Why is the legal drinking age 21 in the U.S.?

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

You can go die in a war or be a pornstar but you can't drink at 18. Yeah, makes total sense.

[RRW359]

Publicado originalmente por Thrawnald McDonald:

Publicado originalmente por BlackDragon875:

You can go die in a war or be a pornstar but you can't drink at 18. Yeah, makes total sense.

There actually is a medical reason behind this law. The human brain is not fully developed until approximately 25 years of age. It is slightly different for men and women, women having a fully developed brain before men.

Having the drinking age raised to 21 is the governments way of attempting to protect young people. Alcohol can and does cause temporary and in some cases permanent brain damage. This becomes far more prevalent in brains that are not fully developed.

I seriously doubt that is what the law makers were looking at when they raised the drinking age to 21. In point of fact, I know for a fact that they were not looking at that. But, medically it does make sense. It would be better if we could raise the drinking age to 26, but I have serious doubts that will ever happen.

If that were true wouldn't basically every country not in the middle east as well as the few US territories that allow drinking at 18 have evidence of higher brain damage in the population then the US?

[Xero_Daxter]

Why not raise the legal age to 21 then? Heck... let's raise it up to 25.

[Ulfrinn]

Publicado originalmente por gamer:

It is because so many people die every year.

How much difference do you think laws about it actually make? It's still readily accessible to people under, doesn't protect anyone over or under either. It simply exists.

[Ulfrinn]

Publicado originalmente por RRW359:

Publicado originalmente por Thrawnald McDonald:

There actually is a medical reason behind this law. The human brain is not fully developed until approximately 25 years of age. It is slightly different for men and women, women having a fully developed brain before men.

Having the drinking age raised to 21 is the governments way of attempting to protect young people. Alcohol can and does cause temporary and in some cases permanent brain damage. This becomes far more prevalent in brains that are not fully developed.

I seriously doubt that is what the law makers were looking at when they raised the drinking age to 21. In point of fact, I know for a fact that they were not looking at that. But, medically it does make sense. It would be better if we could raise the drinking age to 26, but I have serious doubts that will ever happen.

If that were true wouldn't basically every country not in the middle east as well as the few US territories that allow drinking at 18 have evidence of higher brain damage in the population then the US?

If your brain isn't developed enough to drink, then it's not developed enough to elect people to write laws to tell others they can't drink either.

[Bad Aim]

Publicado originalmente por RRW359:

Publicado originalmente por Thrawnald McDonald:

There actually is a medical reason behind this law. The human brain is not fully developed until approximately 25 years of age. It is slightly different for men and women, women having a fully developed brain before men.

Having the drinking age raised to 21 is the governments way of attempting to protect young people. Alcohol can and does cause temporary and in some cases permanent brain damage. This becomes far more prevalent in brains that are not fully developed.

I seriously doubt that is what the law makers were looking at when they raised the drinking age to 21. In point of fact, I know for a fact that they were not looking at that. But, medically it does make sense. It would be better if we could raise the drinking age to 26, but I have serious doubts that will ever happen.

If that were true wouldn't basically every country not in the middle east as well as the few US territories that allow drinking at 18 have evidence of higher brain damage in the population then the US?

I don't expect you or anyone else to believe me. In point of fact, I fully expect people to not believe me. But people who wish to prove me wrong or people who may be interested may look it up.

[Xero_Daxter]

You know what I did to troll wal-mart? When buying alcohol they have to ID everyone in the party in case of 3rd party sale. I went shopping with my sister and put in 500 dollars worth of perishable food stuff in the cart. I also got alcohol. So during the checkout they wanted to ID my sister too but I said it was for me and only me. They took no for an answer and what I did is I just walked away leaving the 500 dollar worth of food stuff which they now have to throw away.

Any meats that are taken but not sold has to be thrown out.

[RRW359]

Publicado originalmente por Thrawnald McDonald:

Publicado originalmente por RRW359:

If that were true wouldn't basically every country not in the middle east as well as the few US territories that allow drinking at 18 have evidence of higher brain damage in the population then the US?

I don't expect you or anyone else to believe me. In point of fact, I fully expect people to not believe me. But people who wish to prove me wrong or people who may be interested may look it up.

I'm not saying it can't cause brain damage, I'm saying allowing it doesn't cause more people to get brain damage. Name a specific diagnosis that can come from drinking at a lower age and I'll look up the frequency of it in the rest of the world compared to the US.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

They should lower the age to 19. That way most high school kids still can't buy it. If you live near a college campus, it's really easy to get alcohol if you're underage anyway.

[RRW359]

Publicado originalmente por BlackDragon875:

They should lower the age to 19. That way most high school kids still can't buy it. If you live near a college campus, it's really easy to get alcohol if you're underage anyway.

Preferably it should be at the age of majority (18 but it could be raised) but I'd even prefer it being fully outlawed until 21 over the way it works now where it's one of many things where non-drivers have to give up rights in order to give benefits soley to drivers.

[swillfly]

Agreed OP.

Start feedin the kids booze & bud early on so theys know wat to expect in 'Murica when grown.

[Lunar Fang]

The want to raise the age when you're considered an adult to 25 because younger generations are literally stupid and are mentally developing slower.

[Kiryn]

Publicado originalmente por Ulfrinn:

How many people here have actually had an alcoholic drink prior to the legal drinking age? Let's be honest, it's stopped virtually nobody.

I had some (wine or beer), with dinner & my parents' approval, at 10 and younger. As well as small sips of cocktails/liquor they were drinking. Part of being raised by a first-gen-immigrant German mother.

It allowed me to learn about alcohol in a responsible manner (as opposed to some mid-teens stealing dad's bottle of scotch and binging), and realize that I don't like the taste of alcohol and have no desire to get "buzzed". I'm in my 50's, I've never been "out drinking" at a bar or club, and have never been drunk. And saved a lot of $ not buying alcohol.

But that's a very different experience & trajectory than the usual "kids drinking" idiocy. Letting 18 year olds drink legally wouldn't help that - they'd just start getting drunk at bars 3 years earlier.

[Devsman]

Yeah I agree OP, they should raise the age of those other things to 21 so it's consistent

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

Publicado originalmente por Devsman:

Yeah I agree OP, they should raise the age of those other things to 21 so it's consistent

I don't really see the point in the legal drinking age being 21 when people are already underage drinking more in college than the legal age.

[WhiteKnight77]

Through the early 80s, it was a miss mash of ages from 18 for everything in New York to 21 in California for everything to 18 for beer and 21 for wine and liquor in others such as Virginia. It was legal to drink on military bases at 18 for everything, but you couldn't if you left the base in places such as California.

The others are right, MADD pushed the Feds for rules against drinking and hence, pushed the States to raise the drinking age to 21 or risk losing highway funds, thus the raising of the age in States that didn't have higher drinking ages.