Why alcohol drinking age are so high in some countries?

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pawelk1986
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28 Sep 2014, 11:48 am

naturalplastic wrote:
andrethemoogle wrote:
I always found it strange that in the USA you have to buy 21 before you can buy booze, but you can join the army at 18. It never made much sense to me personally.


Well- the Sixties generations of Americans who were draft age during the long Vietnam war thought it was strange too-that at 18 you're old enough to die for your country, but not old enough to drink. It created a lot pressure on legislators to lower the drinking age for that very reason.

So local drinking ages were lowered in the Seventies across the nation. The result: in every location they lowered the drinking age - there was a sudden upward spike in the number of deaths of teens from drunk driving. Commentators even said "if you wanna commit genocide on teenagers- just lower the drinking age to 18".

By the 80's there was a backlash against drunk driving in general, and teens drinking was not ignored. So the laws were all restored to 21 as the drinking age.

I guess that's the rub: the very traits that make young men of 18 good soldiers makes them unable to handle booze-impulsiveness, and lack of fear, lack of ability to weigh consequences, thrill seeking, etc.


Some in lawmakers ware thinking about increase drinking age maybe not to 21, but 19 20, but it's doomed to failure because our Russians "friends" would be more than willing provide Polish youth as much vodka they want :D So is better that money from alcohol go to our Polish economy than Putin buddies.



naturalplastic
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28 Sep 2014, 12:44 pm

pawelk1986 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
andrethemoogle wrote:
I always found it strange that in the USA you have to buy 21 before you can buy booze, but you can join the army at 18. It never made much sense to me personally.


Well- the Sixties generations of Americans who were draft age during the long Vietnam war thought it was strange too-that at 18 you're old enough to die for your country, but not old enough to drink. It created a lot pressure on legislators to lower the drinking age for that very reason.

So local drinking ages were lowered in the Seventies across the nation. The result: in every location they lowered the drinking age - there was a sudden upward spike in the number of deaths of teens from drunk driving. Commentators even said "if you wanna commit genocide on teenagers- just lower the drinking age to 18".

By the 80's there was a backlash against drunk driving in general, and teens drinking was not ignored. So the laws were all restored to 21 as the drinking age.

I guess that's the rub: the very traits that make young men of 18 good soldiers makes them unable to handle booze-impulsiveness, and lack of fear, lack of ability to weigh consequences, thrill seeking, etc.


Some in lawmakers ware thinking about increase drinking age maybe not to 21, but 19 20, but it's doomed to failure because our Russians "friends" would be more than willing provide Polish youth as much vodka they want :D So is better that money from alcohol go to our Polish economy than Putin buddies.


Yep. It would just create a black market that your Russian neighbors would exploit. Like we get pot from Mexico, and they get guns from us! :)



pawelk1986
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28 Sep 2014, 2:16 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
pawelk1986 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
andrethemoogle wrote:
I always found it strange that in the USA you have to buy 21 before you can buy booze, but you can join the army at 18. It never made much sense to me personally.


Well- the Sixties generations of Americans who were draft age during the long Vietnam war thought it was strange too-that at 18 you're old enough to die for your country, but not old enough to drink. It created a lot pressure on legislators to lower the drinking age for that very reason.

So local drinking ages were lowered in the Seventies across the nation. The result: in every location they lowered the drinking age - there was a sudden upward spike in the number of deaths of teens from drunk driving. Commentators even said "if you wanna commit genocide on teenagers- just lower the drinking age to 18".

By the 80's there was a backlash against drunk driving in general, and teens drinking was not ignored. So the laws were all restored to 21 as the drinking age.

I guess that's the rub: the very traits that make young men of 18 good soldiers makes them unable to handle booze-impulsiveness, and lack of fear, lack of ability to weigh consequences, thrill seeking, etc.


Some in lawmakers ware thinking about increase drinking age maybe not to 21, but 19 20, but it's doomed to failure because our Russians "friends" would be more than willing provide Polish youth as much vodka they want :D So is better that money from alcohol go to our Polish economy than Putin buddies.


Yep. It would just create a black market that your Russian neighbors would exploit. Like we get pot from Mexico, and they get guns from us! :)


This guy would be probably agree with you :D
Image


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zEBGpr4YYA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg8o__6bEEY[/youtube]



Dillogic
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28 Sep 2014, 8:57 pm

No idea.

