Why is the drinking age 21?

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: JDub02

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Alcohol can sersiously damaged the livers and brains of developing bodies. At 18 or 21, the human body is more or less physically mature, and thus the potential damage to a liver or the brain cells is minimized. If, say a 12 year old, began binge drinking, they'd likely have major liver disease before they even turned the legal drinking age. Developing livers are not prepared to remove the toxic alcohol from the bloodsteam yet. And we definitely don't seen any young'uns with fewer brain cells then we already do.

Yeah? well bullets can serously hurt the liver, brain etc in developing bodies also. BUT we don't tell 18 yr olds they can't join the military.

Not to mention smoking can damage the lungs etc.

But smoking doesn't impair your ability to drive. I knew a few 18 year olds who are dead now because of drinking and driving.

My cousin got slapped with a DUI when he was in high school. He was driving around with 4 people and a keg in the back of his pickup.

Kids are stupid enough on their own. They don't need alcohol to add to it.

And he's going to be JUST as stupid at 21.

I mean, to limit alchohol to age 25 and over I would understand (not agree with but it would make more sense. People tend to "grow up" (at least people I know) between that time period... certainly not between 18 and 21 though

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: Chunkee

Originally posted by: armatron
Everyone that I know that were irresponsible idiots at 18 are just as irresponsible at 21.

at 18 you can join the military and kill someone and vote, and smoke, but no drinking

its like paying the adult price at 12 for the movie, but you cannot see the adult movie

)#*$)#($*_#)$ legislators

From what I've heard if you're 18-20 and in the military, they'll serve you alcohol. ("They" being military drinking establishments, obviously civilian rules apply in civilian ones)

Just about any bartender will serve a military ID. No questions asked.

<-- several family and friends in military, also have heard bartenders say this.

 

[marcello]

Actually, people do a lot of growing up between the age of 18 and 21, at least if they go to college they do. I'm not saying that they are "grown up", but they are much more than when they are 18. If you've been to college, look at the difference between freshman and seniors in college, MUCH MUCH different.

P.S. Usually, not always

 

[Mo0o]

I read somewhere that your liver does not fully develop until around age 21

 

[lizardboy]

For whatever reason, this country has fvcked up views on alcohol. Much like our love of guns and sqeamishness at sex, the rest of the world can't understand how we operate. Throughout Europe people in their teens are allowed to drink, somehow these countries have yet to bring about the Apocaplyse. Fvcking Puritan forefathers.

I'm all for locking up the idiot for life who kills a family of four with a .18 BAC, but the current laws are far too strict. MADD to me ranks up their with the RIAA and MPAA for spreading lies, misleading stats and flat-out bvllshit - they just happen to have a much more emotional soapbox to stand on. The RIAA can't exactly point to a dead musician who was killed by someone downloading music, but MADD can camp out in state legislatures with pictures of people killed by drunk drivers until they lower the limits once again.

?MADD is overzealous. Police ought to be concentrating their resources on arresting drunk drivers ? not those drivers who happen to have been drinking. I worry that the movement I helped create has lost direction.?
-Candy Lightner (MADD's founder)
( has disassociated herself from MADD. The drunk driver who killed her daughter had a BAC of .20)

http://www.motorists.org/issue.../nma_dwi_position.html

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/001087.html

http://www.ridl.us/

 

[TheNinja]

Why is the drinking age 21? Why is the sky blue? Why is grass green? Why do ninjas love guitars so much?

All these questions are things we were never meant to know and we will never ever find out so just give it up man.

 

[Hammer]

Q: why is the drinking age 21?

A: because the federal govt will take away a state's highway funds if they don't have it at 21.

 

[0roo0roo]

goes along with....jihad? sure!, music? oh my god that goes too far....

 

[GagHalfrunt]

The reason is very simple: 18-25 year olds DON'T VOTE. Voter turnout in that age bracket is a joke. Politicians can safely ignore them and do anything they want to them because it's the older voters who decide elections. If the 50-75 year olds say "keep them damn drunk kids off our roads" guess what's going to happen: The damn drunk kids are going to be off the roads. The side with the most money and the most votes decides the laws. The younger voters don't have the money, their only viable method of getting what they want is as an organized voting block. That power is ignored. They're apathetic screw-ups whose only ability is whining that they get mistreated. Of course they get mistreated, they don't do anything about it. If the 18-39 year olds ever woke the hell up and realized their potential they could rewrite the laws to make it okay to drink at 18, but not at 50+ because old people and alcohol don't mix.

 

[acemcmac]

I'll graduate college before I'm 20 with my BS compsci. I take major offence that the world thinks that my chronological age somehow has something to do with my maturity. I hold down two jobs (1 fulltime) while going to class and I'll be damned if the government says I can't catch a beautiful sunset and smoke dominican cigars, sipping burbon in the aft salon of the powerboat I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY...

same thing goes for the cinderalla laws that say i couldnt drive my car after 11pm, with my gas and my insurance while I was under 18, even though I was a sophmore in college. wtfbbqgrass. People who work as hard as me help keep this economy strong and I deserve to reap the benefits just as much as anyone else... and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

I'm a registered voter too. I wish less college kids would vote though as they only know what they've been seeing on TV and nobody remembers Powell's UN speech....

Truth will set you free.... if everyone would just use the brains they were born with, this country wouldn't be in half the sh!t it's in today

:beer: :| :beer:

 

[Garuda]

I just turned 22. I think the drinking age should remain at 21.

