If you lower the drinking age to 18, then expect people under 18 to still binge. High school students will still binge drink, and you could make the argument that 18-year-olds will enable even more underage drinking with the greater freedom. So who do you want to protect, high school students or college students?

Also the age-old argument goes like this: "Tobacco, lotteries, going to war, voting...all granted at age 18. Drinking? 21."

The problem with that argument is that it's a logical fallacy. Those aren't items that were meant to be considered together. If you do that, then you open yourself to questions like this:

So why is it illegal to sell liquor on Election Day? Do we really want drunken soldiers defending our country? How many people die in car accidents related to smoking, as opposed to drinking? Do you really want to get drunk and spend money on lottery tickets?

All just as nonsensical as lumping all those "Adult" aged privileges together. You have to define "adult" first. If a society is saying that "adult" means 18, then that's where you start to pick the argument apart. The law is hypocritical, but it's how you structure the argument that might get things done.

But don't hold your breath.

One might also consider that the human brain is still developing into the early twenties...alcohol consumption hinders that development. Which is why a lot of people who drank a lot in college now work in gas stations while they "figure stuff out."

i think that there are many other hazardous ways of dying. A sixteen year old can die in a car, an eighteen year old can die in the military, so i believe that 18 year olds (LEGAL ADULTS) should be able to drink if they are obviously old enough to serve in the military or vote, or drive, or smoke, or whatever else….

Does no one see that the biggest problem here isn’t the drinking age, but the driving age?

Teenagers will drink recklessly as 15-year-olds whether the drinking age is 21 or 18. The problem is that kids are allowed behind the wheel at 16.

16!

Maybe it’s just that I was raised in a country where you couldn’t drive until you were 18, but the way I see it, at 16, you’re still an irresponsible child, with risk-taking tendencies, and a lot of peer pressure around you. It seems utterly ridiculous to me that someone not legally classified as an adult is allowed to control a hulking tonne of metal, gasoline and glass that moves at 100 mile per hour. 16 is simply not mature enough for that responsibility. Make the drinking 18, yes, but making the driving age 18, too. That’s my suggestion.

I agree if we would have adopted no drinking age limits like some other countries and see alcohol differently as youth then it might be less of a problem. Having been raised in an Italian family, I was allowed to drink earlier…. I think having access to things at a young age makes it “normal” and not as exciting. Just like candy. Friends would come to our house and say “why do you have candy in the candy bowls – if that were at our house it would be gone!” I had free access to candy and junk food, yet I ended up preferring to eat better foods. I think I was the only kid who would still have Halloween candy left over from the year before in my candy bag to throw away on Halloween before trick or treating (yah, I know – eww).

Now the driving age thing is complicated… some 16 yr olds are mature at 16 while others are not… does it go back to parents deciding whether or not their teen is responsible enough to drive, watch certain TV shows, etc. etc. etc.?

I agree the thought of some irresponsible drivers behind the wheel is very scary… and that is why their insurance is so high.
It’s actually too bad that we have such a large country where everything is so spread out so that you pretty much HAVE to drive places…
If people had to WALK… let’s see.. maybe obesity would go down…

In Singapore for example, most people don’t even drive or own a car – it’s just too expensive and they can get around other ways very easily.

So maybe hold a learner’s permit from age 16-18 and not be able to drive alone til 18…… I just know some parents relish their 16 year old getting a license so they can drive themselves to their sporting events and after school activities… so I doubt it would get changed.

If there were no restriction on age for alcohol, would drug use stay the same or get worse? so will the next topic be to legalize marijuana?

That was the point that I would have made. There really is no comparison when you are looking at different cultures that treat things in different ways and influence the reasons behind the lower age.

Then we should talk about evolving our culture beyond the 1890s. We’ve got rocket ships that go to the moon and there are still people in this country who believe men and women have different numbers of ribs.

Well at one point weren’t kids who were 18 eligible for the draft but still couldn’t vote? They changed that one didn’t they? Sometimes I am not sure I get the argument one way or another…it tells me people making up the laws just go for whatever is convenient at the time. People used to be able to drink at 18, but not vote until 21. Now it’s the other way around. I know plenty of 18 year olds who can’t make a competant political selection (my son included when he voted for a guy in the primaries just because he thought his name was odd…an no, it wasn’t Obama…it was a funky name) so I don’t know if they can responsibly drink…then again I know 40 year olds who are in the same prediciment. Either way it goes, I think if they lower it people will be PO’d and if they don’t people will be POd.