What do you think about drinking age

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To make it clear, I am a teetotaler I do not like and do not drink strong liquor at all, but I really like beer:-)

In my country, Poland, the sale of liquor is permitted only for persons over 18 years of age. I know that in the U.S. can buy alcohol and consume only those 21 years or older. I think it's a little silly, after all, every person should decide for himself, and not a chaperone.

However, I think it would be nice to have such a law in my country, despite the fact that my country is at the bottom of European ranking of liquor consumption per capita

If we had such a law.
I could knock down political capital, giving hate speech about the injustice of the adults that do not allow young people to have fun, etc.

It may help me to get to seat Sejm, it's lower house of Polish parliament, and giving hate speech it's best way to make political career in every country

But seriously, what do you think about drinking age, and if you ever thought of a political career, and how to achieve it. I once was a member of the Civic Platform's youth, but I had resign because I went to college and I could not combine studying and political activity.
Do political career is good for someone with AS?
Do you know of any politician with Asperger syndrome?

Last edited by pawelk1986 on 25 Mar 2013, 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No, it isn't. If that were true, the House of Commons would be full of neo-fascists.

Setting it at the age of 21 is about right due to brain development. The brain is not done developing physically at 18 and still has one final, rapid period to undergo and alcohol stunts that development. One of the things that still needs to develop is the ability to moderate decision-making.

But that control adult, I understand the need to control children, but that adults, with which the government is supposed to have the right to control adult citizen, why should the government care about the state of development of my brain? Three is not too much power? Everyone should answer for their actions alone.

Fortunately in Poland and all of Europe we have the normal drinking age, but if we had 21 years old age, i will have chance to gain political capital God hate speech + angry young mob = seat in Parliament xD

Besides the if our politician introduced law on liquor similar to US , that will did not work in Poland, just one that did not obey the law, because we Poles have a natural tendency to non-conformity and rebellion, which is reflected in our historyamong other reasons communism did not work in our country.

It should be lowered to 18 here in the U.S. I can legally smoke and join the military. Why is alcohol excluded from that list?

If someone is legally an adult at 18 then they should be able to decide for themselves if they want to buy and consume alcohol at that age.

Once in Poland with us one politician suggested that perhaps we should raise the age limit to buy liquor to 19 years, or even like in USA to 21 years.

But he was ridiculed by others, and quickly withdrew from this.

Here in Poland, most of the privileges and responsibilities of adulthood is 18 years old.

I would like to be that age again.

Should be whatever the age of accountability is. I'd think anywhere from 16-18. I guess 18 is fair, as you can be executed by the courts at 18. I figure if you're accountable enough to be executed at that age, then you're accountable enough to make decisions about alcohol. I'd lean on 16-17, though, because most states place you in adult court and will still give you adult penalties, and most states allow driving and age of consent somewhere at that age, too.

As far as the developing thing, 21 is a bit arbitrary, as the brain actually doesn't stop until like 25 or something. One thing with 21, though, I know Japan actually gives you non-adult status court-wise until you're 21 (or maybe it was even 22.)

Basically all I want is consistency in age things. I don't see how you're legally held accountable for, you know, everything, but then you gotta wait 3 years to drink?

Here it is 18 YO, which is good (I can't imagine having to wait until 21 to drink alcohol legally, and yes, making it illegal won't stop everybody), although in Germany, beer and wine are legal at 16 and older, and nobody seems to have a problem with it. The people I talked with there were taught about moderation, so it works there.

18 is sensible, it doesn't make sense that someone old enough to join the military, vote, smoke and bet is not allowed to drink beer.

I do not like alcohol, it stinks. but I like beer,

Just once watched american court show on TV, BTW i really like court shows i watch Polish, British, American, court shows, because i'm interested in law.
I watched on american court shows, on trail on college student was tried for underage drinking, he was fined, but he can go for jail for this. Honestly, I do not understand Americans how 18 or 19 years can be considered as underage! excuse me but this is a little absurd.

As for the age limit, I would happily restricted access to cigarettes to children. Here in Poland to buy cigarettes enough be over 18 years old. I would prefer even ban that s**t, but I believe in free will, even if it means poisoning themselves.
Last time I was out shopping at the mall I saw smoking boys, having about 13 years, using the most disgusting profanity in Polish language, and when one old lady try discipline them the show her middle finger. and the mall was a non-smoking area, and they shouldn't smoke at all

PS. What do you think about smoking i didn't like smokers.

I think cigarettes should be legal, I don't really support the crazy taxes but I think eventually electronic cigarettes will mostly overtake real cigarettes and render the problem to be basically nothing. Taxes on cigarettes here are very expensive. For Pall Malls, it's like $6-7 a pack, and Marlboros and Newports are like $10. Don't think youth should smoke. I've actually tried cigarettes/tobacco and really love it. However, I don't wanna get addicted, so I didn't pursue it more. But they really relax me and feel great. I totally understand why people smoke. For me I just drink lots of coffee/energy drinks instead.

But yes, USA does that. Underage drinking for 18, 19, and 20 year olds.

Personally I don't drink much at all. I like alcohol, too. But, it's just too much of a hassle. Not particularly great for you. That and I'm always paranoid of DUIs. Like I drove home after a single glass of wine after waiting like an hour and a half and was paranoid the whole time I'd get a DUI.

And lol, only in Poland would drinking beer and wine mean you're a teetotaler. Yay tradition of drinking tons of alcohol in Eastern European countries. At my church (former Russian) it was a big surprise to see alcohol served at the church meals. In my Fundamentalist Baptist upbringing, any alcohol at all was bad and they said in the Bible all the wine drank was actually grape juice.

In my country its 16 for "light" stuff as beer and whine, and there are some special laws for restaurants and so on, so you are not supposed to offer an already drunken teenager another beer or whine as restaurant owner for example. Hard stuff is allowed when you are 18.

So there were discussions about forbidding beer and whine for 16 years old, and raising the limit to 18, but this would have been bad because you also get your driver license at 18.

Unexperienced drivers combined with unexperienced alcohol consume...no good combination. Better to learn your limits and consequences of being drunk at 16, while you are still driving with your bicycle or minimotorcycle. When your 18, and start to drive a car, you already know the effect of alcohol on you and its consequences.

In my humble opinion too strict age limits are just a breeding ground for hypocrisy, because people will simply disobey such law and why the government has to have the right to restrict adult citizens?

In my country alkochol is not a problem, but the real problem is the taxes, many rich they simply do not pay, one our local celebrity singer, cheating on taxes, when it came to light, she said she did not like the current prime minister, but now she is not the to laugh as it dealt with the tax office
Many people in my country also work in the shadow economy, not paying taxes, I'm curious to see how it looks in other countries.

Every U.S. state has a drinking age of 21 because it is tied to federal highway funding. Federal highway funding comes out of the National Highway Trust. The National Highway Trust is funded by a special gasoline tax of 18.3¢ per gallon, last raised in 1993. Inflation, less driving miles and more fuel efficient cars means the National Highway Trust is going broke. As the National Highway Trust goes broke, states can go back to doing what they want.

Therefore, if you want a lower drinking age, drive a hybrid or a fuel sipper.

After all, I'm glad that I live in a country that does not decide does I allowed to drink my beer

The only thing I envy is that Americans have the right to bear arms written into your constitution.

I had thinking about starting hunting, but getting in poland weapons permit, even hunting is very time consuming and expensive, and I have Asperger's Syndrome, so I do not know whether i got a firearms license at all.