Raising the drinking age to 21.

[Cicjose]

i know way too many stupid people for this to stop kids drinking

[T Dog]

Has a lot of implications.. eg Driving Licence restrictions, Licencing laws in all establishments that serve or sell alcohol, Home parties?, Parties and funtion venues.....etc etc etc

[Justin Bieber]

The answer is easy give 18 - 21 year olds an IQ test and not allow people below a certain level a licence to drink because there are people in our community that should not be allowed to drink.

I know smart people who sometimes binge drink as well and get drunk, etc. So an IQ test wouldn't solve the problem as although people may be smart, they may have a different set of morals behind what they like to do.

I don't drink often, but have the occasional drink. Instead of raising the age, think education is what is needed for the youth of today. My dad use to give me a little glass of wine to have with dinner when I was younger, not often though. So drinking in moderation is fine, which is what he taught me so I don't like drinking much now that I am of age. If they start more educational things in the schools and even in commercials/tv shows, could do a much better job at limited binge/problem drinkers than raising the age. Some kids just like the break the rules and feel the rush of doing something illegal, so raising the age will just tempt them to do it more the longer you keep them off. But if you teach them about the dangers of it, may work better to changing a few of them when they reach 18.

I hope that made sense as my current cold makes it hard for me to focus on one thing :P.

[Purple 77]

Being 17 years old, I have never had a drink in my life. Why? Because I stubbornly refuse to give in to the social demands and culture of drinking. All of my friends drink, and have got drunk, and I don't get it, they are breaking the law, THE LAW, people don't seem to know the seriousness of that IMO, the social culture says that is OK, but no it isn't.

What I have heard from people who is 19-20 now, they say that drinking isn't as "cool" anymore, because they are allowed to do it.  This just proves that the major reason people drink underage and get stupid is to rebel.

So you could say that by raising the drinking age, you increase the duration of this "rebellion" faze when it comes to drinking

[Grazz]

Tried to right this a few times but either the site or my laptop is stuffing up.

The answer lays in education and the amount of cash the Government injects into schools from Primary through to High school. To many parents don't care or are naive to what their kids are doing, some simply want to be their child's friend and not a parent. The message and the effort my generation put into getting it across is failing and has failed for generations. The do as I say and not as I do approach has never worked and never will. Prohibition never worked nor will raising the age limit it will just push greater numbers onto the streets and into parks etc abusing alcohol. I feel the answers lay with those it is affecting today the youth and we need to approach them and discuss what message we need to come up with and how best to present it so that more will listen to what we are trying to say about the affects on a brain younger than 21 years of age, the science is in and we know the affects are serious. The problem with my generation and older ones is for to long we have believed only we have the answers when in reality we don't and never have. Ask those that it directly affects and you may be surprised by the answers and results you receive then take that information and inject the money required to take that message and presentation into the school system from an early age and give it. There are no quick fixes to this issue and will take a generation or two before the benefits are seen but it will be a real fix not a head in the sand approach like raising the age limit. Alcohol is to easily gotten and kids will always find a way to get it just as they do illegal substances so who in their right mind thinks raising the age limit on a substance which is legal for the majority of us will fix the issue. The liquor advertising needs to rained in like the gambling has been, pubs clubs need to be policed harsher for those that serve minors although this is only a small part of the problem in reality. The bigger issue is lack of a decent education strategy and a message that works tbh. We need to be thinking outside the box and forget the authoritarian approach of do as I say it doesn't work and never has. We need to go to the coal face and ask those it is directly affecting and educate ourselves before we attempt to educate them of the dangers of alcohol on a young mind and stop thinking because we are older we know better than they, we must do this and we must invest heavily in the answers we receive in the Education system.

[DazBurg]

Tried to right this a few times but either the site or my laptop is stuffing up.

The answer lays in education and the amount of cash the Government injects into schools from Primary through to High school. To many parents don't care or are naive to what their kids are doing, some simply want to be their child's friend and not a parent. The message and the effort my generation put into getting it across is failing and has failed for generations. The do as I say and not as I do approach has never worked and never will. Prohibition never worked nor will raising the age limit it will just push greater numbers onto the streets and into parks etc abusing alcohol. I feel the answers lay with those it is affecting today the youth and we need to approach them and discuss what message we need to come up with and how best to present it so that more will listen to what we are trying to say about the affects on a brain younger than 21 years of age, the science is in and we know the affects are serious. The problem with my generation and older ones is for to long we have believed only we have the answers when in reality we don't and never have. Ask those that it directly affects and you may be surprised by the answers and results you receive then take that information and inject the money required to take that message and presentation into the school system from an early age and give it. There are no quick fixes to this issue and will take a generation or two before the benefits are seen but it will be a real fix not a head in the sand approach like raising the age limit. Alcohol is to easily gotten and kids will always find a way to get it just as they do illegal substances so who in their right mind thinks raising the age limit on a substance which is legal for the majority of us will fix the issue. The liquor advertising needs to rained in like the gambling has been, pubs clubs need to be policed harsher for those that serve minors although this is only a small part of the problem in reality. The bigger issue is lack of a decent education strategy and a message that works tbh. We need to be thinking outside the box and forget the authoritarian approach of do as I say it doesn't work and never has. We need to go to the coal face and ask those it is directly affecting and educate ourselves before we attempt to educate them of the dangers of alcohol on a young mind and stop thinking because we are older we know better than they, we must do this and we must invest heavily in the answers we receive in the Education system.

