Take a look at a story in the Ledger regarding the "Amethyst Initiative" -- a policy in which a number of college administrators are questioning the current drinking age of 21.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20080829/NEWS/808290301/1036/EDIT&title=Age_Old_Debate_About_Age
Other countries have conflicting ideas as to what age constititutes the beginning of adulthood -- that is, an appropriate age marking maturity. Our "legal" ages range from the driving age (depending on the state), to 18 (the voting age), to 21 (drinking age), and on upwards to 25 (the age of marked benefits/lower rates).
What are your views on the Amethyst Initiative? Should the drinking age be raised or lowered or is 21 an adequate age?
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43 comments:
I think it is perfectly fine! because if the age dropped that means more high school kids will be drunk ALL the time, going to school, and work. They will make wrong decisions! Younger kids now days already make bad decisions and if the drinking age was dropped to 18 then they will make even worse decisions! I think 21 is the right age for drinking legally. Most are more mature in making better decisions and choices.
I think the legal drinking age should be lowered to the age of 18. If you think about it, you can go fight and die for your country, buy cigarettes and other things that are needed for smoking pot. But, you can't buy alcohol. Instead of having to sneak around because they're underage, young adults at the age of 18 will be able to buy it legally and responsibly. Psychologically it while take away the thought of doing something wrong because it's "cool". We just had a major discussion in my Developmental Psychology class yesterday.
P.S. By the way, Tiffany you should listen to me, it could benifit you in the long run =)
No chris im am right!
No i'm sorry this isn't vollyball, not this time sweety =)
My views on the Amethyst Initiative are they could stop making problems with things that are fine how they are and use there years of college wisdom to solve better problems .I think that the drinking age should stay the age.The reason 18 is to young i dont think kids brains and bodys are ready to be drinking all the time and 25 is to old people will be drinking before that age.Also there would be more DUI's and law problems the could cause alot of social problems that all could be avoided if we just leave things alone how they are.
nor track hunny! either way we both could be right but im more right!
Tiffany I totally disagree. I believe that the drinking age should be lowered to the age of 18. Kids will not be drunk all the time because they will not have to sneak around and do it, which causes them to binge drink. This should be lowered because at the age of 18 people are considered responsible enough to vote or even go fight and die for their country. If one is responsible enough for this then he/she should be allowed to buy alcohol responibly.
ok just because yall are a bunch of alcoholics you want it to be lowered. If you werent you would agree with me!!! haha j/k
Dont get me wrong i have drank a few times but i dont want the legal age to be dropped so i could drink more!!!! theres no reason for it to be dropped. PERIOD!!!
In many countries the legal drinking age is 18, so why can it be the same in the US? I think that the legal drinking age being 21 in the United States does cause the majority of the drinking related problems. If it was changed to 18 it would change the amount of DUI, and drinking related crashes because if they can drink at a bar, at home or anywhere as a matter effect they woundn't be drinving around and hidding it from the cops, plus it would probally bring more tax money to the government. I think that it should be change and it will improve many problems in the US.
Rafael Valim
I STILL SAY NO!!!!
If u lowered the age to 18 then younger kids would start to sneak around and drink making even younger and younger kids drink causing the same problems we have now but at a younger age.
This isn't drug education (D.A.R.E.), you don't have to "just say no" Tiffany. Nor do you have to justify or explain yourself to me =)
they should just not care about the drinking age at all like many other countries...more taxes to the government...isint that what they have always wanted?
who cares about taxes if u have a bunch of dead kids all over the news and papers. also schools having more and more memorials for lost students if u think about it dosent seem like its worth the risk of all the lives it could affect
As far as The Amethyist Initiative is concerned, I believe that they should lower the drinking age to 18.In this country at 18 years of age, we are able to enter the military, go to war and see people and buildings blown up and the psychological effects of these things differ from person to person. We are able to vote for president and we can also apply for credit cards and loans etc. So I think the psychological effects of drinking will differ from person to person but the consequences of drinking and driving should be much harsher if they decide to lower teh drinking age.
