100 U.S College presidents urge lowering of drinking age.

[Ban my account ffs!]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/18/college.drinking.age.ap/index.html

I agree.  It should be lowered to 18.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/18/college.drinking.age.ap/index.html

I agree.  It should be lowered to 18.

Hell yeah!  3 more years.

[AkSaber]

Indeed it should be lowered. It's not fair to send 18 year old men to war, and to die or have an arm or a leg be blown off, but not letting him consume alcohol.

I mean what the hell? Sending young adults to war is fine, but letting them drink is what offends us?

[Sensei]

having a drinking age at all is a mistake. It works just fine for certain European countries, where you see less binge drinking.

[NDN]

If we're going to insist on having one at all, it should be at the highest 18.

Agreed. Honestly, we 'trust' young adults with smoking, voting, having sex, buying porn, or going off to god knows where to fight for us but they can't have a beer?

[Хahar 🤔]

If we're going to insist on having one at all, it should be at the highest 18.

Agreed. Honestly, we 'trust' young adults with smoking, voting, having sex, buying porn, or going off to god knows where to fight for us but they can't have a beer?

Yep. Even though my views on alcohol consupmtion don't need to be described here, I think.

[Lief 🗽]

Well, of course they'd support it. Unless you're at one of those crazy fundie colleges, the drinking age is unofficially 18 anyway.

Anyway, an incredibly lax (as in unenforced) drinking age of 16 (with 18 for hard liquor) seems sensible.

[CultureKing]

At least 19 so you can get those who say "but drinking at the high schools?!??!?! NOOoooo!!", to shut up. Really it should probably be 16 or so.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I think it works well in other countries.  In fact, a teacher I had in Austria made a huge batch of Gluehwein (mulled wine) and let her kids students at the high school she taught at(over 16 over course) drink it before bringing the rest to our college group.

If anything, the "drunkest" anyone got was slightly buzzed.

People need to stop being so anal here about stuff like that.  It's no wonder kids wanna drink until they can't drink anymore.

[Keystone Phil]

having a drinking age at all is a mistake. It works just fine for certain European countries, where you see less binge drinking.

Is this argument still seriously used here? Drinking has been a more responsible part of their culture. We can't just change that here.

[Duke 🇺🇸]

having a drinking age at all is a mistake. It works just fine for certain European countries, where you see less binge drinking.

Is this argument still seriously used here? Drinking has been a more responsible part of their culture. We can't just change that here.

Exactly. You won't find many Europeans binge drinking like kids do here in the US. Lowering the drinking age didn't work in the 70s, so I doubt it will work if tried again. Kids are beginning to drink at younger and younger ages. Freshmen at my old High School are having parties with alcohol these days. Lowering the age will just increase the likelihood that they'll drink more and more.

[Keystone Phil]

having a drinking age at all is a mistake. It works just fine for certain European countries, where you see less binge drinking.

Is this argument still seriously used here? Drinking has been a more responsible part of their culture. We can't just change that here.

Exactly. You won't find many Europeans binge drinking like kids do here in the US. Lowering the drinking age didn't work in the 70s, so I doubt it will work if tried again. Kids are beginning to drink at younger and younger ages. Freshmen at my old High School are having parties with alcohol these days. Lowering the age will just increase the likelihood that they'll drink more and more.

If people want to say that the current drinking age has no real positive impact/makes little to no difference then fine. I don't agree with it but I find myself respecting that argument instead of this nonsense "Well, Europe doesn't have a problem so let's just do it their way." It will never be that simple.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Is there anyone under 21 who is seriously inconvenienced at getting alcohol or drinking? Seriously.

[Duke 🇺🇸]

It all has to do with the culture. American culture is not the same as Europe. What works in Europe doesn't always work in the US and vice versa. In the US, when young people drink, it's mostly to get really drunk and no other reason. I've seen this both in HS and college. Growing up in a Greek household, drinking was in our culture and so I really don't buy into the whole drink till you pass out/throw up type thing. Keep the legal age where it is. Lowering it will just put more people's lives endangered, because the maturity level of an 18 year old and a 21 year old are very different in most cases.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

the maturity level of an 18 year old and a 21 year old are very different in most cases.

