Many Teens Getting Free Alcohol From Adults

This is a funny thread...I was just asked friday night by one of my employees to buy him beer. He's only 19.
I would have NEVER asked my boss for that when I was younger.

The age limit at 21 is kinda retarded. Seriously, all you need is an older brother, a cousin, a friend's brother, a loser that hangs out with teens, your parent's liquor stash, or your friendly 7-11 patron. If you're absolutely desperate a homeless guy will do.

First time I drank beer was when I was 10. I was at an aunt's house and I thought it was new flavor of Coke. Needless to say my parents saw me strutting about with the "coke" and that was the last time we ever went to my aunt's house.

sorry saden, 21 is a good age, cause teenagers don't know how to be responsible with drinking. I don't think for one minute that if the age was dropped, they wouldn't need to "sneak" it, therefore they would miraculously become responsible.

Does the limit deter teens from drinking? Isn't it the parent's responsibility to teach their kids to drink responsibly?

When you hit 18 you're considered an adult. You are expected to exercise sound judgment and you're held accountable as an adult for your actions. If you can't at 18 I don't know how much difference an additional 3 years make.

Does the limit deter teens from drinking?

It makes it much harder, which in turn does deter teens from drinking. (albeit slightly) Especially with all the laws about selling to underage teens.

Isn't it the parent's responsibility to teach their kids to drink responsibly?

Absolutely, but be careful with this one, parental skills have gone south, so unless you feel 100% OK with parents teaching EVERYTHING the way they should, this argument is about as valid as michael jackson's children's museum pass.

When you hit 18 you're considered an adult. You are expected to exercise sound judgment and you're held accountable as an adult for your actions. If you can't at 18 I don't know how much difference an additional 3 years make.

I understand your argument, especially considering an 18 year old can go into the military, (although one of the main reasons that is true is because it's harder to recruit after kids choose a college / career path, so out of HS is the best way to get them...right or wrong, that's one of the reasons why 18 year olds are allowed in the military) but if 18 year olds showed sound judgement, then they would be able to drink at 18. While there are plenty of responsible 18 year olds out there, the majority are not.
You might be right about the difference between a 21 year old and an 18 year old, but if that argument holds any water, then what's the difference between an 18 year old and a 15 year old? To me there is a world of difference.

The drinking age should be 18. If you read the statistics (lies) put out by MADD they love to say how since the drinking age moved from 18--> 21 the deaths from alcohol have gone down significantly. When in fact there has been no drop, just a three year change in the deaths.

Others countries have an 18 drinking policy and have far fewer problems with alcoholism. I've been drinking for a long time, and rarely have I done something very irresponsible. I think drinking when I was young helped me from making stupid mistakes when I got older. Let kids drink at 18, while many folks are still at home (at least for a summer) and learn some responsibility instead of sending them to college to binge drink and be generally stupid about the whole deal.

I don't find it fair that we're not mature enough at 18 to handle alcohol, but we can be charged as an adult in alcohol related offenses before 21.

The drinking age should be 18. If you read the statistics (lies) put out by MADD they love to say how since the drinking age moved from 18--> 21 the deaths from alcohol have gone down significantly. When in fact there has been no drop, just a three year change in the deaths.

Others countries have an 18 drinking policy and have far fewer problems with alcoholism. I've been drinking for a long time, and rarely have I done something very irresponsible. I think drinking when I was young helped me from making stupid mistakes when I got older. Let kids drink at 18, while many folks are still at home (at least for a summer) and learn some responsibility instead of sending them to college to binge drink and be generally stupid about the whole deal.

I don't find it fair that we're not mature enough at 18 to handle alcohol, but we can be charged as an adult in alcohol related offenses before 21.

We, as a society, have A HUGE drinking problem. Sure most of us can be and are responsible, but there is a mass amount of us that are not. Look at all the DUI's. So until people stop drinking and driving, and doing dumb drunk things, then I don't see how lessening drinking laws are a wise thing. There are plenty of 30 and 40 year olds being completely stupid with alcohol yet we are expecting 18 year olds to do what they can't (or won't depending on perspective)?

Jsarno -- why do other countries have less of a problem with alcohol then? I'm talking pure alcoholism. More DUIs in this country makes sense considering the lack of mass transit, etc. But even alcoholism is much higher percentage wise here than most countries with fairly laid back drinking restrictions.

Plus, an 18 year old is an adult. Either make 21 the legal 'adult' age and everything before then is considered a minor, or make them an adult at 18 including alcohol. As I stated in my post, raising the drinking age didn't add responsibility, it actually just made people make bad decisions at an older age.

The age limit at 21 is kinda retarded.
The sky must be falling and hell freezing over....I agree with saden on something non-football related.

First time I drank beer was when I was 10. I was at an aunt's house and I thought it was new flavor of Coke. Needless to say my parents saw me strutting about with the "coke" and that was the last time we ever went to my aunt's house.
That explains a lot :laughing2

I'm older than most of you guys, I grew up very close to Silver Spring and we used to run a few miles across the "border", down GA Ave. into DC and my 18 yr. old friends would get beer. Good times, good times.

Daseal brings up a great point, when I was stationed in Japan there was no drinking age or it was very young, there were beer machines on the street and I watched kids buy liquor at convenience stores off-base. Even so, Japan didn't have any under-age drinking problem I was aware of.

If you're an adult legally at 18, you face the legal system as an adult, you can die for your country, you should at least be able to have a beer.

Jsarno -- why do other countries have less of a problem with alcohol then? I'm talking pure alcoholism. More DUIs in this country makes sense considering the lack of mass transit, etc. But even alcoholism is much higher percentage wise here than most countries with fairly laid back drinking restrictions.

Plus, an 18 year old is an adult. Either make 21 the legal 'adult' age and everything before then is considered a minor, or make them an adult at 18 including alcohol. As I stated in my post, raising the drinking age didn't add responsibility, it actually just made people make bad decisions at an older age.
My wife's mother is from Germany and her two uncles still live there. When they come here they have a couple of beers with lunch and then have happy hour around 4. I asked them and its pretty common in Germany to drink every night and they really don't think that much about it. Here we would call them Alcholics. Also in other countries a DUI can carry some heavy time in jail. I know in Germany your first offense you serve jail Time and I think it could be up to a year.