There are obviously some very heated opinions about this subject, but i have to agree with Tiffany on this one- I do not believe that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. While there might be some that could control their drinking, I am sure there wuld be many more that could not.Everyone should remember our legal drinking age was 18 at one time and it was changed for a reason. Speaking from a parents point of view-all of my 4 children will turn 18 right before or in the beginning their senior year of hight school and I worry enough about my children-I do not want to have to worry about them being allowed to drink legally at the age of 18 and taking the chance of them ruining all the work they have put in with school and sports etc.. just because they CAN go out and drink.
I believe that the drinking age should stay the same, because if you lower it than some people will be more enticed to drink and if you raise the "bar", the people who are already at the current drinking age will become angry and bring obout protests. Also, if you look at another solution and ban alchohol completely than it would be just like the marijuana ban.
all of that is totally different than drinking! drinking makes you a different person when you take it to extremes!!! Your fighting for the country and voting is totally different than making stupid choices drinking!!
if you can vote, get married, die for your country and do preaty much everything else when your 18 why cant you drink? DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!!
getting married is for life drinking is for the night u can leave in the morning your not stuck
Plain as this... wait till your 21 because it's not goning to change!!!!
At this point, does it really even matter? I agree with c.rice, if at the age of 18 you are able to die for your country and buy cigarettes why not be able to buy beer. Kids who want to drink are going to drink regardless of any age limit. The issue here I think should be focused more on educating kids on alchol poisioning and the effects of drunk driving. So maybe kids will act more responsibly.
I agree with rafael because with other countries children are brought up around drinking and they hardly have problems dealing with alcohol.
The thought of lowering the drinking age to me provides many mixed feelings. Yeah at 18 a person is able to buy cigarettes, enlist in the war, vote, and make other major decisions in your life... it's only fair that a person should be able to buy alcohol. But on the other hand by doing that it would only add to the problems that people that are 21 and above, who are able to drink, are dealing with. Problems like binge drinking, drunk driving,and alchol abuse will definetly still exist, and i think would increase by lowering the age limit.
Tessa, you brought up an interesting point concerning education. Limiting certain education that prevents these kinds of dangers from happening is yet another problem that affects our future generations. DARE and MADD programs mean well, but they merely exploit a "Don't do it" attitude rather than a "If you absolutely must, then be responsible" kind of approach.
Another example -- has anyone ever been enrolled in a school that promoted abstinence-only education?
I believe that the drinking age is fine where it is, mainly because it's just not safe for teens. We're still developing, our organs and other bodily systems are still maturing. Why kill your liver before you turn nineteen?
Yes, it's true that we can register to vote, buy cigarettes, and go join the army at eighteen. Yes, all of these things (expect voting, haha) can cause us bodily harm: cigarettes lead to a nicotine addiction often ending in emphysema and lung cancer, to touch the tip of the iceberg. However, smoking a cigarette or twenty is not going to pickle our liver in the long run, or severely impair our judgment enough that lives can and could be lost. It's bad enough that most teenagers text and talk on the cell phone while driving, causing enough accidents as it is, that we need to put a beer bottle in their hand and pat them on the head. "Go on, little Johnny. You're an adult now. Make the right choices."
Ah, I forgot to add on to Ms. Jennings' question about the schools. Yes, my entire educational career, everything has been taught 'abstinence only'. From sex education to the D.A.R.E. pamphlets, it's all been "Just say no". They SHOULD be educating students about not only "saying no", but like Tessa said, educating students on the effects of drinking: potentially fatal alcohol poisoning to drunk driving.
I saw that someone mentioned that other countries have an 18 drinking age. Did you know that some (England for one) also has an 18 driving age? So if we want to be like everyone else and lower the drinking age, then it's only fair to also raise the driving age.
