Sorry but I grew up in Louisiana, is people under 21 drinking really a concern for people?

[RB TexLa]

If there is such a concern I guess I've just never seen or heard it. Is this really a big deal to people?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. For some people, yeah they're nuts about it.

I'm not concerned about it. Frankly, I think the 21 year limit is a big mistake.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. No the age limit is stupid.

It should go back to 18, but the legal limit for DUI should be lower and loss of license for anyone under 21 caught DUI ought to be automatic and long term.

[RB TexLa]

4. I wasn't thinking anything about DWI laws, or 18 vs 21

We had an 18 year old drinking law when I was growing up, but no one enforced it, kind of like vagrancy laws.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Well there is a problem with young men, cars, and booze.

See insurance rates. This can be dealt with as I mentioned. There also is no technical reason why cars could not have coordination detection interlocks - they wouldn't operate if you were too out of it too drive safely. But we seem to not be too adept at actually using all of our technical prowess to smarten up our lives.

I grew up in NY and we had an 18 limit that was generally ignored as well. Most of us survived, in fact I didn't know any kids who died from booze related causes.

[twilight_sailing]

32. "no technical reason"

are there other reasons why this may not be acceptable?

[Warren Stupidity]

40. Well for starters it would eliminate a lot of police control.

We've come to accept roadblocks, random searches, compelled 'testimony' via breathalyzers and blood samples and other massive restrictions on our civil rights in the name of safety. The state has no interest in yielding all that up to a simple technical solution.

[twilight_sailing]

43. OK, let's just yeild up our daughter's private parts to the Gov.

[twilight_sailing]

44. After all

it's only technical.

[Warren Stupidity]

45. You need to stop drinking and posting. nt.

[twilight_sailing]

48. There is freedom

and there is NOT freedom. It's that simple.

If you have to make personal attacks to make your point....

[Warren Stupidity]

52. Personal attack?

"OK, let's just yeild up our daughter's private parts to the Gov." - I still can't figure out what sense that statement of yours is, it's a ludicrous non sequitor, and I gave you the benefit of the doubt and attributed it to your being out of sorts. It seems you are not impaired. My mistake. Yikes.

Which brings me to your equally mysterious rejoinder:

"There is freedom and there is NOT freedom. It's that simple."

And this has what exactly to do with vaginas and/or drinking ages?

Oh and of course there are all sorts of degrees of freedom.

[twilight_sailing]

53. Apology accepted.

[ourbluenation]

37. alchohol and drugs are usually involved with date rapes....

especially with people under 21.

PS) I'm a sexual assault victim advocate.

[Warren Stupidity]

41. but not with people over 21?

Is there some magic cut off?

[ourbluenation]

47. yep - them too, but we were discussing the under 21's were we not?

[Warren Stupidity]

49. Yes, but then your post is a more general complaint

about the sorts of messes people get into with drugs of all sorts and at all ages.

Did you have a proposed solution?

[ourbluenation]

54. yes, and it starts with having a legal drinking age and goes forward from there.

Now I'm going home to have a beer...it's been a looooooooooooong week.

[Warren Stupidity]

56. And yet with our legal drinking age as is

you claim that drug and alcohol related date rape is more prevalent with under age drinkers. Hmmmm....

I'll join you for a beer, only as an ex-drinker of notorious reputation, it will have to be a wimpy beer.

Cheers.

[ourbluenation]

36. look at the question in the OP? It said nothing about the legal drinking age

or am I missing something??? He/she just asked if people have a problem with people under 21 drinking.

[Warren Stupidity]

46. so we morphed the discussion - oh well

He did mention age limits - 21 - which happens to be the national legal age limit for drinking, so we've wandered off to debate 18 vs 21 (or 5 vs 18, or even 0.)

[RB TexLa]

51. True, I wasn't talking about a setting of a magic age

Nor was I talking about driving a car while you are impaired. That is just as wrong if you are 15 or 55.

[smoogatz]

3. Old enough to vote and join the Army, but not old enough to drink?

Wtf is up with that? Ridiculous.

