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Debate Info

38
26
YES NO
Debate Score:64
Arguments:45
Total Votes:75
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Argument Ratio

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 YES (24)
 
 NO (21)

Debate Creator

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Should the drinking age of 18 or 21 be repealed?

YES

Side Score: 38
VS.

NO

Side Score: 26
5 points

If 18 is old enough to bear arms and die in the military it is certainly old enough to have a beer. If eighteen years-old can vote for senators or president, or be a father or mother, than they should be responsible enough to have the freedom to drink. In any case college kids will drink or have sex and prohibitions won't change anything. Therefore, set the drinking age at 18. For younger persons

learning to drink responsibly and very occasionally can be allowed by parents under their supervision as part of learning to be an adult.

Side: yes
2 points

I think the idea behind drinkng laws is to keep kid's minds on school. Whether or not it is effective is to be judged by the measure of the teenager/young adult. Addictive behaviors can develop at any age, but those years are the most "explorative" for the typical person. Adding the restraint, at the very least, will reduce the occurence of such. Besides, those years are the few that will dictate the course of ones life. It's probably best as a reasonable individual to wait until you're on steady ground before you pick up regular drinking habits.

Side: No
2 points

I think the idea behind drinkng laws is to keep kid's minds on school

In my experience of school (which is prodigious), those persons who are wont to imbibe alcohol are those same persons who are wholly inattentive and feckless in school. I have long considered it a grand foolishness to educate them at all. Rather they should be subsumed into apprenticeships after the first 2-3 years of post-primary.

Addictive behaviors can develop at any age, but those years are the most "explorative" for the typical person.

And if these laws do indeed work, they are in effect denying that crucial period of development to the individual in question.

Adding the restraint, at the very least, will reduce the occurence of such.

I have yet to find any correlation between drinking laws and the reduction of alcohol consumption amongst teenagers. Historical case study: Prohibition in the United States was the progenitor of multiple black market alcohol industries. On this smaller scale, the same logic applies - unnecessary legislation is a self-destructive entity.

Besides, those years are the few that will dictate the course of ones life.

As does college, wherein alcohol is venerated.

It's probably best as a reasonable individual to wait until you're on steady ground before you pick up regular drinking habits.

There is, however, a direct correlation between alcoholism and joblessness.

Side: yes
MisterT(9) Disputed
-2 points
1 point

if the age restrictions on alcohol consumption is removed altogether, what's stopping kids at an even younger age from consuming alcohol? Especially for teens going through puberty, when hormones are running wild, going through changes both physically as well as emotionally, and them potentially going through a rebellious phase, alcohol may further cloud their judgement.

How about their parents? Parents have more effect on their children than government. If alcohol laws are so effective, why won't there laws before the 20th Century?

Well, because it was left to communities, parents and self control.

When you paint the picture of anarchy with children dying in the streets due to alcohol poisoning, it is really inaccurate due to the fact that previous 20th Century, there was no alcohol prohibition laws.

Side: yes

If we are considered responsible enough to vote, go to war and kill people then I don't understand why we are considered not responsible enough to drink. It does not make sense to me.

Side: yes
2 points

you cannot say to someone,ok by the age of 18 you can be killed in the army,you can vote you can play the lottery and you can smoke but you cannot legally have a lousy drink......

Side: yes
1 point

Think about it people don't really abide the law to start drinking at that age anyways i think that after 16 weather the person is fully aware of the consequences of drinking then they can start if not then wait till 18 its the legal age to sign up to the army and drive so yes 18 or 19 should be the legal drinking age, if they are not fully aware but aside that i think 16 depending on the body mass and other factors this opens an debate of quantity young adults should drink.

Side: yes
1 point

When you are 17, you can join the military with parental consent. So if you can go over seas and die for your country, you should be allowed to go into a bar and have a drink.

Side: yes

People are allowed to have their heads blown off in a foreign country, but they can't have a beer?

Side: yes
1 point

stop the nonsense that this is an issue about public safety. it's not. it's about money. specifically highway funding. the reason states caved to the feds.The United States of America is one of only three developed countries in the world who have a nationwide drinking age of over 18, the other two are Iceland (20) and Japan (20).

Side: YES
1 point

Old enough to vote and die for your country? Old enough to do as you please.

Side: YES
2 points

I think many are forgetting why it is 18 in the first place, like someone else said, its considered adulthood an age where you reach a certain level of maturity when you can "handle" the responsibility and decision to drink. personally i think the drinking age should go up to 21 in all countries considering the maturity level of many these days...

Side: No
1 point

No, not at all.