Ha ha. Funny one.

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

[Keystone Phil]

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

It was funny when others made the joke. It's old now.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

It was funny when others made the joke. It's old now.

I'm just getting the point across that Duke is a sick, disgusting person.

Anyway Phil, how many people do you know who do drink alcohol and are underage and are seriously inconvenience by this? I don't drink any more now than I did when I was under 21, so clearly the legal status had 0% effect on my consumption.

[Keystone Phil]

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

It was funny when others made the joke. It's old now.

I'm just getting the point across that Duke is a sick, disgusting person.

Anyway Phil, how many people do you know who do drink alcohol and are underage and are seriously inconvenience by this? I don't drink any more now than I did when I was under 21, so clearly the legal status had 0% effect on my consumption.

They are inconvenienced when they can't buy it on their own. I actually know a lot of much younger people that drink that are inconvenienced, too. It's pretty funny to see them flip out when they find out that their little friends can't get the beer for that night's party.

[Duke 🇺🇸]

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

It was funny when others made the joke. It's old now.

I'm just getting the point across that Duke is a sick, disgusting person.

Anyway Phil, how many people do you know who do drink alcohol and are underage and are seriously inconvenience by this? I don't drink any more now than I did when I was under 21, so clearly the legal status had 0% effect on my consumption.

They are inconvenienced when they can't buy it on their own. I actually know a lot of much younger people that drink that are inconvenienced, too. It's pretty funny to see them flip out when they find out that their little friends can't get the beer for that night's party.

Most of the people here at school have their older siblings or upper classmen buy it for them. It's so obvious when someone walks up with a backpack or duffleback full of stuff what's going on. I love to see it.

[NDN]

Is there anyone under 21 who is seriously inconvenienced at getting alcohol or drinking? Seriously.

Yeah in all honesty my room mate and me have smuggled so much liquor into our dorm it's not even funny. And that's just us...

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

I thought you'd support this, more girls with drinks to drug.

It was funny when others made the joke. It's old now.

I'm just getting the point across that Duke is a sick, disgusting person.

Anyway Phil, how many people do you know who do drink alcohol and are underage and are seriously inconvenience by this? I don't drink any more now than I did when I was under 21, so clearly the legal status had 0% effect on my consumption.

They are inconvenienced when they can't buy it on their own. I actually know a lot of much younger people that drink that are inconvenienced, too. It's pretty funny to see them flip out when they find out that their little friends can't get the beer for that night's party.

So does that mean they don't ever drink or binge?

I should also raise the question of the one guy who was under 21 in the house I lived in in the  first half of the year. For obvious reasons he had no difficulty obtaining alcohol whatsoever. Then there's the 20-year old guy I work with who's married to a 21-year old. However, is it a real crisis that that guy often has a drink with his wife or that the aforementioned guy would have a beer while watching movies or whatever?

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Here's another fairly strange story:

I was once at a non-alcoholic strip club when a group of high school seniors showed up. There were 5 of them, and they were hanging out with two middle-aged women. Needless to say this was kind of odd, so I found out from talking to them that the women were the mothers of two of their friends (who were not there) who liked hanging out with them. All of them were clearly at least slightly buzzed, and one was so drunk he later went outside the club and started puking.

I really wonder where those kids got the alcohol from. Hmmm...clearly these kids have extreme difficulty in obtaining alcohol.

[Meeker]

Thankfully 100 U.S. College presidents are not in charge of making alcohol policy.

[Boris]

I'm surprised they're advocating this. I would have thought colleges make a lots of revenue from underage drinking tickets.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

I'm surprised they're advocating this. I would have thought colleges make a lots of revenue from underage drinking tickets.

Huh? Mine never gave those out. What happened was anyone with alcohol on campus (even if they were 21 or over) was given a warning, and then a second warning, and a then a third written formal warning and then another one and then they might get moved and after that maybe kicked out of the dorms. That was the "dry" (haha, what a joke) campus alcohol policy.