Should America's drinking age be lowered?

[adciv]

Cid, I think instead of

Underage drinking has two benefits nobody has yet touched upon:

You meant to say

Lowering the drinking age has two benefits nobody has yet touched upon:

[The Cid]

Yikes. I know I've said some pretty ridiculous stuff in this section of RLF before, but that one is especially humbling.

[Jezebel]

Underage drinking has two benefits nobody has yet touched upon:
Lowering the drinking age has two benefits we've yet to mention:
1) Some students drink WAY too much, to the point of putting their lives in danger. When a group of friends are drinking underage and one gets that scary kind of drunk, they are less likely to get help for their friend for fear of getting caught. Lower the drinking age and save a few lives, because people will stop trying home remedies and start getting their passed out friend to the ER.

This is very true. I personally went through this when a friend of mine got alcohol poisoning. Luckily someone had the presence of mind to call the police when they saw a bunch of drunk teenagers passed out on a playground and she was able to get medical attention. If the police hadn't been called, I can't say what would have happened (in regards to medical attention, said friend would have died without medical attention though), as none of us were really in the best of conditions to call them to begin with, but would it have happened at all if we were legally able to drink? Well, I haven't passed out on any playgrounds (or elsewhere for that matter) since I've been able to legally drink (or that night for that matter) so who knows. Anecdotal stories! Totally relevant!

(I had a lot more text here but I accidentally deleted it and now am too angry to retype it!!! Maybe later *grumble*)

[collegestudent22]

For one, not everyone who is "intoxicated" is easy to spot.

OK, true. But "binge drinking" is not two, maybe three, beers during an hour. It is a lot of beer, and drinking quickly exacerbates the effects of getting drunk. It's pretty damn easy to spot someone who has been binge drinking. And in small college towns there isn't much else to do for the police, especially at night. (traffic accidents and that's about it)

[naval_aviator_2040]

You stated that they drank faster to become intoxicated before any authority figure can catch them. Except for the fact that the majority of the states can still arrest you for BEING intoxicated underage.

i never said that they were afraid of being arrested i said that they were afraid of being caught by people sith the authority to make them stop drinking in that certain place including ,but not limited to, bartenders, waitstaff, college employees, parents etc

the fact that underage drinkers tend to try to binge drink more often that legal drinkers is one of the things bartenders, waitstaff, and bouncers are trained to look out for when deciding to serve a customer