What do you think is the best legal age for drinking?
 

and why?

In retrospect I think 21 is good. It kept me from drinking in high school, and made it difficult for me to drink the first 2 years of college. Also I hear the brain is pretty much mature at 20 yrs old which is a plus.

If it had been 18 I would have only done more damage to myself.

At 21 it helps keep alcohol out of high schools

I think its far more important to educate youth on the perils of alcohol. They will drink regardless of what the legal age is.

At 30 you typically have a better head on your shoulders and aren't trying to impress as many people... But none is also a good answer.

As proud libertarian, it even astounded me to choose 0
Guess coz of no good results to show for it but its a free country & people can & will do what they want

I merged two threads :)

I have no opinion on the question, although I agree with Scott that education is a far more important issue to me.

I drank when I was underage. I think most drinkers like us did.

The age here is 18...the BAC for young drivers is 0.00...That I do agree with.

D

There's no selection for 18 which is what it was here at one time. Then they changed it to 21. Even with the way that I feel about alcohol I still scratch my head that they can put a gun in the hands of an 18 year old and send them off to war but they aren't mature enough to have alcohol until they're 21. Voting also begins at 18.

I am in full agreement with education. Age isn't going to make a difference. In fact, the quickest way to get a teenager to do something is to tell them that they can't.

Yea,there is no option for 18,which is what I would select.
As LadyBlue0527 said. At 18 you are old enough to fight and die for your country. But you can't legally walk into a bar and have a beer. That is WRONG.
The enlistment age needs to be higher,or drinking age needs lowered.
For whatever it's worth,I didn't have that much of a problem getting booze at 16. A teenager looking for booze will find it.
Fred

I went with 21 but would agree with others here that if you are old enough for the military (18 yo) then you are old enough to drink. I think, therefore, that 18 is reasonable. But, I also think that better education on drinking would benefit all of us.

When I was growing up the legal age to drink beer and wine was 18 and the legal age to drink high proof alcohol was 21 (forget what the alcohol % cutoff was). I felt that those were fair laws, but I have to admit that drunk driving fatalities have dropped significantly since the age went up to 21 for all alcohol. I think that the change in the law may have contributed somewhat to the drop in DD fatalities, but I think it is due more to stricter law enforcement and less tolerance for those who drive drunk.

The age here is 18...the BAC for young drivers is 0.00...That I do agree with.

I think the legal limit here for under 21 is almost nothing too, I forget the exact number. My sister (not at ALL an alcholic or problem drinker) got a DUI when she was 20, in college, because the legal age was 21. She had literally had 2 or 3 beers (not the drunken person on "Cops" falling over lying saying 2 beers haha), and was not "drunk", but was just over the "limit" since the limit was almost nothing. She was pulled over randomly because it was 2 am around a college campus. Did she deserve a DUI? No, I do not believe she did. Did she deserve some sort of underage consumption violation or warning or something, yes, absolutely, as she was not technically old enough to drink (by one year). So those are the situations that are sticky.

All of that being said I would agree the legal age for both cigarettes and alcohol be maybe 19. That way you are out of high school, but college students who do socially have two beers at a party (not those who get wasted) aren't likely to be in trouble for drinking moderately among others who don't. Then again others argue the whole you can go to war at 18 but not drink a beer thing, which I do see the point of, but for sake of this hypothetical argument I'll stick with 19 :)

Would have picked 18 but, since that was not an option I didn't vote. I think 16 is too young and 21 is too old.

Jess

98.

I think 18 is a good age. According to law, if you are old enough to carry guns, fight in battle, and vote for who you want to run your country, you should have the right to purchase an alcoholic beverage.

I agree with the zero tolerance policy that some countries have on DUI.

In college, you're going to go through that culture of drinking in school whether you partake in it or not, so I don't see why in the US, it's up to 21. At 18, you have easy access due to all the college keg parties.

I would also vote for 18. Don't think any age limit does too much but at least there is some level of restriction for the youth. Also agree with everyone who said better education would be more important, and by this I mean a more general education on emotional and physical well being, the phenomena of social belonging and pressure, as well as how to deal with goal setting and perspective in healthy ways for young people.

18, if you're old enough to defend your country, you're old enough to drink.

Does a legal age restrict drinking? In Ireland many start drinking before aged 16, I was drunk for the first time at 12yrs old!!

I guess it probably restricts access from buying or going into bars, but then how many of us when we drank did it on our own in our own houses, away from other people.

I guess I'm probably in the category of education and educating society!! . . . many drugs that are illegal are still obtainable, same with alcohol below a minimum age!!

Legal age discourages drinking more than restricting it technically I suppose. If someone buys it for you or provides you with it, it is what it is. I for one only drank a couple times before age 21, and never drank with any type of regularity until I was 25. I definitely wasn't one to partake during high school especially because I was afraid to get in trouble.

Started at 14 so the age limit didn't stop me.