Should the drinking age be increased to 21?

It should be lowered and the whole licensing system should be deregulated to get rid of enforced closing times, which would appear to be the main cause for binge drinking!

Deleted User wrote: »

Every one of the biggest messes in college didn't start until college.. Everyone else who started at 15 had a lot more cop on.

You've obviously never met my friends. Your taxes will pay for their liver transplants.

Could it be staggered like Germany?

i.e. Legal age for drinking beer is 16, but legal age for vodka and spirits is 18

Would that help?

starbelgrade wrote: »

If you drink so much that you need a liver transplant, the tax you've paid on the booze more than covers the cost of it.

Not to mention the fact that ya will probably die younger, and save the government having to pay your old age pension!

Sanjuro wrote: »

A mate of mine took a month off drinking as solidarity to a friend of his who was doing a 'Year Off Booze' for charity. The looks he got off people when he told them what he was doing were ridiculous. You'd swear he'd told people he only drank cold piss. And that's another problem with our attitude towards alcohol. If you don't drink, there must be something wrong with you.

My friend's are hardcore drinkers, but I'm a bit over that myself. I'll sometimes go out and not drink and they HATE this! Cause me being sober is going to ruin their night?? And they'll spend all night saying, ah sure go on, have a few, won't hurt you. Friend of mine didn't talk to me for a week once because I didn't drink on her birthday

martin000 wrote: »

Age should be increased as it is matured age when kids can understand they should drink or not

Aha. Ahahaha.

Our problem here is not that our drinking age is too low, it's, as someone earlier rightly said, the issue of how we drink. By increasing the age threshold, the idea of alcohol becomes more subversive to underagers. I know that not being 18 didn't stop me drinking, and raising the age to 21 is not going to stop people under that age drinking.

It will however mean that their drinking will not occur in a relaxed, grown-up environment, that their measures poured will be much bigger than the ones they'd get in a pub, and it will generally lead to higher levels of d!ckheadery surrounding drinking.

Raising the age to 21 in the U.S. did not create legions of pioneers and teetotallers, but made alcohol a much bigger deal to kids.

Anyway, 'binge drinking' and our hyperactive drinking culture is not isolated to young drinkers. The idea of alcohol is sexed-up enough as it is without making into more of a big deal by raising the age.

I don't think it's the specific age that's the problem, it's the attitude of parents and legislators. One day you can't drink at all, so drink takes on this mystic "forbidden fruit" quality, a milestone to be reached in your life. Then the clock hits midnight on your birthday, and you can drink yourself in to oblivion?

If you ask me, parents should be starting kids younger but under controlled conditions. Half a glass of wine or beer - with a meal - at 14-15 is not an incitement to alcoholism. This is how they get away with it in Europe: drinks go with food, and there's less "going out to drink". I was fortunate in that my first exposure to drink at 16 was while I was trying to learn to play Snooker: you soon learn to drink slowly. (I don't know how "Hurricane" Higgins managed to play while drunk!)

Zombienosh wrote: »

Should drinking in Ireland be 21+?
After a visit to the west and seeing it being 21+ there, and wonder why isn't it 21's here? We have a bigger drink problem than everyone else no?

Would it lose too much money? would it encourage something else? Would it have any effect at all?
I'd be all for it. Week after week I see too many drunk young ones wreaking havoc.

It won't make much of a difference. I was in America during the summer and I was only 20. Trust me, I had absolutely no problem getting alcohol and getting into clubs. If people want to get alcohol, they'll find a way.

lizt wrote: »

That's just petty. Although one of my best friends doesn't drink (She's 21 and had her first drink at Christmas) and sometimes it does make me feel awkward. When we're going up to the bar for shots, she's left sitting in a corner or standing watching us drink.

I actually think it's admirable that she doesn't drink, but I have a need to make everybody feel included, so maybe that's where the awkwardness comes from.

I'm excellent at pychology, even though I never studied it ever in my life. The reason my friends feel awkward with me being sober is that I used to be the worst drunk of us all. And now that I've sorted myself out it makes them feel guilty that they still go out and get hammered. Its not that they want me to feel included, its so they won't feel as bad when they're making fools of themselves and I'm the one with the camera in my hand getting revenge :pac:

jackiebaron wrote: »

So who's going to dream up the 100's of 1000's of unique puzzles that go into the bottles. programming each bottle individually to open upon receipt of some kind of code would probably mean that bottles are twice the size they currently are and cost 10 times the amount to manufacture.

A rather silly suggestion.

I think that was the point.