well said grazzy  ;)

[Grazz]

Thanks Daz, bit of a War and Peace novel. ;)

[nrich102]

Yeah I've heard in Germany you can buy beer & wine at 16 (gulp) but spirits and other drinks when over 18... Kind of ties in with what you say Spink. ;)

In Russia, Beer wasn't recognised as alcohol until the start of the year, lol.

[Ringo]

Tried to right this a few times but either the site or my laptop is stuffing up.

The answer lays in education and the amount of cash the Government injects into schools from Primary through to High school. To many parents don't care or are naive to what their kids are doing, some simply want to be their child's friend and not a parent. The message and the effort my generation put into getting it across is failing and has failed for generations. The do as I say and not as I do approach has never worked and never will. Prohibition never worked nor will raising the age limit it will just push greater numbers onto the streets and into parks etc abusing alcohol. I feel the answers lay with those it is affecting today the youth and we need to approach them and discuss what message we need to come up with and how best to present it so that more will listen to what we are trying to say about the affects on a brain younger than 21 years of age, the science is in and we know the affects are serious. The problem with my generation and older ones is for to long we have believed only we have the answers when in reality we don't and never have. Ask those that it directly affects and you may be surprised by the answers and results you receive then take that information and inject the money required to take that message and presentation into the school system from an early age and give it. There are no quick fixes to this issue and will take a generation or two before the benefits are seen but it will be a real fix not a head in the sand approach like raising the age limit. Alcohol is to easily gotten and kids will always find a way to get it just as they do illegal substances so who in their right mind thinks raising the age limit on a substance which is legal for the majority of us will fix the issue. The liquor advertising needs to rained in like the gambling has been, pubs clubs need to be policed harsher for those that serve minors although this is only a small part of the problem in reality. The bigger issue is lack of a decent education strategy and a message that works tbh. We need to be thinking outside the box and forget the authoritarian approach of do as I say it doesn't work and never has. We need to go to the coal face and ask those it is directly affecting and educate ourselves before we attempt to educate them of the dangers of alcohol on a young mind and stop thinking because we are older we know better than they, we must do this and we must invest heavily in the answers we receive in the Education system.

well said grazzy  ;)

Well said Grazz from me.  We all know from our experience that raising the age will not work. From my youth when the age was still 21 we still had parties with alcohol although we were underage.

As you say education is the key along with reduction in advertising, policing sale to minors and reductions in licensing hours to curb alcohol related violence.

[Grazz]

Same for us Ringo growing up except the age was 18 but from 16 onwards most of my mates and I were pooling our funds on the weekends to get a bottle of Brandivino or a flagon of something be it Port/Riesling or a lovely Moselle aged at least 1 month and then head off to the local underage Disco at the youth centre and then proceed to stand in the corner looking as cool as possible, more like a dummy from the Myers shopfront window. Zero education existed then the only input we got is "you will not do that,got it" which as you know only drove us to drink more the little rebels we were. The whole stance around alcohol and youth needs a serious revamp from the ground up starting with Advertising, Liquor Outlets, Pubs and Clubs cheap alcohol/operating hours to a proper consultation and implemented Education programs in the school system and the backing of the Government in all these areas with 100% commitment from them in addressing all the issues in these areas aswell as serious funding in the Education strategies learned from direct consultation with the generations in question on how to present the messages we want to send. Not many of us haven't been touched by alcohol and the tragedies that can stem from it's abuse, I lost good mates to alcohol and poor decisions then sadly saw history repeat itself with my children loosing some of their friends for the same reasons. Slightly off topic but all these social issues would come under the umbrella of a properly funded Education strategy starting in Primary Schools through to High School. Then and only then will we have a proper impact surrounding all the issue's of underage drinking and the impacts regarding health, violence etc. The key will always be the message and how it's presented and the answers lay at the feet of todays youth, we just have to ask the right questions and then have then conviction to see it through.