Do you think the Drinking Age should be lowered from 21 to 18?

If an 18 year old can vote, fight for our country in Military Service, and pay taxes...by golly, I think they should be able to purchase and drink a beer. As a 45 year old, legal at 18 for beer purchases under the old laws, my observation is that DWI's and "binging" became MORE abundant after the law changed to 21 years of age. And gee, can't they Legally Marry and have children at 16????

The excuses why the age should be lowered are pure bull. Being allowed to do other things like vote or fight for your country is not reason to allow someone who is most likely still immature the ability to buy alcohol. Alcohol and immaturity don’t mix. We wouldn’t let a bunch of 18 year olds fight for our country without someone older watching over then. If the lowering of the legal age happens and one family loses a loved one because of it, would it be worth it? Kids don't binge drink because they are under age, they do it because of their peers doing it. Like I said, the excuses are bull. If you want use voting, fighting and taxes as an excuse to drink, why not say those same 18 year olds should be allowed to smoke marijuana? Don't say because it's illegal. So if underage drinking and they want to lower the age just to make it legal for more people. Lowering the age is just one flush closer to this country going completely down the toilet.

When I turned 18, I thought it was cool to be able to drink but that all changed very quickly. I had 3 friends died because they were drinking and one of them decided to drive. Yes, we can vote and join the Army but that doesn't mean that we should be able to buy beer or anything else.

I think at the age of 18 you should be allowed to buy alcohol, cause you are an adult. cause must of us go out there and get it anyway. once your 18 i think you sould be able to make your own decision's to drink alcohol cause you know we can move out and basicly do whatever we want they don't mind sending us off to war at 18.

I am 40 years old, i was 17 when they changed the law to 19 and i was 18 when they changed it to 21. Figured when i was 20 they would change it to 25. The age change didnt slow anyone i knew from getting alcohol. If someone wants to say other alcohol like fortified wine or Liquer to 21 that is ok, but anyone who is 18 can legaly move out of thier parents house, get married and do anything they want, should be able to have a beer every now and then. I bet that 98% of the drinking college students are under age now, when they turn 21 they are more interested in finishing college and move on with their life, so almost all of the students drinking are illegal drinkers. if the police are not arresting these college students and you know they are not doing that, why have the laws on the book, the real problem is drinking and driving and they have lowered the limits on that to the point that you cant drink and drive at all, with out getting caught. and that is for ANY age. 18-21-25-55

The survey data from ECU showed that the impact of phasing in the 21-drinking age between 1986 and 1989 was a dramatic increase in drinking--a typical teen-aged response to being told not to do something that everyone else had done. The DA will not prosecute first-time offenders because it leaves them with a permanent criminal record. The Core Institute Student Survey of college students (http://www.siu.edu/departments/coreinst/public_html/) shows risky drinking has held steady for over 10 years, but increased last year. Like ECU, over 50% of underage college students engaged in at least one risky drinking event during the previous two weeks. The Nt'l Highway Traffic Safety Administration bienneial report, Traffic Safety Facts 2005 Figure 10 (http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/TSF2005.PDF) shows that there is no difference in the change in the percentage of fatal accidents that are alcohol-associated across different age groups. The good news is that during the 80's and 90's there was a dramatic decrease in the percentages across all of these groups. But, one has to explain why the rate for 16 - 20 year olds went down while drinking went up. An estimate 1,700 college students will die with the cause of death listed as associated with alcohol--accidents, suicides, homicides, poisonings (see the NIAAA web site http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/). In sum, the 21-drinking age is another example of a catastrophic failure in social engineering that needs to be reversed.