being 21 to buy alcohol

[Ansem]

i love bad bitches thats my fucking problem

[Chocolate Kitty]

you're still not 21?

[twice]

voted

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

imo 19 should be the age of consent to drink.

[fengaridotdll]

It should be 19, imo. That's basically around the point where you're developed enough to where drinking won't cause as much damage as , say, to a 15 year old drinking, and you're also above the age of consent.

[Shinehollow]

In most of Canada it's 19 while in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec it's 18.

I get Quebec having it different, but Alberta and Manitoba confuse me.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Queen Zenobia

[Ken Masters]

Here you can drink at 18.

Also 21 is the worst age ever. Source: I'm 21

[Ansem]

you're still not 21?

next year

im triggered because i was at walmart with my roommate, and he was gonna get beer for himself and the cashier was like he cant buy it since they want both of our ids and hes 21 and im not.

most people have their first drinks waaaaaaay before 21 too. i think 19 is a good age too.

[Parrhesia]

16 would be entirely fine, both to drink and to vote.

[Zanarkin]

18 is a good age. Its good enough to vote, have sex with anyone above 18 years of age, smoke (in some states), and enroll in military service. Why then should you not be able to drink around that age? Clearly, in all other areas the individual is thought to have enough capacity of mind to measure the consequences, why then restrict alcohol up to 21? It doesn't really stop people from drinking once they get to university anyway, and it is ridiculously easy to do.

[Acacia Sgt]

Didn't the US actually dropped it to 18 in like... the 70's or 80's? Probably what caused it to change back to 21 is the reason for that.

[Parrhesia]

From 1969 to 1976, some 30 states lowered their purchase ages, generally to 18. This was primarily because the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1971 with the 26th amendment, a lot of states started to lower their minimum drinking age in response most of it occurring in 1972 or 1973.[1][2][3] Twelve states kept their purchase ages at 21 since repeal of Prohibition and never changed them.

From 1976 to 1983, several states voluntarily raised their purchase ages to 19 (or, less commonly, 20 or 21), in part to combat drunk driving fatalities[citation needed]. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise their ages for purchase and public possession to 21 by October 1986 or lose 10% of their federal highway funds. By mid-1988, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had raised their purchase ages to 21 (but not Puerto Rico, Guam, or the Virgin Islands, see Additional Notes below). South Dakota and Wyoming were the final two states to comply with the age 21 mandate. The current drinking age of 21 remains a point of contention among many Americans, not least because of it being higher than the age of majority (18 in most states) and higher than the drinking ages of most other countries.

oh hey i learned something

[Zanarkin]

Didn't the US actually dropped it to 18 in like... the 70's or 80's? Probably what caused it to change back to 21 is the reason for that.

Apparently it was to offset drunk driving, which around 1984 was very big among people aged 16-20. I don't know how to feel about that though, going to look up other countries will come back maybe unless you guys find something first.

Not sure what to make of these entirely, an interesting thing though is that while all other canadian provinces have risen in terms of impaired driving, Quebec (18) and Ontario (19) have decreased. Although it seems that the ones most likely to be impaired while driving in Canada are those aged 20-24. Even the 25-34 years is higher than 16-19 (although to be fair 25-34 years is a bigger age range than the previous 2).

I quickly skimmed these though so take that with a grain of salt.

Canada

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2013001/article/11739-eng.htm

US

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/states-data-tables.html

Edit, also unsure of how to compare the US and Canadian statistics :V

Another quick search shows that Canada has the highest drinking and driving related deaths in wealthy countries, though the USA comes as a close second (don't know how dependable source is)

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadas-drunk-driving-death-rate-worst-among-wealthy-countries-u-s-study-finds

Edited September 10, 2016 by SlayerX

[Parrhesia]

So Canada (18-19) and the US (21) at the top and the Netherlands (16) at the bottom, hmm

(Granted, I don't think there's a direct correlation between 'lower drinking age' and 'fewer drink-driving incidents', but the higher drinking age certainly isn't doing the work as a deterrent.)