It's not like the inhibition lowering side-effect of ethanol affects anyone with an adult sized body differently (unless there's some neurochemical imbalance).

16 or so would make more sense than 18/21 for that reason.

If you're worried about "the children", just educate them better (smarter).



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29 Sep 2014, 5:46 am

naturalplastic wrote:
andrethemoogle wrote:
I always found it strange that in the USA you have to buy 21 before you can buy booze, but you can join the army at 18. It never made much sense to me personally.


Well- the Sixties generation of Americans who were draft age during the long Vietnam war thought it was strange too-that at 18 you're old enough to die for your country, but not old enough to drink. It created a lot pressure on legislators to lower the drinking age for that very reason.

So local drinking ages were lowered in the Seventies across the nation. The result: in every location they lowered the drinking age - there was a sudden upward spike in the number of deaths of teens from drunk driving. Commentators even said "if you wanna commit genocide on teenagers- just lower the drinking age to 18".

By the 80's there was a backlash against drunk driving in general, and teens drinking was not ignored. So the laws were all restored to 21 as the drinking age.

I guess that's the rub: the very traits that make young men of 18 good soldiers makes them unable to handle booze-impulsiveness, and lack of fear, lack of ability to weigh consequences, thrill seeking, etc.


In my country, you are allowed to drink (16), two years before you can get your driving license (18). While it might be rather young for the drinking, at least when you have your driving license, most people know already by experiences, that you can get really stupid when drunk and should not trust yourself any longer.



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29 Sep 2014, 11:57 am

My only guess is that in countries like in America people are less mature when it comes to drinking so the age is lifted to 21 instead of 18.


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naturalplastic
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29 Sep 2014, 6:09 pm

Hmmm...

Maybe 16, or 21! Either is better than 18.

In countries where drinking wine is woven into the culture drinking alcohol at an earlier age might not be such a problem where as it might be a problem in another country with different attitudes about alcohol.

Some years ago I picked up a psychology magazine that had a break down of European nationalities. The upshot of the articles was that countries that had the most teatotelers were the same countries that had the most alcoholics. There were countries were everyone was a social drinker- and both full blown alcoholism, and full blown abstention was rare. And there were countries were both extremes were common:abstention and addiction. And interestingly- the researchers touched on America- and found that White Americans continued in much the same pattern as the European nationality of their ancestry. Both Greeks, and Greek Americans were rarely either tea totlers or Alcoholics, and both the Irish in Ireland, and Irish Americans were commonly of one, or the, other, of the two extremes.

I cant remember how it broke down country by country:but essentially north european nations had the drunks and tea totlers, and the Mediterranean countries (like Italy and Greece) had the nonabstainer/nondrunk population of moderate social drinkers.

I doubt that the difference is genetic. Probably some cultural difference how alcohol is used in different European cultures.



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29 Sep 2014, 8:44 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
I doubt that the difference is genetic. Probably some cultural difference how alcohol is used in different European cultures.


Probably cultural differences that are handed down by parents, even when separated from the original culture itself.



pawelk1986
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30 Sep 2014, 5:31 am

AspieOtaku wrote:
My only guess is that in countries like in America people are less mature when it comes to drinking so the age is lifted to 21 instead of 18.



Well 'm not American but i think they should stay 21 for their own safety, when Puritan in America raised it they at same think destroyed whole drinking culture, now American treat it as some taboo forbidden fruit so they try it excessive numbers, when young adults people here in Europe drink socially and modesty. If famous american drinking was lowered i think that binge drinking wold leaps and bounds(with can result in health problem) before they start drink like normal people .



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02 Oct 2014, 6:08 am

Dillogic wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
I doubt that the difference is genetic. Probably some cultural difference how alcohol is used in different European cultures.


Probably cultural differences that are handed down by parents, even when separated from the original culture itself.


I´d agree. I would not feel about it, as a cultural thing. If I invited people for an extraordinary dinner, it was simply normal for me to have as well fitting wine for it, and something "harder" at the end of the dinner. I would not think about it, as an "austrian or euorpean thing". So anyway if I moved to the USA, I would keep that behavior in my family, and so my kids would think of doing so as well as a normal thing. Just as it was weird for me, to drink alcohol for a normal family-dinner.