Do you think the drinking age should be raised to 21?

[lilystyles]

In America the legal drinking age is 21, I was wondering what parents thought of this being imposed over here and whether it could help to curb the binge drinking culture?

No. It doesn't work in America - (a) they just smoke weed instead and (b) they then binge drink once they get to 20ish rather than at 17ish as we do. It just delays the problem.

I must admit I don't really know what to do about the binge drinking culture. If people want to get drunk they will find a way to do it no matter what regulations you bring in.

I think it would help though if there were more places to go in the evenings that didn't revolve around booze - i.e. late night cafes and so on.

I don't think the driving age should be raised to 21, but I do think that drivers who pass their test should have to drive with a New Driver plate for 2 years after they pass.
I believe that 2 years is the best length of time because it means that they will be given a bit of space from other drivers so that they can learn the roads and how to driveon their own without some impatient idiot scaring them. and it means that they can build up their confidence.
It should also lower their insurance premiums.
and it gives those who only drive, say on weekends, to get a chance to practise, too.

I think the problem for teenagers is the fact that so many have grown up watching all the 20's and 30's get rat-arsed as a normal night out, and don't have any idea about sipping a glass of wine with friends being an enjoyable way to spend an evening. If they are included in non-problem drinking from an early age, it stops being an "all-or-nothing" event.

Plus of course the fact that they can now afford it - I and my friends could make a 1/2 pint of cider each last a very long time!

I'm doing what I can to make sure DS (16) can enjoy alcohol without thinking the point is to get drunk as quickly as possible - he has wine with us, and sometimes has some at friends parties. He knows that drinking too much too fast is not that much fun. Though I expect he'll do it at some stage, like most of us have!

No. I think it's patronising.

Why should 18, 19 and 20 year old tax payers be restricted from 'adult' activity?

I've always thought the American practice of infantilising grown men and women in this way to be bizarre. by 21, some of those women whill have been fertile for 10 years, they are biologically PAST their most fertile time, they are the same age at which we start serving on a jury in this country, they are 5 years older than the age at which we consider ourselves sexually autonomous..... so we can get married, but we can't have the champagne party until the child we conceived on our wedding night starts school.

Does this sound remotely sensible?

You cannot control someone's sex drive with the law. If yo9u are allowing people to have sex, you are saying that you consider them old enough to have and care for a baby. If you then say "But you can't drink alcohol for another 5 years" what are you saying about the cherishing of babies in your society? When teenagers and young adults are raising families but may not crack open a bottle of white at the end of a hard day doing so? When a shop manager can walk into her own flat after a hard day of organising her staff and has the options of tea, coffee, or milk? No beer, no wine?

We should not be following America on ANYTHING to do with food or drink, did you see Jamie Oliver's crusade into Huntingdon - and what he found there?

As I once saw an old fat French man declaim - "America! Pah."

Absolutely not. To stop someone who is considered legally an adult from drinking is ridiculous. If a person is allowed, even expected, to work, pay tax, live alone etc, they should be allowed to drink. At 21, many young people have been working for three years or more. to tell them they're not allowed a beer or a glass of wine at the end of the day is patronising and hypocritical in the extreme.

Raising the drinking age won't stop the culture of binge drinking. The point is that it's a "culture" so to make changes, you have to change the culture, not the law.

I think we have a problem with drinking partly because we send mixed messages to young people and their parents regarding alcohol.

We don't have a minimum age that you can drink alcohol but pubs won't serve you (without a meal) until you're 18, yet it's perfectly legal to drink.

You can go to a private house & drink, yet the Police could stop you while you are travelling there (perfectly soberly) and confiscate the alcohol.

No, it's madness. The age for drinking alcoholic drinks such as beer, cider etc. (not spirits) should be lowered to 16 in pubs, not just for those eating a meal.

These age anomolies don't just apply to drinking, think about sex. The age of consent is 16 yet a young person's parents can chose to remove them from sex education lessons until they are 19 (by which age they can vote, fight for their country etc.)