Legal age to consume alcohol is 21!!

antodeco

Bring the entry age into nightclubs down along with alcohol consumption.

Giggidy.

Trog

antodeco wrote: »

Bring the entry age into women down along with alcohol consumption.

Giggidy.

Fixed.

Saruman

The US already has the over 21 law and it is strictly enforced. Almost every bar will ID you, I see people who are obviously in their 40's with grey beards getting ID'd over there all the time.

That said, the US has a larger underage drinking problem than Ireland from what I can tell. Especially among college students and especially at spring break.

These laws even combined with enforcement DO NOT WORK.

Fighting Irish

lower the age to 16 and allow pubs to open 24hrs if they choose

Takk

Lowering it would at least eliminate a lot of underage drinking

meditraitor

Dynamo Kev wrote: »

Lowering it would at least eliminate a lot of underage drinking

eliminating the age limit would stop underage drinking completely:o

Theta

To be honest with you raising the drinking age would just add to the counter productive thinking that the goverment already uses in regards to booze in this country.

As someone said already you just need to educate people and to try and change the culture surrounding drinking which the government has been unable/unwilling to do. For instance reducing the opening hours of pub/clubs was another stupid idea! Now people just reduce the amount of time it takes them to get hammered by drinking quicker and because everyone is out on the street at the same time it cause fights/unsociable behaviour. If anything the opposite would of had a better effect with people having no rush to drink unlike what i see these days where people see its one and they have to get a shed load of drinks in before kicking out time.

Making alcohol harding to get is like telly a child they cant have sweets they will just get them another way! You need to change the thinking rather then the law.

Take many european countries they have a far better attitude to drinking and far more relaxed laws. I know some people will say that that wont work in this country because of our culture towards drinking but isnt it time we change that?

KeyLimePie

In case you haven't noticed....people under 18 get drunk anyway :-)
raising the drinking age to 21 wouldn't change anything !

also it's an optional part, but you don't have to sell spirits to people under 21 :-)

Eric Cartman

randylonghorn wrote: »

No.

Now, if we as a society actually chose to educate our young people as to how to drink responsibly, and showed them some good example, THAT might have some effect (and not just between 18 and 21).

At the moment, the 3 preferred options in Ireland when it comes to parents dealing with their children and drink appear to be:

1) Total Abstinence ... the confirmation pledge syndrome.

2) Real Man-itis ... "get it down ya, 'twill put hair on yer <insert as appropriate>"

3) Ignorance is bliss ... "sure my kids wouldn't drink / variant: know when to stop!"

All 3 are about as valid as an FF economic policy.

I have many friends from Spain and elsewhere on the continent who were exposed to alcohol in a sensible way ... a drop of diluted wine on special occasions even as children, and gradually taught as teens to have a drink in the family home ... and when to stop!!

They look at people falling out of nightclubs at 3 in the morning and puking in the gutter much as we would look at Martians doing the congo down O'Connell St.

For that matter, I know (an unfortunately small number) of Irish people who were brought up the same way. It works here too ... even without the sun!!

i thought that confirmation pledge was just my school, did every school do it ?

the day of my confirmation me and two of my friends got a can of beer out of one of their houses and went up the local park, was awful but we had to break the pledge, tried to get our hands on drugs too, closest we came was a cigarette but that did us fine at the time

Eric Cartman

Fighting Irish wrote: »

lower the age to 16 and allow pubs to open 24hrs if they choose

only if you lower the age of consent to 16 , or id be a paedophile within days of this

fat frog + underage birds = Erics Go Time

Biggins

Won't happen - end of story.

Too many powerful folk - a lot in the Dail to begin with - own public houses.
They don't want to see their profits even further hit in bar and off licence sales.

Won't happen, the profiteers, well connected and powerful will see to that.
End of story.

5318008!

Fighting Irish wrote: »

lower the age to 16 and allow pubs to open 24hrs if they choose

The legal drinking age should not be decreased.

