Are you for or against lowering America's drinking age? Why?

Against--

Teenagers are already making stupid decisions, so why give them a chance to make a legal stupid decision that could hurt them and others?

Many if not most of car accidents caused by drivers under the influence are caused by teens, so that number would only jump if we lowered the drinking age. Lastly, alcohol is just plain bad for young teenage minds and bodies.

Lowering the drinking age would be a really bad idea. When you're 18, you may be legally an adult (in the US anyway), but you just got out of the teen years, so mentally, you still might not be 100% mature and responsible. In fact, even at 21, a lot of people still can't drink responsibly and get into trouble because they don't have the self-control to not drink themselves silly. Maybe we should raise the legal drinking age, not lower it.

The drinking age should stay the way it is. People's brains aren't developed until they turn 20. Drinking at a young age causes health problems and can damage your brains. Teens are killing innocent people in accidents because they get drunk. They aren't doing it to keep you from growing up, they want to protect underaged people from harm. If a teenager is Christian, they should think about how God feels about drinking. Teenagers can get taken advantage of when they drink and they can't make good decisions while they are under the influence.I am against lowering America's drinking age because alcohol causes addiction and alcohol addiction causes cirrhosis, a liver disease. Drinking can steer you away from your family and friends and it will turn into all you ever care about. Teenagers get stupider and stupider each day. They never think of the consequences of their actions

I am a teenager and many teenagers die from drinking every year. Would you put your life at risk from drinking, or are you going to lay back and live longer?

Here are some statistics:

*The average age when youth first try alcohol is 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls.

*By age 14, 41 percent of children have had least one drink.

*The average age at which Americans begin drinking regularly is 15.9 years old.

*Annually, more than 5,000 deaths of people under age 21 are linked to underage drinking.

I am totally against lowering the drinking age. The reason why is because if the mayor or government or somebody did lower the drinking age, there would probably be far more deaths. Alot of young woman/men that are in there teens and late teens go out to drive somewhere, and they never come back. Then, their whole family has to plan a funeral and cry their eyes out. That is why. I hope I helped you

While drinking alcohol in anything but very, very small amounts is never a particularly good thing to do to your brain cells, it is exceptionally damaging to those whose brain have not completely stopped growing. This is the reason why the drinking age is where it is - 21 is the first age at which medical experts feel comfortable saying that your brain is no longer maturing without doing some kind of examination on you.

The line drawn in the sand, then, is that it is okay for people to harm themselves, just not exceptionally so. Self-harm in any of a variety of forms are allowed, if not usually so well accepted, and won't get major societal intervention like outright suicide attempts usually will.

As such this law is fairly consistent with a number of others and I personally see no reason to change it to any great degree unless we change the underlying nature of that premise - making it okay for people to severely damage themselves or prohibit them from even doing mildly harmful things... either of which seems nightmarish to me.

One permutation that I see no reason NOT to have is an allowance made for legal adults who wish to imbibe and can demonstrate that they are in no exceptional danger because their brain has fully matured. These kind of allowances are made all the time for any number of other laws, and seem perfectly reasonable in the context of this law as well.

I do not understand how one can be considered old enough to die for thier country at age eighteen (even that they are required to sign up for the draft) and yet they are not considered adult and responsible enough to indulge in drinking an alcoholic beverage.

To me if it is true that a person is not to be considered adult enough to drink at eighteen then it does not follow that they should be considered adult enough to soilder in their nations military.

So I believe that if the drinking age is not lower then we should raise the age at which young adults can enter into military service.

I am more concerned about the behaviour of a soilder that must assume the responsibility of defending my nation and the ideals of human rights and the potential for irresponsible behaviour in this context than I am about a young adult being irresponsible about their choice in how much to consume an alcoholic beverage. It is not against the law to shoot another human being while employed in the military and engaged in combat in a region deemed hostile by our government and yet is illegal for this person to consume an alcoholic beverage.

I simply do not see the reasoning behind such logic.

I'm against it because kids already drink too early in life. If the drinking age was lower, then even younger kids would be getting loaded.

I am against lowering America's drinking age because alcohol causes addiction and

alcohol addiction causes cirrhosis of the liver which is a deadly disease.

I'm not for it. The majority of today's teens seriously don't give a rats *** about responsibility or not drinking while driving. I know teens can get alcohol if they want it but the more it is available to them the more it will be done and the more accidents will happen. This is pretty obvious.

I am for lowering the drinking age to 14, but limiting them to two drinks in a public drinking place (kids who walk in under the influence would be limited to one or none.)

I think the voting and driving age should be raised to 21 except in families where a teen driver is needed (such as on a farm, or for a disabled parent.)

The brains moral decision functions are not fully on line until 21 or 22. But what does that have to do with drinking?