The Law Should the legal drinking age be raised?

[Rustin Cohle]

Why? How are those two things linked?

They aren't directly related. However, if one is deemed mature enough to risk his or her life for their country then they should be deemed mature enough to drink responsibly. You can't say that people are adults in one respect but not others. That would be a case of the government using its citizens for its own gain.

 

[TheBloods]

You don't need to be mature to risk your life.

 

[Rustin Cohle]

You don't need to be mature to risk your life.

Then why do you need to be mature to drink alcohol?

 

[Leedawsom]

There seems to be a lot of enabling of kids these days. I love it.

Just kidding. But personally to raise the drinking age is only going to work if you enforce it. Just don't be blind to people enabling others to get totally squat faced and not give a rats bum for it.

Just another method of really taking control of those laws and people breeding who shouldn't breed. Hmm

 

[fishguts]

So the 4 above posters who are opposed to the raising of age solution yet offer none themselves is:

Do nothing. Just wait and see what happens and ride it out. Maybe the problem will just go away on it's own.

Nice going.

But raising it will do nothing to stop it. This problem is a social issue, one that won't be stopped by setting alcohol back a few years.

All that can be done is for kids to be shown what the effects of alcohol can be, and if not, hope they learn first hand.

Kids will get alcohol, on the weekend I was served alcohol at our local races despite being under-aged, the only way that it's going to stop is from people learning from their mistakes.

 

[TheBloods]

Then why do you need to be mature to drink alcohol?

I would have thought that's pretty obvious. Maturity means you are more likely to drink responsibly.

 

[A Living God]

Underage drinking will all but vanish if people know the cops can drag you off to the watch-house on the back of a sip of beer.

Your solution is to try and enforce a completely unenforceable law.

 

[fairdinkum]

Just make it a crime to supply alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 - whether they are your own child or otherwise - and also a crime to consume alcohol under the age of 18.

And then actually enforce the law.

Yeah, let's just criminalise a large swathe of society, and send already-limited police resources to deal with backyard parties and afternoon bbq's (you know, where the real crime is going on).

Why? How are those two things linked?

You havin' a laugh, bro?

 

[omit]

21.

95% of 18yo's simply are not mature enough to handle otherwise.

cool. while we're at it we'll have to raise the age of voting, driving and enlisting to 21 as well.

If a person isn't mature enough to purchase alcohol then they're also not mature enough to choose Australias leaders, operate a vehicle on their own or defend the nation.

once a person is legally considered an adult they have the right to decide what they do and a responsibility to face up to the consequence of those decisions.

 

[Copernicus]

cool. while we're at it we'll have to raise the age of voting, driving and enlisting to 21 as well.

If a person isn't mature enough to purchase alcohol then they're also not mature enough to choose Australias leaders, operate a vehicle on their own or defend the nation.

once a person is legally considered an adult they have the right to decide what they do and a responsibility to face up to the consequence of those decisions.

Dead right. I don't want us to be picking and choosing what are and are not capable of once reaching adulthood. Let's not go down the road of the Americans - drive at 16 when they're not ready, vote at 18, and drink at 21, which simply encourages clandestine college binging.

 

[Mr Q]

18-21 year olds are going to drink. So a blanket ban is just going to drive a lot of them into breaking the law. Probably not a good idea.

Perhaps a better idea would be a ban on under 21s consuming alcohol on licenced premises; a large part of the problem seems to be that they get drunk and violent in public - so if you can't stop the "drunk" part, try and restrict the "public" part.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Is the issue the public drinking, or the private drinking that occurs prior?

 

[Mr Q]

Is the issue the public drinking, or the private drinking that occurs prior?

A bit of each I'd think, but if they weren't permitted to enter the venues later, they'd not go out and thus reduce the likelihood of drunken violence later on.

After all, it's not the drinking that's the real issue, it's the aftermath.

 

[campbell]

A bit of each I'd think, but if they weren't permitted to enter the venues later, they'd not go out and thus reduce the likelihood of drunken violence later on.

After all, it's not the drinking that's the real issue, it's the aftermath.

although, the drinking at a younger than 18 is a major health issue for the damage it does to their developing bodies.

http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/Health+&+Relationships/Drugs,+smoking+&+alcohol/Binge+drinking/

http://www.drugarm.com.au/files/pdf/Fact_sheet_1[1].10_Binge_drinking DRUGINFO.pdf

http://www.substance.coop/files/binge drinking reportfinal-1.pdf

http://au.reachout.com/find/articles/binge-drinking

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=6097

People who begin binge drinking in their early teens are highly likely to suffer serious health consequences by the age of 24,