Looking for opinions on this one.

personally i think the drinking age needs to be raised in the vi to 21. when i was a kid you could buy beer and wine at 18 and hard liquor at 21.that was in md in 1980. after that they changed the law and it got real confusing for a bit.now it is 21 for all alcohol. of course we could buy at 14 in the liquor store. i understand that 18 year olds are fighting in the war, but does that really make them responsible drinkers. i dont think so. but another question is why cant you gamble until you are 21. back to the drinking, the majority of car crashes for the 16-26 age group is alcohol related. more people have been killed by drunk drivers (alcohol ) than were killed in the vietnam war. i read that somewhere not sure where tho. and no i dont think at 18 you are mature enough to be fighting in a war either, i think 21 is a ggod age for that

i also dont think you should be able to get a drivers license until 18 either

I don't think you should be able to join the military until 21.

I remember when I was an 18 year old who knew everything. In later years I found that some of those "unfair" laws probably saved me from jail or maybe even death. Years later nothing has changed.

I support raising the drinking age to 21 in the VI, but we know that enforcement has always been selective.

Military service is another thing. Adding women to the "fighting" force was a wise move. What we should really do is require world-wide that all soldiers be at least 45 years old. It might end war forever.

i thought i would be alone in my opinion, im surprized im not

Perhaps drinking, driving, gambling, marrying, voting and enlisting should have the same minimum age. All require a higher level of maturity than is commonly found in teens.

And remember kids going to into the army now, at least, know or should know what they are getting themselves into. They also know when they enlist at 18 they can't drink in public legally.

With the number of youths that have very little future or have too much future, adding alcohol to the mix can be a very deadly formula to going down the wrong path. While our youth may or may not have intelligence we very rarely have any wisdom or good judgment at that age.

i am only 19 but i dont really like to drink so im not sayin this for me but i feel if you take the responsibility to buy drink then you are accountable for your actions good or bad. im not saying 18 year olds are mature enought to drink but god knows that even 40 year olds arnt mature once there drunk. i no i cant speak for everyone but i no i still have enough sence not to drive even when im piss drunk. other than that i dont no where i stand on 18 or 21. dosnt really matter 18 year olds are still gunna drink no matter what the age limit.

i am only 19 but i dont really like to drink so im not sayin this for me but i feel if you take the responsibility to buy drink then you are accountable for your actions good or bad. im not saying 18 year olds are mature enought to drink but god knows that even 40 year olds arnt mature once there drunk. i no i cant speak for everyone but i no i still have enough sence not to drive even when im piss drunk. other than that i dont no where i stand on 18 or 21. dosnt really matter 18 year olds are still gunna drink no matter what the age limit.

you got that right....

Make the law 50 to drink, it doesn't matter, if a person wants to drink they will (as I did). In fact, they do it in much more dangerous ways because they are not entrusted with the responsibility to do so. Rather than learn to drink responsibly many just decide to binge drink and drink in a dangerous fashion. Laws like these just don't work...even college administrators have recently come out against the 21 year old drinking age because it encourages "binge" drinking amongst those who can't simply go to a bar and drink. It also absolutely destroy's college towns as 18-20 year olds throw obnoxious house parties in residential areas that are completely unregulated from a fire/safety standpoint rather than drink in a bar that is regulated. So-called zero tolerance laws further justified dangerous behavior...if I could get busted for having a beer and driving I might as well have 3 or 4 and really enjoy the night (I never drove to the point where I was a danger to myself or others but I have driven when I was legally drunk...and there is definitely a distinction).

People grow up by doing. They grow by making bad choices and learning from their mistakes. To raise the legal ages on doing things just prolong's the maturation process. Raise the driving age to 18 and you get 18 year old bad drivers instead of 16 year old ones. Nothing changes except for 2 years lost on the lives of the 16 year olds. When I was 16 I had 3 jobs, one of which led me to my very successful career in a round about way. I could NEVER have accomplished that had I not been allowed to drive. Some of my best friends to this day I met as a stupid 18 year old learning how to use alchohol appropriately by doing inappropriate things and regretting them. Had I truly been prevented from starting my education on alchol use at 21 I would just be 3 years behind to this day...

Finally, it is well established in law that one is legally responsible as an adult at 18. 18 should then be the age to do things that other adults have the right to do. Any wavering from that is discrimination plain and simple. Raising the drinking age to 21 which is impossible to enforce simply breeds a disrespect for law much the way a 55 mph speed limit that everyone disregards does. My distaste for the "Nanny State" is very high if you couldn't tell from my arguments 🙂

Sean