1. This would encourage kids to come to school drunk, does that sound right? Many kids are starving for one beer already, imagine how many would cross that line and drink?

2. 18 is considered adulthood, where people make their own decisions, and pay the price for them. Therefore it is right for that age to be in place, they are out of regular school, and most are out of their parents house.

Side: No
3 points

Before the 20th Century, essentially, the world was free of drinking laws, particularly the United States. The regulation of consuming alcohol beverages should be self governed. This self governing should be left to families, churches, communities and even self control; however, there were teenagers who engaged in alcohol consumption, yet that is no different than today even with government laws.

The only difference is the cost in enforcing it.

Many learned to drink responsibly from an early age.

Side: yes
3 points

This would encourage kids to come to school drunk

Adults are allowed to drink, but that doesn't allow them to turn up to work drunk.

Many kids are starving for one beer already

Which is why we drink regardless.

magine how many would cross that line and drink?

You'll find that only a hopeless minority of people don't cross this "line".

18 is considered adulthood, where people make their own decisions,

That is an arbitrary definition of adulthood. It effectively states that the day between the last day of being 17 and your 18th birthday sees a rapid transformation from an immature savage with no inhibitions into a functional, productive member of society.

they are out of regular school

And into work or college, which are far more important.

and most are out of their parents house.

And therefore more susceptible to whatever financial or educational problems you deem to be intrinsic to the consumption of alcohol.

Side: yes
brycer2012(1002) Disputed
2 points

How can you prove that the teenagers will go to school drunk? Most adults don't go to work drunk.

out of their parents house.

Wouldn't it be better for children to drink at home where their parents can teach them how to drink responsibly? Now, most kids go off to college never taught how to drink so they just chug anything they can get their hands on.

Side: yes
MisterT(9) Disputed
2 points

"How can you prove that the teenagers will go to school drunk? Most adults don't go to work drunk."

Most would agree that maturity grows with age and experience. It is not totally illogical to suggest that teenagers may not make decisions that are as good as adults.

"Wouldn't it be better for children to drink at home where their parents can teach them how to drink responsibly?"

Assumptions on two counts. Firstly, that teenagers will drink at home. I would think that most teens would rather be drinking with their friends rather than under the scrutiny of their parents.

Secondly, would parents be bothered or capable enough to ensure that their children are sufficiently informed about drinking responsibly? For families where both parents work, they are potentially leaving their children alone for significant pockets of time when parents cannot check on their children.

Side: No
Cody1776(4) Disputed
1 point

I can prove it because I have seen it. Some of the people I have talked to have admitted to coming to school drunk. Kids are taught how to drink, yet when they our over the age of drinking and out of the house they go crazy about it. Many parnets have taught their kids about drinking, yet that never means they are going to follow it.

Side: No
jennalouise(12) Disputed
1 point

erm im 15 and if the legal age was lowered i really dont think that i would go into school drunk as thats just irresponsible and just gives the government reasons to raise the age again so maybe you want to actually talk to some young teenagers before being so sterotypical :O

Side: yes
1 point

The reason why drinking is wrote of to be so bad is because people make it a forbidden fruit i go to school with a German exchange student and he was drinking since he was 16 with his family. He does not drink to get drunk but drinks for the drink itself. when you tell someone especially a teenager they can not do something they do it just in spite. At first there would be a big jump in teenage drinking but it would get old fast and people would stop doing it or at least as much.

Side: No
1 point

I think many are forgetting why it is 18 in the first place, like someone else said, its considered adulthood an age where you reach a certain level of maturity when you can "handle" the responsibility and decision to drink. personally i think the drinking age should go up to 21 in all countries considering the maturity level of many these days...

Side: No
1 point

no because i personally want to be able to drink and i dont want to wait ant longer.

Side: yes

The human mind doesn't stop developing until around 25. Alcohol kills brain cells. If anything, the legal age should be pushed up.

Side: No

The drinking age should remain at 21. A person is more mature at that age.

Side: NO
0 points

no coz it is said that "alcohol is the reason for all the sadness and misfortune"

it may spoil their whole life ,cause (health & mental)probs in this early age& also in relations

Side: No
brycer2012(1002) Disputed
1 point

What? Alcohol can not be blamed for all of those things. It's not my fault if someone drinks and doesn't live their life like me. I really don't care about their relationships.

Side: yes
dec8jelly(152) Disputed
1 point

What? Alcohol can not be blamed for all of those things. It's not my fault if someone drinks and doesn't live their life like me.

dude r u drunk..........

wen did i say its ur fault

i blame alcohol

r u dat much drunk 2 think urself that???????????

I really don't care about their relationships.

neither me bt i guess they shud.......

Side: No