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Skunks · 10-04-2006, 03:50 AM

I'm 19; I've been drinking pretty much whenever I want (which, admittedly, does not fall under "college age people getting wasted") for the past 2ish years.

Getting booze when you're underage is not hard. It's only sketchy if you have to solicit non-friends; in any other situation, it's pretty much completely safe, legally, within the general bounds of "don't make a scene, break shit, or get hurt & nobody will ask questions."

Now, again, I'm a relatively unambitious drinker & like to keep a low profile anyway; but nevertheless, I know (of) a great many underaged kids who drink to excess on a regular basis. Sure, they get written up or what-have-you, but their age is not stopping them.

So, I ask: what would raising the minimum age accomplish? Changing the legality of an action does not directly prevent people from doing it; it only discourages them. And that discouragement is a remarkably punitive one. I suspect that, with a fair deal more work, a more fundamental sort of solution could be found (and, ultimately, politically more feasible one: anyone between 21 and the new drinking age will resist the change, along with the majority of drinking establishments.)

Consider what the root cause of the drinking problem is: I doubt that it is age. We live in a culture that handles alcohol poorly, both in terms of how we ingest it and how we educate our children about it. (In France, children are gradually introduced to drinking wine w/ dinner from a young age (12ish?); there is a strong social stigma attached to being shitfaced in public. Here it generally just shrugged about.)

10-04-2006, 03:50 AM	#3
Skunks I thought I changed this. Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: western nowhere, ny Posts: 412	I'm 19; I've been drinking pretty much whenever I want (which, admittedly, does not fall under "college age people getting wasted") for the past 2ish years. Getting booze when you're underage is not hard. It's only sketchy if you have to solicit non-friends; in any other situation, it's pretty much completely safe, legally, within the general bounds of "don't make a scene, break shit, or get hurt & nobody will ask questions." Now, again, I'm a relatively unambitious drinker & like to keep a low profile anyway; but nevertheless, I know (of) a great many underaged kids who drink to excess on a regular basis. Sure, they get written up or what-have-you, but their age is not stopping them. So, I ask: what would raising the minimum age accomplish? Changing the legality of an action does not directly prevent people from doing it; it only discourages them. And that discouragement is a remarkably punitive one. I suspect that, with a fair deal more work, a more fundamental sort of solution could be found (and, ultimately, politically more feasible one: anyone between 21 and the new drinking age will resist the change, along with the majority of drinking establishments.) Consider what the root cause of the drinking problem is: I doubt that it is age. We live in a culture that handles alcohol poorly, both in terms of how we ingest it and how we educate our children about it. (In France, children are gradually introduced to drinking wine w/ dinner from a young age (12ish?); there is a strong social stigma attached to being shitfaced in public. Here it generally just shrugged about.)