Now i know that when my parents were my age, it was legal for them to drink. The drinking age was 19 in MN and 18 in WI. and now that im here, i have to wait until I am 21 (legally that is).
If I am old enough to vote for who will run my country, and I can also fight and die for my country, why is it that I am not old enough to sit down and have a beer. Here in the US we have the highest drinking age in the western hemisphere. We also have the most problems related to drinking. this is because we are not able to experiment in safe environments. We have to hide it until its legal. No matter how hard the police try to crack down on underage drinking, its still going to happen and its only going to go further under ground. kids are dying because their friends are afraid to call for help when they have had to much to drink because they know that they will get punished for it.
I do know that the drinking age was raised for a reason and that it has lowered the amount of drinking and driving, but if drinking and driving was the problem, that is what should have been addressed. maybe the amount of under aged drinkers has gone down, but binge drinking has been constantly increasing since the 90's. In most other countries, drinking is a casual thing and people learn at a young age how to handle them selves when drinking. In the US, people get rough and fight when that is rarely seen in other parts of the world.
I know that we have the technology to help fix the problem of drinking and driving. I know that after a certain amount of DUI's, someone is required to have a breathanalyzer in their car in order for the vehicle to start. If that was in all cars, it would not be possible for a person under the influence to start their car. and i know that if i had children, i would buy them that feature.
Before I was even a senior in High School I knew of SIX people who had gotten pulled over and given DUI's. one of them even totaled someone else's car. so when I say that I think that the drinking age should be lowered, it is not because I am a 19 year old college student. its because I have seen what underage drinking can do to people and I know that if everyone was more educated and had more experience, there would be less tragedies related to underage drinking.
When someone turns 16 you don't just hand over the keys, so why should drinking be any different.
A uneducated driver can be just as dangerous as an uneducated drinker.
In WI, you can drink with a guardian. I was floored when I learned this law and I thought it was really weird (I grew up in Michigan). When I was in high school, I never had the urge to drink, and the friends I had also never drank. We had parents who talked to us about what drinking could do and how to be responsible about it. Call me a prude, but it never appealed to me.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree it's pretty idiotic that we can buy cigarettes and vote and fight for our country at 18 but we can't drink, I don't think lowering the drinking age is going to change anything. I also don't think breathanalyzers are the key either - how easy is it to have your child or a friend blow for you?
I think more active parenting will help, and holding your children accountable for their actions. Maybe I'll change my mind as my son gets older and I realize it's not as simple as that. We'll see what happens 17 years from now.
There are plenty of different reasons the drinking age is 21. I used to think it was ridiculous too but now I know better. In the 1980's the national drinking age was raised to 21 by the states in order to keep their federal funding for the roads. Yes, you may think this is wrong, but states needed to look at the benefits of raising the age.
ReplyDeleteALso, our brains are not even done developing by the time we are old enough to drive, move out, join the military or anything else that is significant between the ages of 16-18. I think the only reason why the smoking age has not gone up yet is because there is no federal repercussion for keeping it at 18.
I do agree that some people who are 21 are not even ready to handle the kind of responsibility that comes with drinking alcohol. My husband just spend the entire last night treating some kids (who were between the age of 21-24) who totaled their car on the highway. Not only did they get into a wreck, they also fled the scene bloody and bruised. Once they found them they were treated for their injuries but talk about a waste of time, and its all because of alcohol. Yes, both were old enough to drink and both still acted this way.
The alcohol problem that Wisconsin or any other state has is not because of the drinking age, its the culture we live in that dictates that kind of behavior.
Dont get too excited about being able to legally drink, its not all its cracked up to be. Bars are not as much fun as you think and they are expensive. The people who party now and complain about the drinking age will not change once they do turn 21, they will still binge drink and party but they will find something else to complain about (probably cigarette prices or the fast that they cannot smoke in the bars).
I agree with you that it is ridiculous that as soon as I turn 18 in this country I can give up my life for it, but I can't sit down and have a drink in it. I feel like part of the reason people do binge drink is because it is illegal. Think about it this way, if you were going to get a ticket for speeding and you know you were going to be charged $10 regardless of how fast you were going, would you go 10 over or 25 over? I know I would go 25 because then in my mind at least it would be worth it. I think that this is the same for kids who drink illegally because they figure that if their going to get caught for something and have to pay for it, it might as well be worth it.
ReplyDeleteI also think that since we make a big deal out of the drinking age it contributes to underage drinking more. It does this by drawing attention to it, thus making it more appealing. Again think about it this way; if you saw an advertisement for a chocolate cake and then were told oh sorry you can't have that cake your not old enough wouldn't that just make you want to try it that much more? Not only does this make you want to try it, but you also want to indulge in it more when you do finally get the opportunity because it's not something you can always have. Also, by this point you’ve built up so many preconceptions of the experience in your mind that you need to live up to everything you think it should be. This is why kids go all out and binge drink when they get the chance because its something that is not always available to them.
There are also many more contributing factors in this issue, but I’m not going to get into it right now. What I'm trying to say is that age isn't really the issue, it’s the way we make the issue a big deal. If we were like other countries say France for example having a few drinks would be just that, not a big full on drink as much as you can extravaganza.
Before we go and get all hung up on a specific opinion I think it is important to look at all aspects of the issue. I personally believe that the legal drinking age is not the issue, but really society and how it perceives drinking. Before we can fix major problems like binge drinking and driving under the influence, we must first change society. The problem with this is that society is a bigger thing than anyone can take on, and it will not change over night, nor will it change in the course of years. It takes a lot of time and a combined effort of everyone. So, until then people are still going to binge drink, drive under the influence, and get robbed of their hard earned cash from pointless underage drinking tickets. Oh well, as The Beatles would say “ob la di, ob la da”.
I completely agree with everything you said. When I went to Italy I saw people drinking everywhere even if they were teens, and the only people I saw that were drunk and stupid were the people I was with.. I don't get the parents who will ho bat shit crazy if their child has a sip of alcohol. When their kids go off to college they are going to be F*ed over because they do not know how to drink and they are going to have serious consequences rather than just being grounded in high school. Those parents need to get their heads out of the sky. I have drank with my dad before so he knows how I can hold my alcohol, allowing him to trust me so much more. Kids these days don't think you can have fun without drinking which can just cause bad things to happen. If binge drinking wasn't such a problem it would also help the teen pregnancy. When people get drunk they get horny and because they are stupid drunk they think it is okay to have unprotected sex. I think the breathalyzer feature in the car is a great idea because when you are dealing with someone who is drunk and has any sort of mind set they will stick with it. If they think they can drive they will drive, and some people are too scared to deal with drunk people to tell them or actually stop them from getting in the car. I had a friend who died from drunk driving and it forever changed my view on drunk driving. She was so drunk she couldn't walk to the car by herself. The fact that someone helped her walk to her car because she was so drunk and then actually let her drive blows my mind. Even if i was more than wasted I know not to drive or let anyone drive who I know is not able to drive. She fell asleep at the wheel and crossed over into the other lane and her car flipped. She was in a coma and sever brain damage. You don't realize the feeling you will get until you loose someone like that. I think about her every day and when I do drink I think about her and it helps me make smart decisions.
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