<p>21 is an absurd age - with such a buildup, who can blame celebratory binge drinkers? Treat alcohol like it is, mostly fun and harmless: lower the drinking age to 18, relax enforcement. Binge drinking is what America gets for putting booze on a pedestal.</p>
<p>Both binge drinking and alcoholism are more common in northern European countries where the drinking age is 18 or under. </p>
<p>“in quebec we have an unenforced 18 age and our alcoholism rate are far less than in the states”</p>
<p>Evidence, please.</p>
<p>oh brother… most of you are living far too sheltered of lives, just wait until you actually get to college</p>
<p>" Binge drinking is what America gets for putting booze on a pedestal." </p>
<p>My favorite quote i’ve seen on here. It is pathetic the amount of 20 year olds you see who still think drinking is the coolest thing in the world. They act like I did when i was 16 years old lol. Grow up people, its just alcohol… its not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>i know people who did this, to very bad results.</p>
<p>Easy solution to this problem: lower the drinking age!</p>
<p>lol that was a joke</p>
<p>I think 1 shot at 1 years old would be the best drinking age to have</p>
<p>I’m from the UK where the legal drinking age to buy alcohol in a bar is 18 .There are terrible binge drinking problems in England.</p>
<p>Based on people who know European culture today, there’s binge drinking there, too.</p>
<p>So which is it to be in the USA: lower the drinking age to l8 and have less mature people facing the big birthday, or admit that the problem is about binge drinking and poor choices, no matter what the age?</p>
<p>My kids had never seen drunks on the street till we took them home to the UK on vacation a few years back. One memory from the trip - we could never find trash cans in public (a lot were removed back in the IRA bombing days)which bugged the kids as they have been raised in the US habit of disposing of their trash properly - we were in Oxford Street and my then 15 year old son says ‘oh finally a trash can’ - quickly followed by ‘and they use it to vomit in’.</p>
<p>If you get on a crowded train late at night and see an empty seat -yep usually been vomited on.</p>
<p>I guess the good thing in the UK is a lot of the time youngsters are taking public transportation when they are drunk rather than driving. But the binge drinking is a major major problem. On New Years Eve the hospitals are overwhelmed.</p>
<p>vicariousparent argues well for no drinking age, but I’m going to take a shot (oops) at breaking apart that argument, just to see if I can:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Am I to believe that the very first time the 21-year-old ever drinks is in a bar, taking 21 shots, on that birthday? And never any before?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Try changing the above word “eliminated” to “kept”, and then change the word “instead” to “in addition.”</p>
<p>Wouldn’t that be the best possible program to improve the situation?</p>
<p>I don’t see why it has to be an either/or here. </p>
<p>Establishing age limits, whether for buying cigarettes, completing high school, driving or marrying is just a way that society expresses an expectation for acceptable behavior. With no age limit, how do you communicate a message to clueless parents that 13 isn’t the ideal age…?</p>
<p>People do the 21 shots thing all the time at my university…I actually believe I was at a party a week or two ago where some people were doing it.</p>
<p>36 students a yea rdie from alcohol poisoning?
Honestly, boo frickin hoo. 36 out of what, a couple million? Many more die from accidents, diseases, etc.</p>
<p>You’re never going to reach 0 people dying. All this whining because 36 people manage to kill themselves with alcohol is quite annoying. Ban cars while you’re at it.</p>
<p>If people want to **** their livers up then that’s their thing. Just keep those dirtbags off the road, k thx.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Piterbizon, to be fair to you, I just combed this thread looking for any reference to 36 students…found none.</p>
<p>What are you referring to?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Link us on to your source, please. Where are these numbers coming from?</p>
<p>“The story of how Pearlstone died accidental alcohol poisoning, the local coroner ruled is not a unique one. About 36 college students die each year for reasons related to alcohol consumption, according to a recent analysis by USA Today…”
In postings, a tragic portrait of defiance - The Daily Princetonian</p>
<p>P3T: Alcohol is not like driving. Driving can be lethal even if a child drives the car for one block. Once you learn to drive, you can drive 10 miles a day or 100 miles a day and you are not much more at risk of death. The more you drive, the less likely you are to die. Alcohol is not that way at all. You can give a child a sip of wine at age 4 and the child will not die. You can be drinking for 40 years but if you drink 21 shots you are at great risk of death. There is one aspect in which driving and alcohol <em>are</em> similar, IMO: Parents can model safe driving/drinking habits, and children can be coached. Driver’s ed works, so would “drinker’s ed”.</p>
<p>Similarly, alcohol is different from the other examples you cite- smoking is harmful in the long term but few people (if any) die from acute cigarette intoxication. Marriage- I have to admit, too many marriages could be lethal. </p>
<p>Told the story to my 15y/o D, she told me <em>everyone</em> knows about this ritual. She thinks the legal drinking age should be raised to 80. Come to think of it that would be one way to solve the Social Security and Medicare problem- we wouldn’t have too many survivors of that drinking ritual.</p>
<p>Anyone else find it ironic that the parents were talking on the phone to him WHILE he was driving?</p>
<p>I hate to say it but 21 drinks on your 21st is nothing new. Everyone did it when I was in college in the 80s and my mom “did her bells” when she turned 21 in college in the 50s! The tradition when I was there was for a group of people to do their bells together in the bar once a term. I think I made it to 5 and stopped - which was perfectly ok.<br>
I think the name came from the Pretzel Bell in Ann Arbor - my mom has a cardboard bell in her scrapbook that has tally marks on it and is signed by her witnesses (she didn’t make it to 21 either)
Maybe the difference to day is that there is more peer pressure to actually drink 21?</p>
<p>[Village</a> Bell - ArborWiki](<a href=“Ann Arbor - LocalWiki”>Ann Arbor - LocalWiki)</p>
<p>A smart person from Scandinavia (where they have a lot of Vodka rituals) let me in on a little secret- if you are in a situation where you don’t want to be a ‘killjoy’, then you just let the drink spill out from the sides of your mouth or get rid of it some other way: switch with your neighbor, substitute with water, etc. I’m not sure it would work with 21 rounds, though.</p>