Do you think the drinking age should be 18 again?

[snakey68]

Really? what would one consider Rare?... i think any, is too much personally.
I have to count on two hands in the past Two years where people i know personally or situations i have heard about locally with people that have either died, or were seriously/permenantly injured due to underage drinking accidents, or OUI's ...

agreed I can think of many an incident that is purely drink related and which was later regretted.

[dsirkle]

i understand that.just not why they would have to give up there rights

When you inducted into any branch of the military you raise your right hand and take an oath that places yourself under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and for all intents and purposes give up all your rights given under the Constitution for the duration of your enlistment.

[dsirkle]

agreed I can think of many an incident that is purely drink related and which was later regretted.

I can think of many people that have received expensive drunk driving convictions and jail sentences, traffic accidents and resulting injuries, people that have had trouble at work from absenteeism, been fired for drinking on the job, gotten into fistfights, marital problems, getting behind in bill paying, cirrhosis of the liver and much more as a result of their friendship with John Barleycorn and I am hard pressed to quickly come up with any redeeming examples. And these aren't minors that I am thinking about.

[Jenn]

Why does every single law in this country apply to an 18 year old as an adult except this one? Why is an 18 year old an adult in every single way except this one? Perhaps we are paying too much attention to the 18 year old, and not enough to the drinking.

Alcohol destroys more families, and kills more people than any other substance known to man. Many other substances (that the government can't collect tax revenue on) have been proven to be much much safer than alcohol, yet remain illegal.

Hmmmm, is it really our "safety" they are concerned with? I wonder if legislators discuss this over cocktails?

[Jyson]

I think the drinking age should be higher, already it sends bad messages to teens and lots of teens are getting killed because of it. An older friend of my who likes to drink went to a club once and she later told me all people did was drink in fact there wouldnt even have been a party if there was no alcohol, it may not seem bad to some but it does to me. My freshman year of highschool 6 kids got killed because they were drinking and driving. So I say 25 minimal.

[Mike Schultz]

As a 19 year old college student I fully endorse an 18 drinking age

[Jae iLL]

When you inducted into any branch of the military you raise your right hand and take an oath that places yourself under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and for all intents and purposes give up all your rights given under the Constitution for the duration of your enlistment.

We swore to abide by the UCMJ which adheres to the Constitution. The UCMJ is constitutional and I have rights given to me by the Constitution. I have to abide by the UCMJ as I swore to do, but I haven't been stripped of any rights, per se. There have been many lawsuits regarding this, but the UCMJ is under the Constitution.

[dsirkle]

We swore to abide by the UCMJ which adheres to the Constitution. The UCMJ is constitutional and I have rights given to me by the Constitution. I have to abide by the UCMJ as I swore to do, but I haven't been stripped of any rights, per se. There have been many lawsuits regarding this, but the UCMJ is under the Constitution.

I must consider that fact that it has now been 36 years since I have been in the Army and these law suits that you refer to may have changed things dramatically since that time. We were occasionally officially informed while standing in Company formation that we were under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ and had no rights until ETS. Of course back in those days in Basic training a drill sergeant would while inspecting his platoon knock a man unconscious for not looking straight ahead or some other reason. I have heard that training methods changed after they brought charges against a drill sergeant that did this to a well connected troop years ago.

[kessers]

I came of age in quebec canada where the legal drinking age is 18. I found most of us had drinking out of our system long before we turned 21. None of my friends drove drunk. In fact alot of them would park at my place or another friends place and walk to the bar. We had a network of friends so we always had someplace to crash within walking distance of the bar. The vast majority of our heavy drinking was done at house parties. No one drove away from them. Most of the people I caught driving after drinking were 25 and over.

Maybe I had an exeptionally mature set of friends as far as the drinking and driving issue is concerned, but I doubt it.

[RGreen454ss]

Wow, this poll is split right down the middle... I don't think the drinking age should be lowered to 18. I was 19 and getting wasted in the Middle East where it was legal to drink. I was in no way mature enough to drink the amount I was. If it had not been for the war starting and my MOS ordered to go dry, I would have been an alcoholic.