Drinking age 18 maybe?..

here in nz the age is 18. its perfectly normal tho for 14 and 15 year olds to be drinking at parties etc.
 
Different bars have different crowds though right? Provided you don't live in a really small town (which may be the case I don't know) all the young people stick to their own places anyway.

I will concede that public drunkedness would most likely be a problem. I'm not sure how to get around that one. And I'd like to say it would be less of a problem than dangerous binge drinking in basements, but I'm not sure that would be the case. We've had a bit of a problem here with bar fights and violence in the club district lately. Damn, I don't like to admit you've got a point.
 
i voted no cuz i got arrested for drinking when i was 19 and i had to wait til i turned 21 to drink so all you fuckers can do the same
 
i don't want a bunch of obnoxious highschool kids at the bars i go to. i don't think anyone else does either.
 
i live in canada. i can legally drink in a year (19), and nothing more then a 5 hour drive im in quebec, (those french bastards are finally good for something) and i can drink legally now.

BEYAH!

***disclaimer -- typo: french frogs*

***disclaimer: to previous statement: jk ^ jk.
 
here driving (supervised by fully licenced) 16

drinking/buying 18

driving unsupervised 18 (you cant have a BAC if you get pulled over during this time though, otherwise its back to square one)

then full license at 21.

 
it wont happen, vermont almost made it 18, but the federal government threatened to take away all interstate funding if we did. uber lame
 
I really like the idea but I concur with a lot of folks here that it would result in a massive outbreak of binge drinking. What they ought to do is make it so that (if they pass the law) those kid already between 18 and 21 still have to abide by the old 21+ law while those kids withing a year or two of turning 18 are part of the new 18+ law and it would be based on if your birthdate was before a certain time. That might prevent a lot of binging. IT would be shitty for those who got stuck in the old law but oh well.
 
Living so close to Niagara Falls, Ontario I see the direct result financially of the 21 year old age limit.

Canada is straight up cashing in off all the 19 year olds that go to the clubs and bars there to legally drink.

I'd be good with a 19 year limit. And I say this as a 21 year old.
 
wouldnt the tax the government makes on the booze sold to the larger market of drinkers cover the 10% to fund highways?

it would have to come close... in australia the government makes 200 million dollers tax on alcohol sold to underage drinkers, and we have a much smaller population.

in california alone, how many think of all the kids between 18 and 21 that would buy drinks atleast every weekend... lets say the tax was $3 per person times that by population abd then by 52...
 
yup. when i drank before i was 21, i wasn't doing it to be rebellious or to have fun breaking the law. it was because i wanted to drink. if anything i drank to get drunk more when i was underage because i wouldn't do it that often, but now i can have a beer or two or whatever whenever i want and i get drunk much less often.

drinking age of 18....better not happen. the country would be in chaos. the number of drunk drivers would increase so much it would be ridiculous. maybe not though, i dunno.
 
although i am just guessing here, i'd have to say it is because the countries with lower drinking ages have been like that for a long time. and in germany for example aren't the punishments for drunk driving insanely strict? i also just have little faith in america when it comes to alcohol or drug abuse opportunities.
 
^ true drink driving has nothing to do with drinking age... drink driving can only be properly enforced with tougher penalties on drivers for doing it... in AUS they have emposed a rule that states drivers under the age of 21 cannot be over blood alc index of 0.000. facing a penalty of six month suspension of license + harsher penalties if caught more than once
 
interesting. i really don't know the validity of this, but i remember hearing that in germany if you kill someone while you are drunk driving, your penalty is life in prison or something along that line...
 
and the new laws for getting your license make it alot harder, so you really dont want to lose it.

our level normally is .05 anyway, used to be .07 then got dropped, but that was yearsss ago.
 
ye its valid for sure, maybe only in N.S.W where i live (sydney) also they have just stept up strictness on speeding, friend of mine just got suspended for 3 months for going 5km/h over the limit.

its basically a reaction to a rapid increase of kids being killed in accidents. they have also stopped us from driving anything more powerfull than a V6, turbos are also banned for provisional licenses

 
nah, its gotten stricter in melb too.

depends on what zone your in, like school, 50, whatever else kinda thing. like, going over in a school or residential gets you a higher fine than on a freeway or other roads.

the power to weight laws are ok, i dont mind them. probably cause they dont affect me, some people at school dont agree though. those people are the ones that asked daddy to buy them the brand new bmws or jags for their 18ths.
 
haha true that anything higher than a v6 is a waste of fuel anyways. besides wats the point of getting to the 60k speed limit quicker than someone else haha

wats the alco limit for you guys in vic?
 
you dont even have to be 18, but the bar can and usually will refuse to serve people under 21 even when they are with their parents
 
Stop being so elitist, and plain ignorant. Nothing makes you "better" or more deserving than an 18 year old, no matter how old you are. You sound like the kind of adults that say things such as, "children should be seen and not heard". It's not like something magically happens at age 21 that matures people. There are plenty of people above the legal drinking age that are quite immature, trust me. Have you ever watched an episode of cops? I'd trust a lot of the college students I knew at 18 to be more responsible than the drunk trash you see on Cops, who are much older than 21.

Plus - you have no problem with all these 18, 19, and 20 year olds who are so much more immature than you getting to elect our government, or go die in Fallujah while you drink at a bar?