[China_cat]

25. It was changed during the Vietnam era

for the same reasons. When there was no war to take out the drunks, people started looking at the traffic fatalities, ages and alcohol involvement and the government (under Reagan, I think) decided that if the states wanted money for their roads, they had to raise the drinking age back up to 21. (Or up to 21 for those states that had traditionally allowed 18 year olds to buy beer)

Oh yes, 1984 when it was pushed back up, definitely Reagan.

[smoogatz]

55. I know the history--I was in my early 20s at the time.

It was totally bogus--the reasoning then was as faulty as it is now. It was one of thsoe absurd hysterias that apparently sweeps the country--coinciding with the Reagan's war on drugs and Nancy's absurd "just say no" campaign.

[Breeze54]

57. Old enough to take a bullet but not old enough to drink a beer is nutz!

I agree and I believe it was my very first vote as a voter to say yes to
lowering the drinking age in Massachusetts to 18 and to not vote for Nixon!

People under the age of 21 will find the beer! They always have!
The Only 21 law only allows the towns to collect more fines and insurance companies to make more $$$ !

We said it then and it should be said now!

If they're old enough to die for their country; then they're old enough to drink alcohol, if they so chose!

[JVS]

5. lower it to 5

[Warren Stupidity]

13. I actually have no problem with doing away with all such limits.

[JVS]

17. Yeah. The only reason I think 5 would be good is so parents can't use it to hush the baby

I think it could be damaging for an infant to be fed alcohol as a method of putting the kid to sleep conveniently.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. That is a broader issue of parenting in general.

And it need not be legislated via specific prohibitions. I'm not actually sure there is a legal restriction on serving your own child a drink, outside of the more general and proper restrictions on child abuse.

[RB TexLa]

23. red wine to go to sleep as a toddler here

I think there may have been some Jamesons in the milk to help too.

[malaise]

6. Not in my part of the planet

My parents taught us to drink as teens during Sunday dinner. We do the same for the next generation and their kids. That way a drink isn't some 'must have' substance.

[TexasLawyer]

7. I have a 17 year old recovering alcoholic daughter

and I have two younger children at risk. Yes, it is a problem that concerns me.

[ourbluenation]

11. me too. big problem. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

16. And the legal limit being 21 has not been effective.

So what should we do, raise it to 31? Prohibition?

I am sorry about your daughter, but perhaps the drinking age is not the issue.

[TexasLawyer]

30. drinking age

The original post didn't seem to be saying anything about legal drinking age or debating 18 year versus 21 year-- just "drinking under 21".

I wasn't commenting on legal drinking age, just drinking in general. I think it is sad to see drunken children, and really don't know what to do about it.

I don't think it's a good idea that ads for hard liquor are coming back onto TV, for example.

[Warren Stupidity]

35. OK - that makes sense.

And I agree that tv should be off limits for booze and butts.

Children have been drinking since we invented booze. Part of our american peculiarity is that we keep flip-flopping between hedonism and puritanism. Our society has no balance, no center, and our attitude toward booze is typical of the problem. As others have noted, we tend to keep our kids on a very tight leash and then are shocked when, given the smallest amount of freedom, they run right out into the middle of the road.

[youngdem]

20. With all due respect, access to alcohol seemed not to be a problem even though they are underage

What does age prohibition accomplish exactly?

(Congrats on your daughter's sobriety...best wishes)

I too was a teen addict and alcoholic, and have been hospitalized for it four times. Access wasn't a problem. To me, the main un-addressed problem is the underlying psychological/psychiatric issues and social service needs that go unfulfilled. People in pain have always and will always self-medicate if their pain is not addressed or alleviated, no mater the source.

Prohibition is a simplistic, impossible answer to an intractable problem.

I too live in South Louisiana, and underage drinking is a big problem here, but it is anywhere. The difference is that much of South Louisiana is French in heritage, and the French way of raising your children is to expose them to alcohol with food in moderation and never to intoxication, to remove the mystique.

