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What should the drinking age be ?

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At what age should people be allowed to drink beer ?
21 age old (US) after being an adult for a few years. 31%  31%  [ 12 ]
18 years old (most of the world) so basicly adults. 28%  28%  [ 11 ]
16 years old (Netherlands) teenagers 31%  31%  [ 12 ]
No alcoholic drinks allowed period 10%  10%  [ 4 ]
Total votes : 39

Bart21
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27 Aug 2008, 12:27 pm

ToadOfSteel wrote:
I'm a bit fickle about keeping control of my own mind (to the point that i've had bouts of insomnia because sleep would mean losing control), and I never understood why people want to drink and willingly give up their mental controls all the damn time. It doesn't matter what ethnicity a person came from, what religion a person follows (even in those that forbid alcohol consumption), or what country a person is a part of, everyone wants to just keep consuming booze all the time. I don't mind the glass of wine with dinner (which has health benefits), but the evidence of so many alcoholics that try to consume whatever booze they can get their hands on is staggering at this point in time.

In another age (even into the early 20th century), alcohol was the only thing some people had to drink if clean fresh water wasn't available, but today, in the days of running water almost everywhere in developed countries, one would think alcohol usage would decline... if anything, it's risen since 1900.

Then again, since I don't like imposing my views on others forcibly, I'm actually for abolishing the drinking age...


Fun is the word the word you forgot in this post. People would lose theyr mind if they had to be serious theyr whole life. Sure you can have fun without alcohol, but for my 90% of the time people find me funny is when i've had a couple. Normally i tend to be too dam serious all the time. It also tends to make me a spender instead of someone who hates spending alot of money, wich is kind of funny.
What you are reffering to is ale, like a extremely light beer that used to be safer for comsumption than water was.
Nobody is ever going to stop people from using alcohol or drugs. Some people just have this dire need to escape from reality at times. Especially those in bad neighorhoods.



AnonymousAnonymous
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27 Aug 2008, 12:42 pm

It is 21 and should stay 21.


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Bart21
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27 Aug 2008, 1:41 pm

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
It is 21 and should stay 21.


Only for a small percentage of the world population it is. The most common drinking age by far is still 18 years old.
Btw what does everyone think of the drinking age for drinks like wisky or vodka ?
These things tend to give alot more danger of alcohol poisoning as after a while you don't notice how strong they are anymore. I myself drank those a few times but i couldn't control this to be honest. I started drinking it like it was a beer and had to puke. I couldn't hold anything in my stomach for a few days after drinking that much wisky. So since than i don't drink much of the heavy stuff anymore. I only drink stuff with 15% alcohol or less nowadays. The heavy stuff doesn't work well for people like me who like to drink fast.



just_ben
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27 Aug 2008, 3:48 pm

I said 16. I reckon it's down to the parents to keep an eye on the behaviour of their kids and what they can and can't drink, not the governments. There's only so much an authority can do about this sort of thing before personal responsibility comes into it, and to expect such a thing to be policed beyond the age of about 16/17 years old is a bit silly. Sort it out, mum and dad. :x


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Dogbrain
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27 Aug 2008, 7:05 pm

ToadOfSteel wrote:
everyone wants to just keep consuming booze all the time


I'd like to see the research you did to come up with this claim.



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27 Aug 2008, 7:06 pm

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
It is 21 and should stay 21.


Actually, contrary to the blatherings of the extremely parochial and uninformed, it is not even 21 all over the USA. Some states have lowered the age to 18 and more are considering this. And they are willingly giving up the federal highway funds to do it.



twoshots
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27 Aug 2008, 7:07 pm

Dogbrain wrote:
ToadOfSteel wrote:
everyone wants to just keep consuming booze all the time


I'd like to see the research you did to come up with this claim.

No no. See, I can derive this one.
1) I want to keep drinking booze all the time.
2) There are no other people (see solipsism)
3) Therefore, everyone wants to just keep consuming booze all the time.

BAM!


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Dogbrain
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27 Aug 2008, 7:09 pm

Bart21 wrote:
What you are reffering to is ale, like a extremely light beer that used to be safer for comsumption than water was.


Where did you come up with THIS daffynition of "ale"? Throughout the history of the English language, "ale" has had the following definitions:

1: Any barley-based alcoholic beverage (early Middle Ages)
2: Barley-based alcoholic beverages brewed without hops (High Middle Ages and later Middle Ages)
3: Particularly strong barley based beverage (Renaissance to early modern era)--weak brews were called "small beer", not "ale" during this period.
4: Barley-based alcoholic beverage fermented with a "bottom-fermenting" yeast. (early modern era to present day).

Almost went into brewing science as a career before molecular biology called me away.



ToadOfSteel
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28 Aug 2008, 1:45 am

Bart21 wrote:
Fun is the word the word you forgot in this post. People would lose theyr mind if they had to be serious theyr whole life. Sure you can have fun without alcohol, but for my 90% of the time people find me funny is when i've had a couple. Normally i tend to be too dam serious all the time. It also tends to make me a spender instead of someone who hates spending alot of money, wich is kind of funny.


Taking things too seriously is generally an aspie thing, but it's one of the easier things to overcome. I've oversome it, and can be a funny person without any alcohol at all.

One of the other interesting abilities I've developed over the years is the ability to switch my inhibitions on and off at will. I haven't perfected the art yet, but if I know I'm going to be going somewhere that involves moderate amounts of alcohol consumtion, I can at the very least fake it. I prefer it this way because if something were to happen that I needed to become serious all of a sudden, I would be able to return very quickly to my natural state.

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Nobody is ever going to stop people from using alcohol or drugs. Some people just have this dire need to escape from reality at times. Especially those in bad neighorhoods.


The need to escape reality exists almost as a systemic part of the human condition. It's the basis of imagionation and creativity. But, as above, I prefer being able to stop my tripping at any time I so choose, so over the years, I've become a bigtime gamer. It still allows me to escape reality, and all I need to do to return back to reality is look away from the monitor...



LostInEmulation
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28 Aug 2008, 6:35 am

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
It is 21 and should stay 21.
By the same argument: It is 16 and should stay 16. :wink:


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Aalto
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28 Aug 2008, 5:04 pm

Went for 16, 'cause from birth wasn't on.



techstepgenr8tion
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28 Aug 2008, 5:58 pm

21. For the U.S. I might even say 24 with as dull-edged as our culture is these days.

Will that have a lot more kids smoking weed and doing things like that? Sure, but, I think I'd rather see them doing what they already are, they've most likely been smoking since 14 anyway, and weed hardly ever causes the same sort of wrecklessness. Yeah, they can still get ahold of liquor but, being under age and being they have to keep even having it under wraps, its a good thing - legally drunk 18 year olds, thinking they were good to drive if they weren't throwing up yet, would probably take DUI's and fatal accidents, maybe not off the charts, but I'd think at least increase the rate by another 40-50%; NOT good.

And all this is being considered because some college administrators are tired of having to enforce the rules. I say tough sh**, deal with it. :roll:



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08 Oct 2018, 5:15 pm

I started to drink beer at 16. I liked it on the way home after school sometimes. I think it's quite OK.