 

[azazyel]

Back in the day, oh about 20 years ago when Idaho had it's drinking age at 18 and Washington's was 21, the road from WSU to Moscow Idaho was one of the deadliest roads in the country. But then again it is pretty sketchy sober too.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Garuda
I just turned 22. I think the drinking age should remain at 21.

Please tell me one reason why I'm not old enough to drink. Humor me.

Nothing but blanket age discrimination.

 

[azazyel]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Garuda
I just turned 22. I think the drinking age should remain at 21.

Please tell me one reason why I'm not old enough to drink. Humor me.

Nothing but blanket age discrimination.

Because you'll shoot your eye out!

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Amused
The nanny-staters got their way.

Indeed. I lived in Louisiana when I was a teen, and that state was one of the last to up its drinking age to 21. I could buy alcohol at 18, then I couldn't for a while when I was 19, then I could again by 20, then they finally set it at 21, but I was ony a few months away, so I didn't care.

It was the federal government that "forced" most states to raise the limit. I know they withheld highway funds from our state when it didnt' immediately agree. That, in part, explains why some of the roads in La are in such terrible shape, or were so a few years ago. I've sinced moved, but have noticed tons of highway work during the years after when I visited home. I guess they had some catching up to to do.

I say they arbitrarily up the age to 35. Think of all the young lives they'll save! :roll:

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Alcohol can sersiously damaged the livers and brains of developing bodies. At 18 or 21, the human body is more or less physically mature, and thus the potential damage to a liver or the brain cells is minimized. If, say a 12 year old, began binge drinking, they'd likely have major liver disease before they even turned the legal drinking age. Developing livers are not prepared to remove the toxic alcohol from the bloodsteam yet. And we definitely don't seen any young'uns with fewer brain cells then we already do.

The lead from the enemy's bullets can severely injure the brain or liver of an 18 year old as well. Being old enough to die for your country but not old enough to drink a beer is just not right.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: acemcmac
I'll graduate college before I'm 20 with my BS compsci. I take major offence that the world thinks that my chronological age somehow has something to do with my maturity. I hold down two jobs (1 fulltime) while going to class and I'll be damned if the government says I can't catch a beautiful sunset and smoke dominican cigars, sipping burbon in the aft salon of the powerboat I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY...

same thing goes for the cinderalla laws that say i couldnt drive my car after 11pm, with my gas and my insurance while I was under 18, even though I was a sophmore in college. wtfbbqgrass. People who work as hard as me help keep this economy strong and I deserve to reap the benefits just as much as anyone else... and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

I'm a registered voter too. I wish less college kids would vote though as they only know what they've been seeing on TV and nobody remembers Powell's UN speech....

Truth will set you free.... if everyone would just use the brains they were born with, this country wouldn't be in half the sh!t it's in today

:beer: :| :beer:

Well said. I will be graduating before my 21st birthday also, I'm basically in the same boat as you. I'm a full time student getting my IT degree and working about 35 to 40 hours a week as a System Admin. I can vote, smoke, get a credit card yet I can't drink? It's utter sh!t and I do not think it's fair one bit.

 

[zerocool1]

they picked some arbitrary number out of their ass.

 

[Beattie]

The drinking age is 21 because the 21st amendment repealed the 18th (prohibition)

That's my guess.

 

[torpid]

Well, based on the behavior of people on campus here on the weekends and during halloween (though generally the troublemakers then are from outside of the state), I'd say that people who are college aged are definitely not mature enough to handle alcohol.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Beattie
The drinking age is 21 because the 21st amendment repealed the 18th (prohibition)

That's my guess.

would have it killed you to have read the thread?

the feds started withholding highway funding from states who didnt change their law to 21 a few decades ago

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: cashman

Originally posted by: acemcmac
I'll graduate college before I'm 20 with my BS compsci. I take major offence that the world thinks that my chronological age somehow has something to do with my maturity. I hold down two jobs (1 fulltime) while going to class and I'll be damned if the government says I can't catch a beautiful sunset and smoke dominican cigars, sipping burbon in the aft salon of the powerboat I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY...

same thing goes for the cinderalla laws that say i couldnt drive my car after 11pm, with my gas and my insurance while I was under 18, even though I was a sophmore in college. wtfbbqgrass. People who work as hard as me help keep this economy strong and I deserve to reap the benefits just as much as anyone else... and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

I'm a registered voter too. I wish less college kids would vote though as they only know what they've been seeing on TV and nobody remembers Powell's UN speech....

Truth will set you free.... if everyone would just use the brains they were born with, this country wouldn't be in half the sh!t it's in today

:beer: :| :beer:

Well said. I will be graduating before my 21st birthday also, I'm basically in the same boat as you. I'm a full time student getting my IT degree and working about 35 to 40 hours a week as a System Admin. I can vote, smoke, get a credit card yet I can't drink? It's utter sh!t and I do not think it's fair one bit.

w00t :beer:

let's start a club... you live around the PA/NJ/DE/MD area lol?

 

[Legendary]

It was a lobby from the fake ID sector.

 

[Beattie]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Beattie
The drinking age is 21 because the 21st amendment repealed the 18th (prohibition)

That's my guess.

would have it killed you to have read the thread?

the feds started withholding highway funding from states who didnt change their law to 21 a few decades ago

Geez, it was a joke man

 

[SeaSerpent]

Originally posted by: Shelly21
I think if you're old enough to die for this country, you should be old enough to drink.

agreed