I believe, like chris, that the legal drinking age should be 18. For example, Montreal, the party city of the northern hemisphere has a legal drinking age of 16, but not everyone likes to drink. Just because its lowered doesnt mean that everyone will be drunk all the time. Plus just because the legal age is 21 doesnt mean that there isnt underage drinking still, its like if a bench has fresh paint on it, you wont touch it because its wet. But if the bench said DONT TOUCH WET PAINT, your more likely to touch it.
To be honest...I think that the drinking age is fine. If the law was to drop the age from 21 to 18 think of the damage it would cause. There would be kids in middle school as well as high school trying to get them a sip. Then there would be more violence, young deaths, and kids with criminal records and in and out of jail. Then think of our future and our kids future and the kids that will be adults who will be teaching our kids how to hold a joint or how to mix alcohol. The decisions of young people today are already at risk, so why give them another reason to act like an idiot!
I agree with C. Rice 18 year olds can serve in the armed forces, buy cigarettes, and if I'm not mistaken, they can attend strip clubs. To me it doesn't make sense to restrict alcohol to people 21 and older when 18 year olds can do these things. I guess they do it because they think that people 21 and older are more responsible drinkers.
My personal view point on "The Amethyst Initiative" is that the age should be lowered to 18. My reason for thinking this is because if a person can be registered for war at the age of 18, along with being considered an adult with moving out of the home and finding their own place to live, then why can't they buy their own drinks also? Although this may lead to more drunk drivers, I think that drunk driving should become stricter along with it. But along with that, we cannot say that a 18 can't handle most things of a 21 year old because at that poing they are allowed many of the same responsibilities...except to drink.
I think that we as human beings we just love to always contradict people and thank that we are always right. Well as teenagers we enjoy taking the other side so if they tell us not to drink we do it. We love to think that we can do whatever we want to. So no matter what they do we will still do whatever we alays find the way to get whatever we want to. So to me it really doesn't matter the age i still won't drink.
I think that the legal drinking age should stay as it is. Putting alchol into the hands of young and sometimes immature youth would only make current problems worse. The drinking and driving issues will only get worse when these young adults start expirementing and learning their limits but, what if during one of these expirements they are in an accident and are killed or kill an innocent person. There is so much responsibility that comes with the privilage and many young people are not ready for such responsibilty and will refuse to take it seriously. As far as I can see there are no pros to lowering the drinking age.
The one word being used is kid's. If you think the drinking age should be lowered shouldn't you consider yourself an adult? This is a no win situtation if someone wants to do something they do it legal or illegal. That is how americans are raised, but when you get caught on the wrong side of the law it is your own fault not somebody elses or they made me do it excuse. Nothing will really change by lowering the drinking age other than not getting busted for under age drinking if your 18.All the other laws will still be in effect. Personally drinking usually leads to partying and forgetting your responibilties, this is why I am a 30 something student still. It all comes down to self control. No one has the right to tell you what to do. The basic laws of the land apply equally which to me is be responible for your self and actions.
I think the drinking age should just stay the same. I agree that kids will go out and drink anyway no matter what the age but I feel if parents and schools would do a better job of teaching kids the affects of drinking then this wouldn't be as big of an issue as it is. I don't remember ever being taught in high school the affects of drinking. Luckily, I had parents who taught me well on the affects of drunk driving and alcohol poisoning. So if kids can't be taught by their parents then they should be at least taught at school.
I think that there are more important issues to be addressed then the drinking age. If people would put as much time and effort into something like alleviating the national debt or strengthening the economy we might be better off, opposed to wasting time on an issue as small as the drinking age. I think that the drinking age of 21 is fine as is and if lowered may cause a fight for and even lower age. After all its for the peoples protection because your brain doesn't even fully develop until around the age of 25.
I have mixed opinions on this matter. One one hand, changing the drinking age to 18 could be beneficial, perhaps. In contrast, changing the legal drinking age to 18 could be catastrophic, leading to more deaths, less community involvement, and lower interest in college. Perhaps, lowering the drinking age to 16 would be more suitable, if at all, and highering the driving age 18?
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