Underage drinking is an important part of the whole teenage rebellion thing, which (unless taken to the extreme) is an important part of growing up. The government are not some all-knowing elite, they're just the douche-bags and turd sandwiches who've licked enough arse to make it to the top. And as a result their rules should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Age restrictions on alcohol are a very good way of showing young adults that sometimes it's ok to break the rules (as long as no-one gets hurt).

Kersmash

People under 18 get wasted all the time, the laws not stopping them, so how's it gonna stop 18-20 year olds if the age is raised? Ridiculous idea IMO. If anything it should be lowered, and people should be brought up without this notion that drink is a big mystery, and thus end up getting absolutly ****faced and binge when they do get the chance. If they were educated properly about drinky things would be all well and dandy.

Overheal

It was as nice growing up to have wild underage drinking as it probably was to have lived in the states and enjoyed the STI fruits of wild underage sex and reefer madness.

I wouldn't have a problem with 21 only that its become such a culture thing - especially in college.

However, you can NOT ignore the number of road fatalaties involving young drivers and alcohol.

tbh more needs to be done to enforce the standing drinking law of 18 and ID checks. Having said that an 18 year old (still young brave and stupid) has no problem buying for 15 year olds - guilty. Again you can't ignore the 18-21 bracket that has no problem supplying their friends in the 13-17 bracket. I think if the research were to be done you'd find after a certain age someones likelihood to provide a minor with alcohol drops off significantly.

in the end I think the culture value of it would be better off with a 21 law. How many times have we read in PI "omg what do I do without a Pub to pick up ladies at?!" erm...parks and recreation? the gym? bowling? Dry up young people's fun enough and they will give up and go play scrabble like our grandaddies wanted us to.

daheff

As far as i can see changing the age to 21 is illegal under the constitution. you cannot discriminate against anybody between 18 and 65 on grounds of age.

coffee_cake

Hartyk87 wrote: »

Ok im not sure if this is the right place to start this thread.

Im just wondering what other peoples views would be if the goverment decided to raise the intoxicating liquir act to 21 years of age.

Would it not solve alot of our problems such as RTA's, Street crime(rapes, murders, public order offences), unplanned pregnancies and of course alot of familly and health problems

What in god's name has drinking to do with unplanned pregnanices? Do you think only women under the age of 21 have unplanned pregnancies?
That is so absurd

Zangetsu

Hartyk87 wrote: »

Ok im not sure if this is the right place to start this thread.

Im just wondering what other peoples views would be if the goverment decided to raise the intoxicating liquir act to 21 years of age.

Would it not solve alot of our problems such as RTA's, Street crime(rapes, murders, public order offences), unplanned pregnancies and of course alot of familly and health problems


Im just wondering what other people think.

I dont buy the whole irish been a drinking nation either by the way

They could raise the drinking age to 50 if they wanted, wopuldn't make a differance...

Overheal

daheff wrote: »

As far as i can see changing the age to 21 is illegal under the constitution. you cannot discriminate against anybody between 18 and 65 on grounds of age.

You would have to abolish the 21-license on some pubs and clubs then. You would also have to tell insurance companies they can't charge more for younger drivers.

Dublin_Gunner

To the OP - this really is a silly argument.

Lets look at stupid things the government has brought in.

1) Smoking ban - mm, didn't work. People still smoke just as much.
2) Tobacco to only 18+ - eh, that didn't work either, I've rarely seen any young wan / fella asked for ID in a shop when buying smokes.
3)Only sell 20 packs - all that did was piss off people who had relied on buying only 10 at a time - now they're forced to buy 20. Kids just split the packs between them.
4) Off Licenses close at 10 - all that did was piss the responsible people off by having to get to the off licence early, to buy booze for the party or whatever, and the off license owners have had their opening hours cut, that great for the economy. Underagers still get the gargle the same way, only now they are definitely drunk earlier on in the evening.