To me, the further away you attempt to push it from young folks, the more tempting the fruit becomes, and the more likely secretive, binge drinking will occur.

Teach people like you teach them about guns and driving...Responsibility, knowledge, moderation, forethought. But mostly, we need to do a better job of addressing young adult's stress and pain, and identifying mental disease before they self medicate and develop a co-morbid condition that exacerbates both.

[Kutjara]

22. I don't think the age limit is the problem.

As a recovering alcoholic myself who drank heavily from age 14, I had a huge range of strategies for getting access to booze. Age restrictions and ID checks never stopped me. Where there's a will, there's a way and, with alcoholics and other addicts, believe me, there's a will.

My childhood friends, who were all just as big boozehounds as me, grew out of it. I didn't. The addiction was/is within me, not in the external substance. It's either in my genetic makeup, my formative experiences, or both. No external restriction would have kept me from feeding it.

By the time I gave up drinking after 23 years, I realized that it was the single most important thing in my life. My wife, after supporting me and putting up with my crap for years, finally gave me an "it's the booze or me" ultimatum. To my everlasting shame, I had to think about that for a long long time before deciding on her. Seven years later, I realize I made the right choice.

So now I'm still an addict. The only difference is I'm now addicted to Diet Coke. Liters of the stuff a day. The compulsive urges to overindulge are still there, they've merely been rechanneled. You never stop being an alcoholic/addict, you merely shift the addiction to less destructive substances/activities.

Sorry for the "true confessions" ramble, but I wanted to make the point that the legal drinking age had as little relevance for me as the price of cabbage on Mars.

For everyone else, I think 21 is too high. If someone is an adult at 18, then they're adult enough to make their own decisions about booze.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. You're right--it's in the genes or the emotional make-up, not in the age limit

And I believe that the problem with most young people is not drinking per se. It's binging. One beer at a long picnic is not a problem. Several beers gulped down at a party with little or no food and then driving home IS a problem.

[Warpy]

38. I have alcoholics on both sides of my family

and if we aren't alcoholics, we marry them.

The age at which one starts drinking is largely irrelevant. If one has inherited the alcoholic genes, one will be at risk. People in the alcholic's family think that's what normal is, so they're attracted to present or future alcoholics.

I know alcoholics who took their first drink in their 40s, when life events caused them to question their abstinent faith.

I discovered the beer I'd had with dinner since I was pre school age could get me drunk when I was 13. I was OVER it by the time it was legal. Now it just gives me an instant headache, so I abstain completely.

I haven't noticed a difference in personality. What I have noticed is that people who need more alcohol before they feel it and who generally have mild to no hangovers are at greater risk. Studies have since proven that.

I am sorry your daughter found out so young what alcohol can do to susceptible people. I hope she has great success in the recovery process. However, if she'd abstained for another few years until she turned 21 wouldn't have made a difference. She'd be exactly where she is now, only without your daily support.

[Prophet 451]

8. Not to me

The age limit is 18 here and even that's almost universaly disregarded. I learned to drink with wine over Sunday dinner.

[Double T]

9. If YOU can go fight a damn 'war', THEN YOU sure as HELL........

better be able to have an alcoholic drink. NO BIG DEAL!!!

[juajen]

10. I'm from LA also; children here begin drinking in early

teenage years. It is destructive and hurts the state in many ways.

I do not think an eighteen year old should go to war and they aren't old enough to handle alcohol. There are many DUI statistics and dead and injured people to attest to the horrible driving records of our youthful drunks.

[Book Lover]

29. I can't let that blanket statement go unchallenged

18 is absolutely old enough to handle alcohol after you have been taught how to do so. A firm and guiding hand rather than a smacking and forbidding one is what is needed. Parents need to teach their kids how to drink responsibly just as we need to teach all other kinds of moderating behaviors and manners. You don't have to be a drinker to do this, but you do have to learn how to discuss the matter in a mature manner.

[Breeze54]

59. The drunk that broke my neck was 45 !!!

:eyes:

[BootinUp]

14. If they have a drivers license, probably yeah

Only cause I know from experience that youngsters think they are invincible.

