3 Oregon college presidents want drinking age lowered to 18

[filthybeast]

I think lowering the drinking age to 18 is a sound idea. Our 18 year olds already have all the other rights of Adults. I also agree that lowering the drinking age will curb binge drinking.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by SherryGrace

...lower the age because that's what is right to do. If you are expected to act like an adult at 18, fight for your country at 18, make lifelong decisions at 18, then you should be allowed to drink at 18.

You got that right... and besides, it's happening already.

We don't need any more victimless criminals.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by BrianK

One thing that I noticed when living in Puerto Rico is that kids of about the age of 10 on uo while at parties with family & friends were able to sip a drink. Later at age 18 they didn't have the need to binge drink because they already got passed the big deal of having alcohol.

That's the way it is in France and Italy too... kids just grow up with it, know what it's all about and aren't more likely than anyone else to "become" alcoholic - which is a genetic disorder something like an allergy, not a failure of will power.

ONE or an OCCASIONAL binge of drinking is one thing. Repetitive binge drinking, over a period of years, or to the point of creating misconduct, is alcoholism.

Raising and lowering legal age limits has not, does not and will not have the slightest positive or negative impact on the EFFECTS of drinking - the stuff is ubiquitous and is as available as milk.

We are a fairly screwed up nation when it comes to the age of majority.
1. Anyone under age 18 cannot enter into a legally binding contract.
2. The legal age for marriage differs from state to state.
3. The age of consent differs from state to state.
4. The drinking age limit differs from state to state.
5. 17 year olds can serve in uniform with parental permission.
6. Although alcohol consumption has various unenforceable age limits, the FAR more dangerous use of "illicit" drugs does not... strangely enough.
7. While the most conservative folks lobby to strictly determine age limits for everything under the sun, those same ones have no problem being flexible about trying teenagers as "adults".

[Sally Brown]

In an undisciplined society, providing mind-altering substances is just not a wise idea. But then I don't drink and never have to excess so cannot fathom why drinking to the point of puking and/or passing out is considered either good times or fun. I personally believe that if a person needs to drink to deal with their reality, their reality must be pretty screwed up. Frankly I don't think that the typical 18-year-old American has experienced enough to have that screwed up of an existence (unless of course, as has been pointed out, he or she is facing the possibility of death on a daily basis - that's a pretty screwed up reality). We are by-and-large a pretty pampered nation in terms of economics and freedom from homeland terrorist attacks on a regular and/or recurring basis.

I think those that are going to binge will binge - whether they get it legally or not. The difference is that by selling it to a kid who might not have binged for lack of legal access loses the legal repercussions to the seller that lowering the age limit would remove.

I don't see lowering the age as having any socially redeeming benefits whatsoever. The adult restrictions should remain intact - for both the not fully developed teen but more importantly the business owner who would lose his or her social, moral, and legal accountability in providing same.

[Woodmonkey]

That's the way it is in France and Italy too

I spent the last three years of high school in France and found that to be true. When I would go downtown with my friends, we could (and did) stop by a bar for a drink and think nothing of it.

I dated officers from age 18 on and they would take me to the O club where I was served. It was no big deal.

My 21st birthday was no big deal to me since I'd been used to drinking so it was no big deal.

One thing that would have to happen is that, like in France, kids couldn't get a driver's license until they were 18.

[Sally Brown]

Again, what makes "binge" drinking so desirable among American teens that is not seen in other parts of the world? If they are not binging in Italy and France, is it perhaps because the internalized values that say a glass of wine with lunch and/or dinner is appropriate and a part of the culture? That's hardly the same thing as "binge" drinking. Oranges and apples are both fruits - but they are not the same thing either.