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[Tien1985]

208. The military argument is

Terrible. Considering a whole lot of people believe the age for joining the military should be upped. I'd personally like to see it raised to 25. But I don't think the drinking age should be upped. In fact I think people should be well aware of their alcohol tolerance BEFORE they ever enter the military.

Just saying.

I'm not necessarily against lowering the drinking age if a decent argument could be made for it. "I want to because I'm a grown up now!" is a poor argument. And as far as Europe, two things, there are some urban myths about Europe and drinking that need to be adressed, and two there are lots of things that work in Europe and not in the US.

I think a better argument is that the developing brain science everyone likes to trot out is far from ubiquitous. They grabbed people of a certain age and studied their brains because they figured people of that age are still growing. I bet they'd be surprised if they studied the brains of people of a multitude of ages, backgrounds and circumstances. Brain science has a LONG way to go.

At least working on arguments against the opposition would help.

Personally, I don't see a need for the age to change. The idea that all or even most people break the law to drink before 21 is stupid. I went to piblic school and a state Uni. There were plenty of us that didn't drink. If you break the law you are the one responsible for the costs and criminal record associated with it, hopefully most adults can accept that as reality.