Next.
 
ye i dont get why you can join the armed forces in america at 18 but still cant drink... have never found a good reason for this
 
cuz people are probably afriad of kids getting bombed at lunch time then going back to school.
 
Yes, I understand where you're comming from. I'm not trying to say I'm better. Sometimes I may not word myself correctly. And I agree that there are plenty of people over the age of 21 who can't strand on their own. But, you drop this drinking age down to 18, like a couple of posts in here, chaos would break out. I believe there are far more kids under the age of 21 that would abuse alcohol (due to lack of responsibility). There would be more alcohol poisoning, and more drunk driving. America is not ready to just take their law, and drop the age limit.

Voting - are the immature ones who have no idea whats going on in the country actually voting? Doubt it.
 
25 years ago, the legal age was 18. In most other countries around the world, the legal drinking age is 18, sometimes younger.

At 13-14 years old in France, I was having wine at dinner with my family out at restaurants.

The problem is that this country's strict alcohol laws have breeded a very intense disrespect for alcohol. Only doing it in secrecy or unsafe locations.

As for chaos? How would anything change for the negative? You already have parties in High School. You still have college freshmen getting plastered weekly.

Prohibition doesn't work.
 
That is exactly why changing the legal drinking age would be a problem. Most don't have the respect for alcohol. Most drink to get completely wasted. Like I said, it would be ABUSED rather than appreciated.

Chaos? Public drinking is chaos in itself. Now add to that irresponsible teens. It's hard to sit here and say it's not fair to allow 18 yr olds to legally drink. I know there are college students, living on their own, paying their bills, supporting themselves while attending school. Being responsible. But it just doesn't account for the teenagers who aren't, who would abuse the privilege.
 
Public drinking is a LOT less chaotic and less dangerous than a bunch of 18 year olds getting absolutely BLITZED at home in their basement, or back in the woods, where if someone goes over the line, the others may be hesitant to help because of the thought of the trouble they will get in.
 
sorry snwbrd milf, but the drinioing age in switzerland is 16 for beer and wine and 18 for everything else. and we are not crazy.. rather we learn to drink responsibly as part of becoming an adult. the reason so many american kids get fucked up is its kept away from them for so long. they learn how to drive before they can drink responsibly, thats just fucked.
 
wait.. i didnt finish.. so your right.. chaos would probably break out.. but thats america'0s fault for having such a retarted drinking age to start with. america even prohibited alcohol for awhile in the 30s or something!!!! my family brewery kept brewing fake beer though.. so that when the prohibition came down, bruckmann's was the first with beer!! ya!
 
God, this has got me thinking all damn morning. I feel like everyone is against me on this...and maybe you are.

Kids were brought up in America to think that alcohol is a substance to be abused - IMO. They have not learned the respect of alcohol. And I'm not speaking for every teen in America. Teens here don't casually sit down and have a beer with dinner, or wine with dessert (again, not speaking for all).

Now - to my thinking. I now don't think it would be a bad idea to ALLOW them to drink at 18. Maybe it would open up their minds to it more. Understand it better. Get it out of their systems, rather than hiding in a corner with their flask. But I firmly believe that they should not be able to purchase until 21.
 
This would be how I'd do it.

Parental supervised drinking - Any age

Social Drinking in public places without parental supervision- 18+

Purchase for personal consumption i a non-social setting - 19+
 
because there are to many fagot parents that are way to over protective and think if they lower it to 18 that there children are gunna die, that sad thing is, if they lowered it to 18 it would probably lower the deaths of teenage drinking, if you look at other countrys like yours, there not nearly as many deaths of teenagers and drinking because you guys can drink at 18. When your not able to drink llegaly kids abuse it, but as stats show once people turn 21 and are llegal to drink there aren't nearly as many deaths, because its open to them now, I find it hard to belieave that 18 year olds of america can be shipped out to Iraq, handle weapons of mass destructions and kill people, but aren't allowed a beer.
 
Biggest issue I have is that by making punishments for the consumption of alcohol by people under 21, you are just driving the drinking underground, to avenues that are unsafe and the risks are MUCH higher.

Again, all this is coming from a 22 year old looking at the laws and seeing the actual issues of them.
 
It's a really good point too. I have to say I agree.

A question though, how would you prove the personal consumption? Purchasing no more than a 6-pack?
 
i don't know about most people but i prefer going to a bar and having a couple 2 or 3 times a week. this by no means is saying i go out to the bar and get shitty. the social aspect of the bar is lot more fun than just drinking at home. nothing beats a patio in the middle of the summer.

back when i was 18 (shit that was 6 years ago) yes i did drink at home. when i turned 19 and started going to the bar i started drinking less because i wasn't neccessarily always drinking to get drunk. if that's why you drink, you may have some issues.

right now i wish the legal age in canada was 21 (sorry steve). you have no idea how many nights i go out, fights break out in the bar and i'd say a good 75-80% of the time it's little thugged out kids that are shitfaced running their mouth at eachother. i love the festival weekend in my town when every licensed establishment raises their drinking age. most go 21+ and some even go 25+

 
Well, I too wouldn't want 18 year olds at my local bar, because the attitude would surely change.

Catch 22 really.
 
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