So, should alcohol be legalized or the drinking age ( 21 in the US, between 18-19 depending on Province for Canada) lowered??? now before this seems somewhat pointless here's some studies to put on the table:
well, is lowering the age gonna change anything? Where i live the laws about underage drinking don't really matter, people ignore them...nobody cares, its great
I live in the UK, I can't comment on what should be done in the US or Canada. However, I've always drunk alcohol, in small amounts, from about 5 years old - I turned out relatively fine. No matter what age you set - kids are always gonna get hold of and drink alcohol. I say do away with a minimum drinking age and merely restrict quantity.
In Australia the drinking age is 18 and that seems fair as it is when you become a adult and take on responsabilitys but your brain does not stop growing still your 21 and this does have some effect, what really annoys me is that kids in America can go to war but they can't drink,
The current drinking age of 21 is due to studies which show that alcohol consumption prior to this time may have an adverse effect on the developing organs. Personally I started drinking alcohol at a very young age and was taught to be responsible, drink in moderation, and as such it was never a taboo for me which demanded unsupervised experimentation (which often leads to abuse) That being said I think the age should be 18 or 19 as opposed to 21. I also think that substance use/abuse classes should be taught in school science classes as a required part of the syllabus.
Personally, I buy into the "health benefits of alcohol" as much as I buy into the whole "milk causes cancer" scare, which isn't very much at all.
I also think that substance use/abuse classes should be taught in school science classes as a required part of the syllabus.
We already have a class like that. It's called health class. People who drink alcohol are not misinformed on the dangers of alcohol nor are they ignorant. They just don't really care and choose to drink anyway.
We already have a class like that. It's called health class. People who drink alcohol are not misinformed on the dangers of alcohol nor are they ignorant. They just don't really care and choose to drink anyway.
Then your health class is the exception, not the standard. Most schools rarely touch on substance abuse except for more than a cursory example of the effects. I am talking about an in depth education on substances. Personally I would like to see at least a full semester devoted to it to allow for adequate education, question/answer periods, and display of understanding. Perhaps a mixed social studies/health course on drugs and alcohol showing both the physical and societal consequences would be in order.
It still sounds like the US has better alcohol education than the UK. Here it's all just tossed into a pot (We'll call it a tosspot) and called PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health-care education). As you can imagine, with such a wide topic base to cover, nothing gets taught about the effects of 'less-important' or 'softer' issues. We squeezed in a 10 minute safe sex talk in the middle of a 50 minute lesson about cocaine - that was impromptu and it was the only safe-sex thing that got taught in a class that was supposed to dedicate about 5 hours of lesson time over the year to safe-sex (it was a once a week class). Sorry for ranting.
Then your health class is the exception, not the standard. Most schools rarely touch on substance abuse except for more than a cursory example of the effects. I am talking about an in depth education on substances.
erm no my school dedicated about 3 eweeks specifically to drugs+alcohol in the health class... learned quite a lot actually, and did an epicly aweome popwerpoint on the effects of alcohol on the body... 17 slides tyvm.
I've looked through some old notes from that class (man, my hand-writing is scruffy) and I've found out that we spent 2 lessons in total on it. I found out that for an hour of that we discussed our own personal drinking habits (as 14 year olds) and for the other hour we did "ridiculous dramatical performances with the pompous over-the-top team going for a rather charming interpretation of a drunk-driving car crash". Yeah, those were great lessons.
Do you guys have CHAPTERS in your classes anymore? Because if you did, it wouldn't take 10 minutes to cover, have assignments with, and take quizzes/tests over safe sex and drugs/alcohol. My health class in freshman year, took 12 weeks to cover weight, nutrition, drugs/alcohol, safe sex, dating, and social interactions. Of course, Indiana has good schools, but come on! (Indiana also has the crappiest community and infrastructure, how does that work?)
With that being said, alcohol consummation should be between the states, as state mandated schools usually get the better picture. Usually. If you want the drinking age to be lower, then provide a better curriculum to address the situation dangit! I get the whole "you can die for your country but you can't drink?" rhetoric; it's been said so many times, it could be a meme. You are legally considered an adult at age 18 in the U.S. However, at age 18, you are still not fully physically developed. You (we) are still growing, and that in turn puts you (us) at risk if we drink. Why does the government restrict the age? Because you can build up a tolerance to drinking!
I am talking about an in depth education on substances
I personally think this is unnecessary. Most teenagers stop at alcohol and cigarettes with a few people stopping at marijuana. Obviously you have students abusing other drugs, but the majority stop at the three I mentioned. I don't think we should force each student to learn in depth about drugs they likely aren't going to abuse anyway with information they don't need to know.
I still believe we should inform students of the dangers of all the different kinds of drugs out there, but I feel it can easily be squeezed into health class and should not take too long to teach the basic stuff that students should know.
Alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana are the main drugs that teenagers take. Another drug I should probably include are prescription drugs. Teenagers who abuse these drugs already know these drugs are bad for them. I believe teachers should go more in depth with these drugs than the hard drugs most teens avoid, but I can't see a whole semester being devoted just towards drugs.
The US has the highest drinking AG of any country. The drinking age around most of the world is 18 or younger. Even though the US has a higher drinking age, you still end up with just as many drinking problems as the rest of the world.
However, at age 18, you are still not fully physically developed.
First, we must determine the goal of the law. The law's goal is to prevent anyone under 21 from drinking, which leads to point number one.
1. An insanely large amount of people are already drinking before the age of 21. The law is already failing.
2. Drinking does not noticeably effect development. There are many smart people who started drinking at a young age. There are many strong people who started drinking at a young age. There are many healthy people who started drinking at a young age. Even if there is evidence that drinking does stunt some form of development, it is very minor and should be disregarded.
3. Even if alcohol does make a noticeable stunt in development, consider this.
Teenagers are already drinking. They will have parties and do stupid things regardless of the drinking age. You might as well give parents more flexibility in how they parent, and give them the opportunity to take their 18 year old out to a bar where they can teach their son how to drink responsibly and hopefully pull him from the whole party scene at an early age.
In a nutshell, parents can become more involved when their children drink. This can result in teenagers becoming responsible drinkers at an earlier age and therefore making them drink less, which means they will not be "stunting their developmental growth" or whatever nearly as much.
and give them the opportunity to take their 18 year old out to a bar where they can teach their son how to drink responsibly and hopefully pull him from the whole party scene at an early age. In a nutshell, parents can become more involved when their children drink. This can result in teenagers becoming responsible drinkers at an earlier age and therefore making them drink less,
O_o thats what my dad did for my older brother... except not drinking 'responsibly'. for his 21st birthday He took my older bro to a bar, and had him drink everything from soft, fruity drinks ('girly' to the hard liquors and beyond.From what my bro tells me, he had so much alcohol and changing tastes that night he never wanted to drink a lot again...
