underage drinking..

[backpacker]

JackFTwist, I fully appreciate your points and agree that we don't want to have any teenagers or anyone lost to drunk driving or other alcohol related tragedies. I give MADD credit for raising awareness to the problem, which is really the key to controlling the problem. The reality is that there was a direct correlation to between raising the drinking age and the rise of illegal drug use by teenagers. In addition, because teenagers are in a less supervised environment than even a bar, binge drinking has greatly increased since the age was increased. Drinking in bars is also more expensive, which should lead to less being consumed. We really just traded one problem for a bigger problem. In addition, if these teenagers can't drink in bars, they are often driving around drinking. I think my suggestion of a drinking license goes a long way to addressing the issue.

On the awareness, a major change has occurred in the last 25 years. Police used to look the other way at drunk driving. When I was 17 a drunk driver ran a red light and hit us. Luckily both of us were almost stopped by the time of the collision and the only damage occurred to the cars. The driver admitted just coming from the bar and smelt of alcohol. Not only was he not arrested, they let him drive his car home. I had a friend who was so drunk we wouldn't let him drive. We wouldn't move the car the was blocking him in the driveway. When we weren't paying attention, he got in his car and drove through the front lawn. He went off the road and took out five street signs. Result, a ticket for loss of control. I have many more stories of people not taking drunk driving seriously. In today's environment, both these people would go to jail. But far more important than that, people now realize how dangerous drunk driving is. Sure there are still many people driving drunk, but nowhere near as many as 25 years ago. I would be all for mandatory alcohol education classes before issuing a drinking license. I would also like to see a significant tax on alcohol for education.

By the way, I'm not a big drinker at all. Every time I buy a 12 pack, I usually end up throwing away 10 of the cans because they go bad after 120 days. I also don't encourage people to drink. I just realize the reality is that teenagers are going to use something and I hate to see them on illegal drugs or with a police record for having a couple of beers. I believe that most 18-20 year olds are responsible and I don't want to deny all because we fear some can't handle it. If that's the case, all drinking should be illegal. We already know how well that worked 80 years ago.

 

[Gay Angel]

dammit, sorry

 

[Gay Angel]

well....according to what kind of excercise you do, it can also be harmful to your body. Running on cement can damage your knees and your back. Using certain machines can strain your muscles and if somebody is stupid and tries to lift too much, they can seriously harm themselves.

...I think it all goes back to the society. Whatever the media tells us MUST be true...yeah? The media doesnt advertise the dangers in excercising or other things of that sort...but they hype up certain things such as alcohol or marijuana. Who knows why...and im not saying alcohol isnt dangerous, because when the drinker isnt being responsible, they can cause some serious damage. However, I think that principle applies to most things in life.

....oh and just a little FYI, caffiene causes more of a affect on your brain then alcohol.

On most exercise equipment there are warning labels telling those who wish to use it that they should consult a physician or another related expert before
using the equipment. An in the case of a non-specific exercise program (i.e. running on concrete), one should always talk to their doctor before engaging in a new exercise schedule, or do so under the supervision of someone qualified, like a personal trainer. All they ever write on alcohol is "Drink responsibly", hoping that that will be enough to get people actually drink with some measure of restraint. It doesn't say on liquor that drinking this product can cause serious injury or even death if improperly used. It does not say that you should consult a physician prior to drinking to find out the possible side-effects of drinking that alcohol. I would say that the media has to hype up alcohol safety awareness because the liquor companies don't provide warning labels on their products (probably because they fear people might not drink their product if they do).

Also, I don't drink anything with caffiene in it, either. Eating an apple in the morning will do more to wake you up (or help a hangover) than coffee will.

 

[Gay Angel]

Not to be a pest or anything, but when was the last time you drank a beer? This is taken directly from the label of a Hefeweizen in my fridge:

GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) according to the surgeon general, woman should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems
so that pretty much cancels out your arguement about the liquor companies not providing warnings about health. Im surprised you never noticed these huge labels on beer since you manage a liquor store and all....you need to study your product more.

That label is not found on any of the American or Canadian beer that I sell in my store, nor is it found on any of the liquor bottles we sell. Judging from the name of the beer you chose in your example, it seems to be an imported beer, and perhaps they do have more explicit warning labels on those kinds of beer, but I assure you they do not on most domestic beers.

I do understand your points, though

 

[gayteentn]

I know people my age [ 18 & 19ish] that are more mature and can handel their alcahol better than most people legally able to drink

 

[mike_n_herrin]

i'm not sure what the original reason behind a 21 year old age limit for drinking in the US is. However, i will say that we know alcohol affects development, particularly in the brain. I'm not talking only during fetal development, I mean adolescents also. Since folks develop and mature at different rates there are bound to be some folks who have not finished developing at 18. I know a number of folks (guys mainly) that were still fairly short their freshman year of college (at 18) and didn't shave much yet. But by their sophomore year they had hit their growth spurt finally and were taller and shaving. that's an extream case to be sure, but the point is if they were folks who drank, even moderately before that there may have been developmental side affects later on. So to me drinking at all is not a great idea (we know it damages stuff and we know it causes us to behave differently) so why inflict that on teenagers who are already having their own traumatic time just growing up?

 

[thermodynamics]

I think it's a problem to have kids possibly drinking while still in high school, so perhaps 19 is better.

The biggest thing to me is that the draft age/age you can go into the military should be EQUAL to the drinking age. In other words, if you're mature enough to fight and die for the country, then you're also mature enough to drink to your country.

