the first arguement for this is at 18 they can die for their country but can't drink a beer? I have mixed issues about this...I just think that legalizing alcohol at a younger age is dangerous...even at 21 drinking is carried away...there needs to be more maturity in making decisions involving drinking and I don't think they are going to have it at 18.

No, there are already too many people misusing alcohol.....18 yrs olds just arent mature enough at times. When I was 18 living in PA the drinking age was 18 in NY state and I lost some friends driving home.

Old enough to vote, old enough to drink, old enough to drug.

Heck, no! Raise the driving age to 21!

i think if we lower it maybe the teens wouldn't act so stupid and then maybe they'd do it at home and be safe...but also 18 is still to old because they're still in school and little bit unresponible

and not legalize marijuana, you gotta be kidding me

They're drinkin' anyway, people!

HELL YEAH!! I MEAN WE DRINK ANYWAYS..

Should be 18 for anyone enlisted in the military. It should remain at 21 for everyone else.

Only if they are serving in the military at that age.

While the idea of drinking earlier means that it won't be such a taboo idea for elder teenagers, it will always have its list of setbacks.

Less would drinkas much the thrill would be gone

It really doesn't matter, a person going to drink anyway. The point is to stop them from killing others.

by the time people hit even 16 they make the decision weather they are going to drink or not anyway. and while you can try to stop them they can always find away around it. but we should also find a even better way to stop drunk driving

If I was 18-20 sure. Otherwise not a big fan.

if you think 21 makes a difference then you haven't heard of raves

I had to wait

Why can you go to war but can't drink

I think it should be left where it is, however! If there's a soldier coming home from WAR, he, or she, if they're underage should be allowed to drink responsibly. They did go and fight for this country afterall.

most people drink anyway, I did most of my drinking before 18

Definately. It's really crappy that people get arrested for underage consumption when they are old enough to get married, go to war, go to prison, vote, move out on their own, etc.

i was around when the legal age to drink was 18. Not always a pretty site

forbidden fruit leads to rebellion and irresponsible use.

in other countries, it's o big thing to buy a bottle of wine for dinner at age 6, so by 21, they could give a crap less if alcohol is available to them.

Eighteen is the time in a person's life when we usually start to define the person as an adult. The trouble is, at this age, there is a differing rate in which most young people mature and are able to take as large a step as alcohol consumption, especially if there is a history in the family. The drinking age was originally lowered to 18, as an unofficial sign of appreciation towards service men and women who went to lay their lives on the line for their country. Today's reasoning seems a lot less noble, as some have expressed the desire to drink until they regurgitate, which doesn't seem to me to be a mature, responsible , way of thinking at all. No, I'm fine with the drinking age staying at 21, unless we all want to see our insurance rates go up as well!

HELL NO! I KNOW , CALIFORNIA IS MAKIN A KILLIN OFF THE AGE BEIN 21(dui). IF DROPPED TO 18......SHIT, THAT'S A SETUP. LEGALIZE WEED!

Well if your old enough to fight for your country you should be able to drink a beer, but i don't agree with drinking either soooo?

I think they should move the legal age up to 25.Come on now,most young people are not responsible enough.

I am often curious as to how many young lives would be saved if these kids weren't having so much "breaking the law." If you can join the military and die for our country then maybe you should be old enough to buy some beer and sit at home and drink it.

Where I live the drinking age is 19. You can vote at 18, drive at 16 and join the military at 18. You can be charged as an adult with a criminal offense at 18, or at 14 with aggravating circumstances.

Maybe its comparing apples with oranges, but there seems to be some variance in application here.

You considered an adult, you can vote, join the military, buy smokes and enter some strip joints. Let them have their bottle.

Drink away. If you can bleed for freedom you should be allowed to be piss drunk whenever you like.

I barely think 21 is old enough for some people, let's keep it where it is.

As noted in several posts below, let's have it one way or the other. If one can marry, own proerty, be drafted, vote, etc.....they should be old enough to have a beer. If they are too immature for this, we don't need them being allowed to engage in the other activities. As things stand now, this is a clear violation of the rights of 18, 19, and 20 year-olds.

Here in Australia, this is the law (18 year olds can purchase and consume liquor in the home, or on licensed venues). Technically the laws and by-laws (all that bureaucracy crap) are, underage kids can't PURCHASE liquor, but the loophole exists that they CAN drink it if it's purchased by an adult (Can being defined as not an arrestable offence). The ironic predicament is, we're more liberal on the alcohol purchase age, but the drink driving limit is .05.

I'm aware of the scientific arguments against allowing this, but as far as I'm concerned, if society considers an 18 year old mature enough to vote and join the military, thus risking his life for this country, then society should consider an 18 year old mature enough to drink.

If 18 is old enough for your government to kill you, it should be old enough for your bartender to serve you. I've seen a number of people on here say 18 yr olds aren't mature enough to drink, but no one has said anyting about giving them a machine gun or putting them in a tank. I find it interesting that no one has a problem entrusting them with multi-million dollar weapons, but not with a bottle of Bud.