So would bringing the age limit up solve anything?? Eh, nope. Just lead to more underage drinking as more people would then be underage, but still drinking I suppose., more people drunk in the streets, more social drug use possibly.

Our government has always tried to tackle these issues the completely wrong way, and they've always backfired.

useful_contacts

seanybiker wrote: »

wouldnt bother me either way cos Im old enough to drink anyways. As long as they dont bring it upto 27 then Im happy.

what he said

Carsinian Thau

Hartyk87 wrote: »

Im just wondering what other peoples views would be if the goverment decided to raise the intoxicating liquir act to 21 years of age.

Would it not solve alot of our problems such as RTA's, Street crime(rapes, murders, public order offences), unplanned pregnancies and of course alot of familly and health problems

I think it's just asking for trouble. The problem isn't how old people are when they drink it's how much they drink in a given unit of time.

S.I.R

Hartyk87 wrote: »

Ok im not sure if this is the right place to start this thread.

Im just wondering what other peoples views would be if the goverment decided to raise the intoxicating liquir act to 21 years of age.

Would it not solve alot of our problems such as RTA's, Street crime(rapes, murders, public order offences), unplanned pregnancies and of course alot of familly and health problems


Im just wondering what other people think.

I dont buy the whole irish been a drinking nation either by the way

ill shoot them or anyone who changes it.

18 it is.

coffee_cake

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

So would bringing the age limit up solve anything?? Eh, nope. Just lead to more underage drinking as more people would then be underage, but still drinking I suppose., more people drunk in the streets, more social drug use possibly.

Our government has always tried to tackle these issues the completely wrong way, and they've always backfired.

Aye
tbh I think it would make drinking even more attractive as the cool rebellious thing to do, probs make the whole thing worse.
If it wasn't so ingrained in our culture and accepted as "oh everyone binge drinks" and there was a more relaxed approach to it starting at home, THAT would fix a lot of problems

allabouteve

bluewolf wrote: »

What in god's name has drinking to do with unplanned pregnanices? Do you think only women under the age of 21 have unplanned pregnancies?
That is so absurd

Alcohol is a factor in unplanned teenage pregnancy worldwide.

I think raising the legal age is a responsible move, since everyone in Ireland is so keen to uphold the drinking age as it is:p.

bman

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

1) Smoking ban - mm, didn't work. People still smoke just as much.

I wouldn't agree with this. That was also brought in to protect the non-smoking population and it has done that.

Also, no more stinky clothes after a night out!!

Dublin_Gunner

bman wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with this. That was also brought in to protect the non-smoking population and it has done that.

Also, no more stinky clothes after a night out!!

Being a smoker myself, I have to say it didn't effect me in the slightest. And I quite like going home from the pub not smelling like an ashray (I actually dont like smokey environments anyway, even though I smoke).

But I still see just as many people smoking. I can see reasons for both side of the argument, but I'm OT here, so I'll leave it at that!

Iang87

legal age change to 21 i've no problem with that maybe 2 years ago when i was 20 i'd have cared but i've been happily drinking fro 6 years now so 21 is it. woohoo more pub seats for me

drunkmonkey

allabouteve wrote: »

Alcohol is a factor in unplanned teenage pregnancy worldwide.

I think sticking your one eyed purple headed yougurt slinger in a salmon catcher is a bigger factor, no alcohol required:p

johnny_knoxvile

daheff wrote: »

As far as i can see changing the age to 21 is illegal under the constitution. you cannot discriminate against anybody between 18 and 65 on grounds of age.

of course you CAN discriminate against people over 18. There is discrimination in car insurance, on age to be ellected into the Daìl etc.

Darkbloom

allabouteve wrote: »

Alcohol is a factor in unplanned teenage pregnancy worldwide.

Yet not as important as ignorance about contraception, which - surprise surprise! - is still a big problem here.