Why is the drinking age 21 and not 18?

Question

Is it just me, or do most college students drink? And how can the police possibly catch underage drinkers fairly if there are so many of them (especially in a boston, where there are a million colleges)? Doesn't it make much more sense to have the age at 18 like it used to be? People might not go as crazy with it because it wouldn't be illegal...

obviously, I mean in the U.S. sorry!

Answer 1

I think having a drinking age at all just causes problems..

I grew up around alcohol, tasted my first beer when I was 11.. and I turned out fine..

It is more important to teach the responsability needed to drink than to restrict someone so that when you let go they have no idea what they are doing

an 18 year old that gets drunk for the first time is just as stupid as a 21 year old that gets drunk for the first time

Answer 2

No I can't believe you suggest we lower the age to accommodate law breakers. I was once a teenage drinker ( peer pressure, experimenting, and getting drunk was fun at the time ) but now I'm better educated and think differently. I still like to drink and I won't lie, I like the feeling from moderate drinking. But many recent studies now indicate that there is a big maturity leap at around 25 years old and many of my friends in political office have been telling me for years that their going to raise the age even higher. The only thing stopping them is all the alcohol companies lobbying money their spending because they don't want to loose all those profits they make off kids. I was in Belgium to play at the world beer garden festival and they had No age limit, honestly, to my surprise (this was back in the 70's) they actually had dispensing machines in the elementary schools where you could buy a very small bottle of beer for around 3 U.S. cents. If you don't believe me check it out. They have the worlds largest beer consumption of any nation averaging around a pint and a half a day per man, women, and children.

Answer 3

It won't ever matter what the law says the legal drinking age is, there will always be people breaking that law and some abiding by it. Besides, just because so many do it doesn't make it right. Chew on this, the legal drinking age in Germany is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for hard liquor. They can't get a drivers license until they are 18 though.

Answer 4

Just because somepeople do it younger does not mean it should be allowed. The reasoning behind the age is to help deter underage drinking because most young people do not drink responsibly -lack of maturity level. Case in point, college students. See how stupid they act when they drink. Some are too stupid to know when enough is enough, hence the rise of alccohol poisoning on college campuses. Laws are there to protect and be obeyed. Not everyone does it, but there is sound reasoning behind this one. It wouldnt hurt for it to be higher, but there are plenty of people out there who do drink responsibly.

Answer 5

Most college students do drink, and just because underage drinkers get caught so often doesnt make it any better, it just makes them look stupid for getting caught while trying to be slick. Thats the point of having to be 21 instead of 18, youre just not mature enough to think ahead. :)

Answer 6

If the drinking age is 18, as it was when I was growing up, high school kids have beer at their parties. At 21, it is just the college kids. The number of drunk-driving fatalities plumetted when the drinking age was raised to 21 across the US. We Americans tend to drink and drive. Teenagers, especially. It saves lives.

Answer 7

Drinking Truth
in the late 1960s we changed it from 21 to 18
the 18 to 20 age group started killing there self off in car wrecks by mass numbers the crime rate was x4 all sex crimes were way up.

So most states changed it back to 21 an at the same time reduced the alc. content from 12% to 3.2% for every one...Army beer is 3.2%
need we say more.

Answer 8

If a person can fight for their country at 18 they should be able to buy and drink a beer.
I say 18 "beer and wine"
21 for liquor

I don't know why they changed the drinking age.It hasn't done any good.Underage people can still get it.....

Answer 9

As a young adult you have many new responsibilities.... you can vote...you can get married....you can drive....you can smoke....all legally. They are big responsibitlites! You need to be able to exercise proper judgement without your mind being clouded with alcohol. So the Law is set up in a way to give you some experience with these new responsiblities before you can legally drink.

Answer 10

I think the age has gone up to 21 because at 18 years of age you really can not handle alcohol...Most people can't handle it at 21 either so it should probably be put to 25 years old...but then again I know a lot of people at 25 who can't handle alcohol so maybe it should be put to 30 years of age but then again..............