Thread: Legal Age

Originally Posted by HNSB

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.

This is where we get to the slippery slope as it were, the political realities of law, which shows that safety is not the top priority of these movements. By increasing the legal age for the activities listed the government is
a) losing the 18-20 voting demographic (yes I realize it's not very large, but there are still votes to be lost), and
b) shrinking the pool of potential soldiers that they could be sending directly to the front lines.

Yes, hypocrisy could be at work here, folks....

Originally Posted by Ryan82

This is where we get to the slippery slope as it were, the political realities of law, which shows that safety is not the top priority of these movements. By increasing the legal age for the activities listed the government is
a) losing the 18-20 voting demographic (yes I realize it's not very large, but there are still votes to be lost), and
b) shrinking the pool of potential soldiers that they could be sending directly to the front lines.

Yes, hypocracy could be at work here, folks....

BINGO... right on the head of the nail
Isn't it amazing that the politicians stand to gain from this????

I rarely had a problem obtaining alcohol at an early age. Most of my friends and peers and little problem getting it either. In fact one of my cousins was celebrating his last weekend home before his first year of college and got arrested last night for public intoxication (and a few other things I think vandalism and destruction of property.) So the law is clearly on the ineffectual side. I think if you're allowed to go to war, smoke a cigarette, and sign your life away in a legal contract you should have a beer to commemorate. All those things can ruin your life so whats one more. I'm not saying to lower the drinking age, just make them all the same. And for the record and possibly in the same vein one thing you're not going to do at 21 is rent a car. Most companies won't give one out until you reach 25 because of insurance, my friend got let go after 3 years from a limo company because the insurance company found out he was under 25.

There needs to be a uniform age of majority, be it 14 or 37. If one is mature enough to make life or death decisions behind the wheel one should also be mature enough to decide to drive drunk, having just returned from a tour with the Marines, and while celibrating successfully inseminating the neighbors darling daughter, and to vote for the politician who promised to introduce a bill to pay for all child care costs.

Originally Posted by Bruce

There needs to be a uniform age of majority, be it 14 or 37. If one is mature enough to make life or death decisions behind the wheel one should also be mature enough to decide to drive drunk, having just returned from a tour with the Marines, and while celibrating successfully inseminating the neighbors darling daughter, and to vote for the politician who promised to introduce a bill to pay for all child care costs.

Brilliant post Bruce! Thanks!

In the last few years the drinking age here in New Zealand was lowered from 20 to 18. Currently there are moves afoot to change it back - completely or in part. That would mean that you could buy in a licensed (and therefore supervised) bar at 18 but not get off-licence alcohol to take home until 20.

It was 20 when I was young and I started "drinking" at about 14 with the occasional binge when away with older friends. Wasn't a problem to purchase in a bottle store by about 16, though they are far stricter these days.

Alcohol wasn't a big part of my home life but had been trying the occasional beer or wine since about 10.

As a paramedic I see the effects of teenage drinking on a weekly basis. Not at all uncommon to get called to paralytic 14 year olds. The biggest problem seems to be that no-one is taking care of them. When I was that age the older ones looked out for the younger ones. Now they expect an ambulance to take them to hospital. Don't know how many times I've explained that the hospital doesn't need to watch someone vomit, they've seen it before!

Can be very interesting dropping kids home to their parents at 03:00. Have explained to a few that yelling isn't going to be remembered now... wait til they've had a few hours sleep and then tell them off.

My own kids are 8. They've been allowed to try Dad's beer since about 6. One approves and one doesn't. But they are already being exposed to adults drinking sensibly and the concept that alcohol can be consumed sensibly.

Cheers

Kids at the age or 14 or 15 feel old enough to test their limits and there is no way that law could stop it for good. It can be made difficult but that is all.

I took my first beers at the age of 14 or 15. Most parents that time maybe thought that kids are going to drink anyway so there's no need for them to go and hide somewhere while they could as well do it open and safer. I got yells every now and then but now i think my grandparents did just for the record and then went laughing behind the corner.
We took care of mates if someone got too drunk.
Nowadays it's maybe different. Even kids do not always care about their friends. Maybe it is just the sign of these times and subject to another thread.

My daughter got home very drunk first time she was 17 and my son did the same at 15. I was happy to see that their friends took them here. At morning i gave them a little sermon and then fried some egg and greasy sausage. Not sort of a food you want to eat or even smell when hangover, but i said that you had a hard evening and now it is your time to eat this all to get some strength. Want it or not. And then i went laughing behind the corner.

Another thing to remember with kids is to show them whatever they do, they can always come back home and not be too scared what happens here. It is not accepting everything they do but rather showing them that we do care.

I think that the best way to teach kids how to deal with alcohol is to show some example of civilized drinking and not making alcohol some miracle taboo that should be taken fast in some hiding place. I've been seriously drunk many times but never in sight of my kids.

Maybe..we should just go back to the 1800's when you either made it or not in the gene pool based on wether you were smart/wise or smart enough to learn to be wise ,and to learn how to suvive and get with the program ,and everything in life was not an entitlement. Yes...sounds good. Shooting your mouth off and being stupid,foolish and unwise in realms of drinking,politics,war,sexual affairs etc. would make or break you. And while we are at it, let's bring back dueling. True it would be scary to have unwise people running around with weaponery(drunk no less)....But nature knows better than us eh. Sooner or later things would even out to the wise and not so wise.Then maybe a kid who just got done helping the family out with chores i.e using dangerouse tools,hard backbreaking work. And was a well learned manchild instead of some college schooled rich kid who learned how to be a drunk ,take cocaine or meth and copulate on mommy and daddies pocketbook ,could maybe enjoy a beer responsibly. Sorry...got a little heated there. I'm of the later 40's age group and I get a little touchy . Hrmph ! Waiter...check please !

Interesting points, Ryan and others. While in theory I agree that if a 17-year old is old enough to go off to war and die for his country, he should be old enough to have a drink, I also teach high school seniors, many of whom are 18, and like high-school kids everywhere, binge drink often, sometimes with tragic consequences. I'd say I've lost about a dozen students over the years to drunk driving. And then they go off to college...

I know when I was in high school in the early 80's, before MADD and SADD really became political forces to be reckoned with-and they were instrumental in the nation-wide crackdown on drunk driving-every kid knew which convenience stores/party shops would sell 'em beer, which older kid would get it for them (the legal age was 18), or where you could slip a 10 to a wino to get both of you something cheap for the evening in the local liquor store. I guess that's still the case.

Funny thing, when the Feds started coercing the states to gradually raise the age to 21 with the highway funds, I became legal (and then illegal) about 3 times before I turned 21, none of which prevented me from getting booze. No easy answers on this one. My half-German wife believes that the European model of younger exposure to alcohol in the home gives kids a healthier, less obsessive desire to binge on "forbidden fruit," and I suspect she's right.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

My half-German wife believes that the European model of younger exposure to alcohol in the home gives kids a healthier, less obsessive desire to binge on "forbidden fruit," and I suspect she's right.

When I was growing up the drinking age was still at 18, I was introduced to alcohol at around 14, My mom always said, if you're going to drink, I would rather you drink at home, so it was no big thing to have a glass of wine or a beer once in a while. Having parental consent also too the "rebelliousness" out of it too as you can't really be cool sneaking around the parents back when there the ones letting you have it. It also taught responsible drinking habits. Not to say we didn't tie one on occasionally, but we got absolutely no sympathy the next day and were actually expected to do more. More of a tough love thing now that I look back at it, but I just thought they did it to torture us at the time.