Its interesting that a person can vote and die in a war that they might not agree with but cant have a beer. The DUI argument is completely open for debate. There are just as many 25-plus drivers racking up the DUIs. Its obvious that 18-25 year olds are not as mature, duh. Still, promote alcohol awareness and help guide the youth rather than the zero tolerance approach. Face it, a 16 year old will find a way to drink. I think 18 is the right age to allow them to make a choice. We as parents need to give them as much information as possible in order to prepare them for the affects and the consequences. An example might be, allow them moderate drinking at HOME. Let them sample various drinks under supervision so they can feel the affects. And above all, open the lines of communications so they will call you if they are in a difficult situation. That means we, as parents, shouldnt RULE with fear. We need to be open and understanding. Its a FACT that most people under 18 will drink. Would you rather they experience that feeling somewhere that theyll have to travel to get back home?? Remember parents, those are the just younger people that will make their own decisions soon enough. *Hope everyone understood that.I tried to communicate clearly, not just the so called educated folks. Foist.why not just say insert surreptitiously, or better yet PUSH.

This should be left up to each state absent the strong arming influence of the federal government-which is currently the case. Personally I find it difficult to understand how people can defend an 18 year old's inability to drink responsibly and simultaneously allow 18 year old's to risk their lives in a far away land to protect liberties they don't fully have. I personally believe the punishments for behaviors caused by excessive drinking should be increased but the liberty of having alcoholic beverages should be given to those 18 and above.

In the US, there are always do-gooders who want to deprive the public of their vices, usually a vocal, moralistic minority who foist their agenda on the distracted majority who usually wake up to the rights they are latently relinquishing once it is too late. Other examples include the no-smoking militants (who have succeeded in making it illegal to smoke in many bars and on the entire grounds of a school district) and the blood-alcohol-content crazies, who have succeeded in lowering the threshold of BAC to 0.08% for a driving while intoxicated offense. Most repeat drunk drivers involved in accidents while drunk blow at least twice that and usually three times that level, and we still have way too many habitually drunk drivers behind their wheels. And we have too many social drinkers with a DWI on their driving record who were no more dangerous than a near-sighted person who forgot his glasses. I like numbah's stance: let them drink legally if they can show a military id card, regardless of age. Why shouldn't service to your country carry with it certain privileges?

Heckey not! They should make 25 the legal drinking age. Young people under 25, in my opinion, are not competent to drink alcohol.

NOT a good idea.At 16 or 17,I'd have been all for it,but as an adult living in a college town,I can tell you that 21 is young enough.Many of those kids haven't even mastered driving their car yet,sober.Many of them end up in the hospital already with alcohol poisoning from showing off chugging hard liquor.Sure,I did my share of under-age drinking-but the point is that it happens more than enough without lowering the drinking age.

No I like it where it's at. Too much temptation to drink and drive. I know if they truly want it they can get it. So why not make it that much harder? And I am referring to high -school kids. They are going to be able to get alcohol a lot easier if the age is 18, because they will have a friend who is that age who has graduated and can get it for them. Less likely for a 21 yr old to be friends with a high schooler.

if you can be in the military,you can drink!

I don't rate this as a bad idea based on some abstract argument of logic; I just look at the 18 year olds that I see out there and realize that most of them are too irresponsible sober, let alone drunk.

I by no means support underage drinking but there is merit to the belief that if America's youth are eligible to do so many other actions by the age of 18 legally...then perhaps it is quite inconsistent to make drinking exempt. More over, unfortunately this law does very little to keep alcohol out of the hands of people under 21. I myself am not a big fan of liquor but if it floats your boat and you can drink it in moderation then it's your business.

I'd go this one better: encourage EVERY child to take a drink of beer in first grade. This is what got ME away from the suds; tasted so sour, I spit it out immediately and never went back to it (30 years clean and sober). Find me a 7-year-old who digs brew, and I'll find you a liar just as quick. As for 18, hey, if you're old enough to get your noggin splattered in a storm of bullets, you're old enough to guzzle the swill.

no. 18 year olds are mostly stupid. the last thing i'm doing is sharing the bar with some high school senior yapping about Avril.

i think the drinking age should be back to 18 because no matter what 18 year old get ahold of alcohol because of their older friends and if you make it legal it wont be such a big deal after awhile.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember the fact that if you are with an adult guardian or in the privacy of your own home you can drink at 18. These are the only circumstances I would allow it. At 18 you have a mans body but definitely not a mans maturity. We are just flat not wise enough at 18 to be handed a bottle!

Can anyone tell me why it isn't 18? You can go and die for your country but you can't buy a drink...??

Not everyone lives by the border,to just jump the line on a friday night...becides drinking is over rated, just cuz people are to shy to show thier real selves, if they get drunk and do stupied stuff then they can blame it on the alcohol...next time your mom or best friend dies from alcohol poisening or gets hit by you cuz your driving drunk...do you think the court will let you go cuz it was the alcohols fault??

Only Americans have 21 as the drinking age- guess what? We have consistent, high alcohol problems compared to European nations with far less restrictions. Had enough? It should be 19, 21 is a joke to everyone else in the world. . .

On the contrary, the drinking age should be raised to 25! Or, even better, make America a dry nation once more!

It's always been a tradition in the US to lower the drinking age to 18 in times of war. Besides, Canada and Mexico are 18. For a border state, what's stopping the kids from jumping the line on a Friday night?