What do you think the legal drinking age should be?

25

16 to consume, 18 to purchase. There is no reason why a parent should not be able to be the one to introduce their older teenagers to moderate and healthy attitudes toward alcohol. At 18, you are considered an adult, and that means you should be able to get booze too. If you think it should be 21, then raise the draft age to 21. Considering that no country is perfect, America has very unhealthy taboos toward alcohol that creates far more problems with drinking than it prevents.

16 for beer, 18 for hard liquor. That's what it is in Germany, works ok for them.

18, because that's the age of majority. Not that it's a good thing for young people to get drunk (or really anyone for that matter), but people drink underage all the time anyway and it's just silly to treat legal adults like little kids. We need to be focusing on teaching responsibility instead.

25

Why older?

10 minutes in a bar favored by a 21 year old crowd after 11PM can be quite convincing....

So people can drink illegally for 4 more years than they already do?

Would you also be willing to raise the draft age from 18-25 too, or are the kids we send to fight for us in Afghanistan not allowed a drink?

21

Should everything else be 21 also?

It probably should. Some people are just not ready to handle things like drinking at 18/19. (Besides...18 really isn't that big of a difference from 16 in the maturity department.) And do we really want a bunch of ditzy "teenagers" running around drunk in public? Most of the people my age act like complete morons when they drink and do not know how to control themselves. I'm not saying that all younger people are like this or that all older people are perfect angels when drunk, but there definitely is a maturity difference that comes into play here.

18, like it is in most of the world. Over in Germany and Denmark and some other countries it's 16 though, 16 for buying but 18 or over for clubs/bars. I think America's drinking age is ridiculously high actually, as if the government still thinks American adults are little children that can't handle themselves. Even though they can go to war and die. It's nonsense.

121. No typo.

When I was a kid it was 18 in NY, it worked fine for me.The reason at the time was , if you could go to Vietnam at 18 you had the right to drink. After the war was over they changed it to 21. I think most kids are drinking at 18 or before anyway.

Im curious what the stats are for Canada for age 19 being the legal age to consume alcohol? really, i feel it comes down to responsibility. The sad thing about this debate, and i understand completely, is that anyone who has ever lost someone to drunk driving will blame alcohol and the driver of course and will be opposed to alcohol consumption.... the problem with that is that you shouldnt punish everyone for alcohol consumption who are responsible drinkers. Just like you should not blame all smokers for ALL the grass fires that are caused during droughts because of a cigarette butt that lands in the dry grass. 2012.

21
Have a nice day !

Maturity, (which could be anywhere between 20 and death).

I think it's more a matter of responsibility than age. Children have long been given alcohol in cough syrup and other medicines. I think children should be taught the dangers and delights of alcohol at home, depending upon their culture and maturity level. Probably somewhere between ages 12 and 16 is when most children become mature enough to learn how to drink responsibly. I don't like there being a law about everything, but if a law is needed, it should be to protect children and others in society. I do strongly believe that women who are pregnant or have the possibility of getting pregnant should be prohibited from having any alcohol.

16. We drink it anyways. Might as well be legal.

21

18

stay at 21. but even at that age some still can't handle it.