Damn legal drinking age

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

What’s the point, anyway? Sure, people are often too stupid to think for themselves, but a minimum legal drinking age isn’t helpful. If someone under 21 wants to have a drink, just ONE FRICKING DRINK, at a party, and knows to NOT drive home, but instead have someone else drive them, what’s the harm? But because the stupid car stalls in the winter and a police officer who saw wanted to check that the car that drifted across the intersection is fine, the kids who drank get fined and can’t drive for a few months. What kind of sense does that make?
What kind of sense does it make that the age when somebody in the U.S. can drink is the age when they are least likely to have someone who will act as a voice of reason nearby so that they don’t get drunk and do something stupid as a result? Turning 21 doesn’t let you know how many drinks you can handle before you loose control. Geez.

Okay, had to get that out of my system. Been pissed about it since New Year’s Eve (1 AM, following a Eve of New Year’s Eve party. Don’t ask, crazy friend).

In case any of you were wondering: I wasn’t drinking, I was the driver.

2

You’re an idiot. Drinking is retarded, it doesnt even taste good.

3

Taking away their driver’s licenses isn’t really the propper thing to do. Fucking fine them.

4

I don’t like alcohol. It makes me act like a fucking moron. Both Sin and Sorcerer can attest to that. I don’t drink or do any drugs or smoke anymore. I try to stay away from things that affect my brain.

But yes, it is stupid that they took his liscence away. He was at least responsible enough to have someone else drive him home. And I believe that our bizarre age restriction on alcohol causes more people to become stupid drunks than in say… Europe.

5

Here in Canada the drinking age is 19, and I’m pretty sure that we have fewer drunk driving incidents (in relation to population) then most other countries. Drunk driving accidents are caused by stupid people, not younger people.

And I was pulled over by a cop one night when I was driving my (drunken) friends home from a party. He pulled me over because I squealed my tires at an intersection. The officer asked me to open my window, and noticed the smell of beer in my car (my friends breath). Of course this was very suspicious, so he took me in the back of the cruiser and made me take the breath-a-lizer test. I passed with flying colours, and he was actually very pleased to learn that I was the designated driver of the party. He told me that I was a “responsible young man” and that he wasn’t even going to ask if any of my friends old enough to drink. He then sent us on our way, and even let me keep the breath-a-lizer mouthpiece.

6

Originally posted by Cybercompost
I don’t like alcohol. It makes me act like a fucking moron. Both Sin and Sorcerer can attest to that. I don’t drink or do any drugs or smoke anymore. I try to stay away from things that affect my brain.

If I had the time or the energy, I would look up what you said to me that night, and save it for some fun one night, because it was reaaaaaaaaly fucking funny.

I still smoke cigarettes, but I’m trying to stay off the drugs and alcohol. I still think that recreational use of both is fine (well, as far as drugs go, recreational use of marijuana is fine - everything past that is just dumb), but they cause too many problems, especially being 16 and living at home with mom.

7

If you don’t like the age system, suggest something better.

21 is the age in which they expect most people to be responsible enough to do a lot of things without causing harm to other people. I said most and not all because a lot of people will nevr become fully mature, but we have to live with morons here and there.

If you suggest a system that has no age limit, but rather something else to state in which age people can drink - and not only drink, but going to strip clubs, playing in casinos etc. - then what would keep children who are, say, 14 years old or younger from drinking?

No age limit would require people to perform tests to acquire their adulthood. Tests can be cheated, and no test would be 100% accurate on assessing people’s maturity.

edit: here in Brazil the legal age for everything is 18. I don’t smoke nor stone, but I drink. Very little drinking, actually. What I drink in one year wouldn’t get a parrot drunk (catch the reference and gain a bottle of montilla). I never got drunk too.

8

There’s no drinking age in China.
I used to drink at night when I was in middle school.

9

Originally posted by Ren
If you don’t like the age system, suggest something better.

Somewhere around the early teens would be better, if there’s to be any limit at all. I don’t really see how the current age limit does anything but eat up police time anyway. Ah hell, someone get 984 in here to give us some libertarian-ish viewpoints or something, please.

10

Oh please, AOLers are already bad when they’re sober, imagine if they were all drunkards. Also, the money that wouldn’t be spent by the police would be wasted by people in treatments for cirrosis when they grow older.

I am just not comfortable with the thoughts of children and teens being drunk.

11

I think at least half, if not more people at my old highschool that drank at the time could be quoted at some point saying they drink because it’s off limits not allowed that kind of stuff. The other half pretty much drank to get fucked up. Also a lot of the other students People I also knew in highschool that smoked did so more for the thrill of buying cigaretts under the legal age than actually smoking them. They quite often tried quitting after they turned 18 too because there was no thrill. Some still smoke and can’t quit because they are so addicted and say they hate it.
Just based off former class mates like that I don’t believe in age limits other than for developmental reasons like I’m pretty sure it’s not as healthy for a kid being ravaged by puberty to be smoking and drinking then someone thats over that phase.
As for me, I got drunk in mexico once and didn’t find it very fun it was more fun to have 1 or 2 mixed drinks and enjoy them then have like 12 beers and get shit faced.

