Thread: Legal Age

I don't believe there should be a legal drinking age. I quit heavy drinking when I turned 21. I started drinking beer at 21.

I joined the Army at 22 and didn't drink again until my team went to Iraq when I was 31. The entire team stayed drunk most of the tour. I'd go into Baghdad once or twice a week and come back to Al Hilla with an FMTV loaded with pallets of beer. We had walls of beer in our safe house. I went from 184lbs to 220lbs in less than a year.

I fully agree that the age for all of those things should be the same. I just think that instead of thinking of dropping the drinking age, we should think about increasing the voting age and the age at which someone can enlist in the armed forces.

I wasn't responsible enough to make any of those decisions at 18. I don't know too many people who are.

I agree with Glen, in that one can send an Enemy of the United States to Hell with his rifle, but can't buy a sixer when he rotates home.
Just my Two Cents man.

Legal drinking age here is 16 in public.
I don't know if there is a limit in private, but it is not uncommon for 14 year old kids to drink their first glass of wine or beer with dinner or things like that.

I won't say that there is no problematic drinking behavior anywhere, but there are no big alcohol problems. Because it is allowed to drink from young ages, there is nothing 'forbidden' about it, and thus it is not especially 'cool' to drink or to get drunk.

I started drinking hard liquor at 14 under my parents supervision. I had a shot glass the size of the last part of my little finger, and I could have 1 such glass ever friday OR saturday. With 15 I got a slightly bigger glass, same for 16. My mother paid for the liquor because she made a deal with me: I could drink at home but not anywhere else, and when I started driving a moped, I promised not to drink and drive.

All in all our system seemed to have worked fairly well. College kids usually drink more, but the ones for whom drinking becomes a problem are really the exception. Imo it is better to allow kids to learn to drink under their parents supervision during their formative years, rather than keeping them teetotal until 21 and then saying that 'anything goes'. And indeed, if you are responsible enough to be trusted with a car or a gun, then imo it is ridiculous to punish people for drinking a beer at <21