 

[Swellegant]

All the 21-drinking-age does is make it a little more difficult to get and ends up making alcohol seem more glamorous and grownup to children. Underage drinking has this fatal glamour, this taboo-breaking appeal, that you don't get in places where they don't bother themselves with drinking-ages. In Continental Europe, people often start drinking wine when they're children, and though I don't have any evidence to support this, I don't think they have as much of a problem with teenage drunkenness as Americans do.

Drinking in the average American family is something that only adults do, and young people pretty much have to learn to drink on their own, in high school and college. As a result, they make mountains of idiotic mistakes. If, however, alcohol isn't set up as this glorious if demonic wonder-substance, I think kids wouldn't care so much about getting tanked.

I think I would have fallen into drinking problems no matter what I did, the son of two alcoholics from long lines of alcoholics; but I think that if I hadn't gotten into so heavy of drinking so early in my life (one always drank to get drunk), I might have made a lot fewer mistakes that have blighted my existence ever since.

 

[luminum]

All in moderation. I'm underage and I still drink...most college students aren't of age until their Junior year (or in my case, my senior year). But always in moderation.

Also, at the point where you're drinking alone, you've got a problem.

But in other countries, alcohol isn't so mystified and taboo and kids have a little wine with their meals and I think that promotes a less obsessive sentiment towards alcohol.

 

[gmoney]

All the 21-drinking-age does is make it a little more difficult to get and ends up making alcohol seem more glamorous and grownup to children. Underage drinking has this fatal glamour, this taboo-breaking appeal, that you don't get in places where they don't bother themselves with drinking-ages. In Continental Europe, people often start drinking wine when they're children, and though I don't have any evidence to support this, I don't think they have as much of a problem with teenage drunkenness as Americans do.

I was thinking along those same lines, Robert. I was 18 when the legal age was still 18. It changed from 18 to 19 during that year, and then from 19 to 21 the next year. I had so many friends that started out legal and then had that rank taken away and they became underage again! I was a bartender from the day I turned 18 and with my liquor license, I wasn't affected like my friends.

I still think 18 is a fair age to be legal. No one matures at the same rate. There are plenty of 21 year olds that act like 14 year olds.

 

[amigo32]

I don't drink that often, just not my thing...and I still think the drinking age should be lowered to 18.

My experience in college so far is the most binge drinking occurs when people are underage....why? Because they can't drink legally, so 18 year olds drink with 18 year olds, and things get out of hand. People are going to drink at 18 no matter what the law says, so we might as well make it legal, that way people have the option of drinking in a controlled environment.

So, rather than ariving at college and hitting up the frat parties with keg stands and drinking games stuffed in some basement somewhere....maybe it would be better if there was an option to go out to the bar, get a couple drinks, maybe listen to some music, dance, meet someone....I find a lot of people who went completely crazy underage, drank significantly less after turning 21, maybe because the situations they were drinking in began to change.

Freshmen year, there was one night when my roommate came back particularly trashed.....they had an upperclassman buy them alcohol, and couldn't bring it back to the dorm, so rather than waste it, they just drank it all.

In my opinion, I just think there would be more control over the problem if it wasn't pushed underground.

 

[backpacker]

That label is not found on any of the American or Canadian beer that I sell in my store, nor is it found on any of the liquor bottles we sell. Judging from the name of the beer you chose in your example, it seems to be an imported beer, and perhaps they do have more explicit warning labels on those kinds of beer, but I assure you they do not on most domestic beers.

I do understand your points, though

The label is required for all alcohol sold in the US. I see you are in Canada, which would explain why you don't have the label.

 

[backpacker]

Like gmoney, when I was 18 the drinking age was 18. When I turned 19, it was raised to 19, then 20 at 20 and finally 21 at 21. I was in the prefect position to witness the differences in those who could drink and those who couldn't as the people one year younger than me had to wait three more years to be legal. Binge drinking and illegal drug use increased significantly for those who couldn't legally drink.

The reason the drinking age was raised to 21 is that MADD used their new found political power to pressure Congress to raise the age as a way to reduce drunk driving. Of course Congress doesn't have the power to directly regulate the drinking age, so they used blackmail to force the states to change the law. Any state that did not raise the age would have their highways funds cut. This was the same way that the national 55 mph speed limit came into being. The states in both cases reluctantly changed the laws to save their highway funds. Louisiana thumbed their nose at raising the drinking age for a while, but then finally gave in.

For years police basically didn't enforce underage drinking by those 18 to 20 years old. I was at many parties where underage drinking occurred. When police arrived, they would normally deal with the noise complaint by either telling everyone to keep the noise down or go home. I never once saw a cop even mention underage drinking. The cops grew up when the drinking age of 18 and didn't really believe it should be 21. What happened to change this? People starting suing when an underage drinker caused some sort of trouble. The police started to enforce the laws and some politicians decided they could score points with likely voters by aggressively enforcing the law. What I'm surprised at is that many of the people who had to endure the 21 year old drinking age are now in positions to affect change and haven't.

 

[luminum]

I hear that a lot, but I dont really buy it. Of course I could be one of those alcoholics who are in denial, but I highly HIGHLY doubt it.

I've had a fake ID since I was 17 and really only abused it during high school. Every weekend we would binge drink...which is pretty much normal for a party high school crowd nowadays.

I've settled down a lot since then, but every once in a while I just feel like buying a bottle of wine or a 40 oz and watching a movie alone. I dont wanna go through the hassle of getting dressed up to go out and tracking down a DD and spending money and all. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It will be maybe 3 weeks since i've had a sip of alcohol and then i'll decide a movie and beer sounds good....

I do not think this is a problem.

No, you're right. The odd beer as refreshment doesn't mean anything. When is ay drinking, I draw up images of some of mys choolmates sitting at home on a Saturday night drinking hard liquor on their own.

 

[Gay Angel]

damn canadians...

I know, eh