12

Someone calling for 984?! :open_mouth: O: :open_mouth: O:, to steal a line from SG.

Okay, my opinions on drinking ages:

As they stand now, I despise drinking ages. The 21 age limit is a ploy by the federal government to get around the 10 Amendment and ideas of federalism by threatening to withhold money designated to the upkeep of roads. For a while there, Louisiana refused to abide by this and kept its drinking age at 18; its roads sucked and still suck despite giving in. (Side note: the federal government has a drinking age of 18. It is used only on federal property like military bases, if I remember correctly)

Now, if there is going to be a drinking age, I believe it should be decided upon by each state without interference or threats from the national government. I can accept 18 as that as generally the age voting rights, gun ownership rights, etc are formally granted and individuals are no longer thought of as being mindless vessels guided by their parents. However, if parents wish to give their little kiddies a gallon of Canadian Mist whiskey to drink at home, fine by me.

I view the role of government, particularly state governments, as being almost primarily there to protect you and your rights from being violated by others, not to some moral vanguard existing to tell you what you can and cannot do in the privacy of your own home. In many ways, I find restrictions on alcohol consumption, drug use, and even prostitution to be no different than the now unconstitutional illegality of smoking a meat cigar. Now, if you endanger others while under the infulence of alcohol or drugs (or prostitution, I guess, if you’re recreating the car scene from Scary Movie), you are placing others at risk and are violating their rights and deserved to be punished.

So, I guess I’m idealistically for no drinking age at all, but I know realistically that some concessions have to be made. I would be fine with a compromise of states deciding their own ages, and I would be even happier if they decided on 18, as that is seen as the age of passage into adulthood. However, you even drive drunk or commit another crime drunk, I believe you should have additional punishment for having violated others’ rights.

Some European countries, France comes to mind, have a better system with regards to drinking because it is not so despised. I’m sure its populace is taught early on how to respect alcohol. A similar case could be alluded to in earlier American history when guns weren’t so taboo, so the teaching of gun safety was more prevalent. That kind of social structure with alcohol, drugs, and prostitution would be much better than skirting the issue by making it illegal.

And in many ways, I’m not a libertarian. I define myself more as a libertarian with regards to the federal government. I’m not sure how I match up on the state scale. I guess I fit better under the Constitutionalist banner, but meh. One is merely a subset of the other.

13

I think the legal drinking age should be 21.

Months.

14

It is because most people are still way too immature. 19 years don’t do smart things when sober, adding a drink just increases the stupidity. Some people may be smart enough to get another ride when drunk, however, many are not, hence why we have so many drunk driving incidents. The age is there to try to get at least some maturity before they start drinking. A couple of years can make a world of difference.

Also, 984 is right. Military personell used to be able to drink on base before age 21, although I think it may only have been overseas.

15

Imagine what would happen if the legal age limit was eighteen? College kids could get their hands on even more alcohol, throw wilder parties, and cause more deaths and mayhem.

In all seriousness, the legal limit doesn’t work, because people get a thrill out of breaking it. Later on, they realize that they’ve screwed their lives over, and nothing can ever be returned to normal. I don’t have a better idea, besides moving it to eighteen, but even that causes problems.

16

Isn’t a little drinking good for your health?

17

Yes, but most people don’t drink just a little.

18

Ecept Brandy, Rum, Bourbon

19

I was told to post here, because there seem to be these rumors floating around that I like drinking more than the average RPGCer.

Now what was I supposed to say? Er… :thud:

984 said pretty much everything I feel about the subject though.

20

Originally posted by d Galloway
[b]Imagine what would happen if the legal age limit was eighteen? College kids could get their hands on even more alcohol, throw wilder parties, and cause more deaths and mayhem.

In all seriousness, the legal limit doesn’t work, because people get a thrill out of breaking it. Later on, they realize that they’ve screwed their lives over, and nothing can ever be returned to normal. I don’t have a better idea, besides moving it to eighteen, but even that causes problems. [/b]

<img src=“http://www.rpgclassics.com/staff/tenchimaru/td.gif”> Well, the legal drinking/smoking age here is 16 (18 for heavy stuff like vodka, though), and there’s hardly an increase of fatalities because of it. 16 year olds will somehow manage to get a hold of it anyway, so you might as well legalise it. This way, at “formal” occasions (as in, everywhere but a party on your private property), alcohol consumage etc can be monitored better, since not everyone tries to hide bottles down their pants or something.

For the record, I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs, despite living in Holland. Prostitutes all the way.