[Nobody]

It's in the top 10 worst things about america

[Blue Druid]

17 here baby, Wooo!

[Magical Glace]

im triggered because i was at walmart with my roommate, and he was gonna get beer for himself and the cashier was like he cant buy it since they want both of our ids and hes 21 and im not.

Wow

I didn't even know they could do that.

[Freohr Datia]

im triggered because i was at walmart with my roommate, and he was gonna get beer for himself and the cashier was like he cant buy it since they want both of our ids and hes 21 and im not.

that's.... interesting. I've never had anyone do that when I was with somebody buying beer. I guess I could see what they were suspecting?? But I feel like that's none of their business.

And the other thing is that I look incredibly young, so there's no reason for others to not suspect that somebody was doing that for me too.

[Rezzy]

I'm 30, and I've never even bought alcohol for myself. Every time I've drank, someone else bought it for me. I've somewhat avoided alcohol, since my mother suffers from alcoholism. Plus, expecting a baby, soon, I can't really drink right now, anyway.

That being said, I think the age for buying alcohol should be 18, and kids of all ages, should be able to drink, if supervised by an adult. If kids are raised to know and respect alcohol, it won't be such a big deal when they hit adulthood.

[EricaofRenais]

on this I agree with my dad, he says that if you are old enough to get drafted in to the military you should be able to vote and buy alcohol. Of course he grew up in the 1950s/60s and I think they did change the voting age, but I don't know why the drinking age is 3 years above that I personally would never drink myself but I feel people do have a right to do it, but just don't become an alcoholic and have kids because the pain that a drunk parent can cause is horrid and it never truly goes away.

Edited September 10, 2016 by EricaofRenais

[Nym]

At least here in Canada, you need to be 18 xD.

[Ansem]

that's.... interesting. I've never had anyone do that when I was with somebody buying beer. I guess I could see what they were suspecting?? But I feel like that's none of their business.

And the other thing is that I look incredibly young, so there's no reason for others to not suspect that somebody was doing that for me too.

it prolly was suspecting, but i hate but light so its legit for him.

im gonna go back to that walmart next year to buy a shitton of alcohol and im gonna shave and look mad young and then give that bitch my id.

[Jotari]

Objectively speaking I'm of the opinion that alcohol should probably be illegal. The amount of damage it generally causes far outstips most of the illegal stuff out there. Subjectively speaking though a good drink can be great craic and it's nice to have around. 21 seems pretty stupid and arbitrary considering the other things a person is allowed to do when younger. Like you can trust an eighteen year old to influence the overall shape of the country or go to war but you can't trust them to get drunk (as a lot of people so far have pointed out)? And kids are going to do it anyway when they feel they're old enough regardless what the law says. Dedicating time to preventing legal adults from getting drunk just seems like it'd take away from real crimes being committed out there. Though I've never actually lived in a country where the drinking age is so high. I assume the police don't actually dedicate much time to combating underage adult drinking in most rational places.

[whase]

Don't forget alcohol is just drugs, same as caffeine and sugar. In my opinion all drugs should be banned, but of course history proves that won't work. Keep the age for alcohol at 21, the less drunks walking or driving around the better.

Also, "the kids will do it anyways" sounds like the worst reason ever. It's not like you use the same argument to let a murderer go.

But that's just my very unpopular opinion on drugs. (Plus I'm not all holy either, I'm very much addicted to sugar)

[peener weener]

Don't forget alcohol is just drugs, same as caffeine and sugar. In my opinion all drugs should be banned, but of course history proves that won't work. Keep the age for alcohol at 21, the less drunks walking or driving around the better.

Also, "the kids will do it anyways" sounds like the worst reason ever. It's not like you use the same argument to let a murderer go.

But that's just my very unpopular opinion on drugs. (Plus I'm not all holy either, I'm very much addicted to sugar)

you're equating drinking alcohol to killing another person. that's stupid as hell.