[CabalPowered]

15. Yes. I lost my HS sweetheart to a 17 yo DUI driver.

He managed to escape the manslaughter charge somehow.

[HockeyMom]

18. It was 18 back in my day (60s)

but then as a Manhattan resident, drunk driving among teenagers (reason for all this) was nearly non existent. Very, very few teenagers owned or drove cars in Manhattan. A tipsy teenager (legal) simply hailed a taxi back home.

[eagler]

21. prison terms for 1st DUI

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Not for me--Americans have a warped attitude towards alcohol

I grew up with European-born relatives who considered us old enough to drink at family gatherings by the time we were 14. I'd walk in the door at my great-uncle's house, and he'd hand me and my parents each a drink. My great-aunt served wine at dinner to anyone in their teens or older.

It reduced the tendency to over-indulge. After all, anything you can do in front of your grandmother and her siblings is not something you're going to do to rebel. :-)

Neither I nor my brothers ever had any drinking problems.

American culture says that drinking is absolutely forbidden before your 21st birthday, but that you're supposed to celebrate said birthday by bar hopping or at least by getting roaring drunk. Advice columnists chide parents who serve booze to their kids, but at the same time, they lament binge drinking on campus.

How are young people supposed to learn to drink in moderation if they don't get introduced to it in the context of a glass of wine with dinner or one (one!) beer during a backyard barbecue on a 100 degree day?

[Nabia2004]

61. You are absolutely right on

I grew up in a similar environment. The kids would be served a very small glass of wine at diner starting at age 8 or 9. I rarely drink, and when I do it is wine with diner.

[Graybeard]

26. I agree 21 yr old limit is stupid...

...and guarantees secrecy, abuse and recklessness. Parents should allow moderate drinking by teenagers in the home, teaching them the responsible conduct that will keep them out of trouble.

[lies and propaganda]

28. So did I RGB, lovely to meet ya!

And drinking is probably as big a deal to me as it is to you. Theres bigger fish to fry, and if you can die in a war, you should be allowed a drive thru daquiri ;)

(Shreveport here, whereabout are you from?)

[RB TexLa]

31. All over, BR, NO, Monroe

[devilgrrl]

33. If you're old enough to die in war, you're old enough to drink.

eom

[dysfunctional press]

34. the drinking age should be lowered, but the driving age should be raised.

they should both be 18.

[ikojo]

39. I am of the belief that if one is old enough to enlist

in the military and go to a foreign land to fight and possibly DIE in the name of the US of A, then one is indeed old enough to drink a beer or other alcohol.

[jedr]

42. It's a racket on all fronts;

Not only for the Beer/ liqueur companies. but the local municipalities that fine the hell out of you when your kid gets caught. My middle son spent a summer in Germany where you can drink at 16 ,but you can't drive till 18. Made sense to me, he had all that stuff out of his system by the time he got to college. ( And please don't flame me about how you should keep your kid from drinking.... try stopping them! I rather teach them the truth about the effects)

[gravity]

50. The law is a joke

I don't think its too big of a deal unless you are under 18. Even the most law abiding citizens don't wait to they are 21 to drink.

[AnnInLa]

58. I live in the middle of Cajun Country, and can tell you

that drinking is still part of the over-all culture here, especially in the under-21 culture. People here, traditionally, are not too worried about it. They brag that Cajuns inject coffee and beer intraveniously.

EVERY time there is a senior prom, several kids in my area die in drinking-related accidents.

At every fais-da-do, (street party, of which there are many), teens can be seen openly drinking their beer. No one, including the cops, seem to mind. Many of the neighborhood pubs/bars are family-type establishments, with card games in the back, and kids wandering in and out, and crawfish being served in the parking lot.

I used to think it was quaint.

[Jacobin]

60. Is there a drinking age in Europe?

they seem to have a better handle on not abusing alcohol than we do.

Making it illegal makes it a 'forbidden fruit' like drugs,and makes it more attractive to the young