umm... im a bit confused about this question, but well i think that there should not be a drinking age. Alcohol is dangerous for young and mature people, so then why not make alchohol forbidden for everybody? Generally people nowadays start to drink at teenage, and most of them are aware of the consequences, but they still do it.
It is just something you must decide, if stay with alcohol or not.
But of course those are just my thoughts i bet there are some strong reasons for forbid alcohol only to young people.

People who want to drink, smoke, etc., are going to, regardless of what the legal age is. "Booting" (bootlegging) is a pretty common thing where I live, and its not hard to find someone willing to do it for you. I'm more concerned about ageism related to minimum voting ages. I feel that public education gets shafted in terms of government funding because students can't vote. What bugs me about our society in general is the misconception that maturity and ability to handle responsibility is directly related to age. I know kids in middle school who are very mature, and some adults who need to "grow up", so to speak. Yet, people assume that if you are young, you are more foolish than someone five years older. It most definitely is discrimination, but unfortunately it's so ingrained into our society that I doubt it will be going away anytime soon.

@biscuitrat: I know you mean well, but I'm not so sure that raising the drinking age would create a generation of more responsible drinkers; it seems to me that it would do the opposite. People tend to want what they can't have, so the more you dangle it out of their reach (theoretically, since drinking laws are very poorly enforced) the more they'll want it when they get it. That's why the most successful dieters go by the 80/20 rule rather than a diet that forbids certain foods entirely- once they quit or finish the diet, the second group go binge on the "bad" foods, and eat far more than the people in the first group. I think the only way to reduce the problem of teen alcohol abuse is to have a lot of resources available to educate them before they start drinking, and help them stop if/when their drinking starts causing problems.

EDIT: edited for clarity

This post has been edited by zyzzyvette: Feb 7 2007, 05:14 AM

Hm..this is a very tough and complex question and there ain't no straight answer. The thing is that kids should not get in touch with alcohol in the first place and that means that parents should not drink alcohol at all! Not just in hiding in front of their kids because they will be caught very soon, but should not drink because that is a bad and needless habit that is then passed on to children. So the first step is to TEACH THE PARENTS HOW TO BE PARENTS, because they are the first example, children see and I think the most powerful one. If one has a good base in ones home then even schoolmates will have a tough job to make someone drink...

Now the second part - schoolmates and friend that drink alcohol and influence our children so they drink it too - so that they are cool. The thing is, if the above thing is respected and all parents stop driking alcohol, this will not be popular between children and teens and it will be eventually rooted out...

Parents don't have a word to say if they drink alcohol!!!

And that is the key thing...

As far as that law is concerned - of course it should be raised - it should be raised to 120+!!! Because this is the only way to prevent people from drinking alcohol - ban it totally! Of course that is impossible because of the biiiiiig industry behind the whole alcohol-thing, but as far as i'm concerned, the age of allowence should be as high as possible...

Best whishes

I agree with Biscuitrat and somewhat with MIGUE2k7.
I've seen my classmates (15-16 years of age.) drinking alcohol, yup, they do it here, for what reason? Just to rebel and act as adults. it is not a good thing as Biscuitrat says, you can't handle these things when you are so young. The "rush-of-blood-to-the-head" makes you feel like you can do anything when you are a teenager but even if you want to, how dare you injure or take away the lives of others?