Drinking Age

[terbang]

Yeah but I'm worried about those pirates. It aint just muskets and sabres. Have you seen those guys nowadays, they pack .50 cals and rockets and ...?
Bloody global warming, Al Gore for president.. Umm, does he drink too..

[gamgee]

yeah I agree with the split drinking age, 18 to get into the pubs, 20 to buy takeaways, it means that in most cases, 18 year olds will still be able to get a 20 year old to buy for them, but they'll more than likely be going to the same place to drink it, whereas, I don't know many 16 year olds getting round with 20 year olds...

[Motu]

No! Move it entirely back to the wholesalers, remove it from Dairies and Supermarkets and then police the damn wholesalers. Accountability at point of sale.

I was 20 when they dropped the legal age from 21 to 20.....but I still looked like a 16 year old and got asked for ID,I needed to be with big mates they were too scared to question.

But back in those days you could only get beer at the pub wholesale,and they were staffed by crusty old guys with big red noses reading the 8 O'clock or Best Bets,you didn't stand a hope in hell of getting booze off them.But you could still get beer,there were always kids who at 18 looked much older,same as some 16 years can look older than 18.

It's a culture thing - we got away from the 6 O'clock swill and into the Booze Barn era,now real men can drink wine and spirits....but we are into another phase.This binge drinking is kinda like extreme sports,we have people who just have to do more,and others who will follow....

[Dai]

Gahhh! It's not the drinking age. It's the legal procurement age. There is no "legal drinking" age.

And yes, it should be left where it is. New Zealand has a problem with its booze culture. If people aren't "grown up" enough to consume alcohol sensibly at 18, it's unlikely they're going to be any different at 21. If people are allowed to vote, marry, fight for their country at age 18, then why shouldn't they be allowed to buy whatever they want as well?

In Europe 18 years of age is quite old. In most countries its 16 years old to drink. The difference there is that they are raised in a society where alcohol is part of a social culture. They start drinking in moderation at an early age and here is the rub

THEY ARE EDUCATED as to the uses of alcohol

The answer is not prohibition but education.

If the age is raised to 20 or 21 it will not be long before thgose bleeding heart doo gooders start complaining about those age groups abusing alcohol and that the age should be 25 or higher.

A slow erosion of rights so hard fought for by those people who know whats good for us. We are slowly having all choices taken away from us.

[scumdog]

Under 21s will just find 21+ year olds to buy their drinks for them. It won't change anything

True, that was always the case anyway - but back when 21 and 20 was the lagal age for drinking in public you didn't have drunk 18 year olds (and younger) standing brazenly at the street corners hurling abuse and empty stubbies at people, or 16 year olds lining up to get into nightclubs using false I.D. etc etc - just don't get me going about youngster and drink and their behaviour and the consequences, argghh!

[scumdog]

A minority go through a high visibility system like a hospital or Police arrest records so raising the age/increasing the detterent must be the only way to go. You see a minority of people come through hospital so the people who use the product as intended must be punished too?

Hmmm, like the minority who put using fireworks in jeopardy, or the minority that cause Councils to put liquor bans in place ot the minority who... the list is pretty big - hell, ONE man (David Gray) got gun laws harshened up.

EDIT: In case nobody has figured it out: it's not the number of people that are screwing up - it's the number of people that THEY are screwing up and pissing off that makes the difference.

[Squeak the Rat]

I was getting into nightclubs at 16yrs old (sometimes), so what's changed?

To answer my own question, when we blagged our way into a nightclub we were usually quite discreet, acknowledging that we were doing bad and therefore tried to keep reasonably sane.

I grew up in South Auckland though, so shit that I see on the street elsewhere these days isn't really anything new to me. The bad just spreads out like a cancer i guess......

[James Deuce]

Hmmm, like the minority who put using fireworks in jeopardy, or the minority that cause Councils to put liquor bans in place ot the minotiy who... the list is pretty big - hell, ONE man (David Gray) got gun laws harshened up.

Absolutely and it is getting tiresome. There was a suggestion on the weekend that I was behaving inappropriately with my kids at Huia pool on the weekend. Where does it stop mate?

[scumdog]

I was getting into nightclubs at 16yrs old (sometimes), so what's changed?

To answer my own question, when we blagged our way into a nightclub we were usually quite discreet, acknowledging that we were doing bad and therefore tried to keep reasonably sane.......

THAT is one real truism, I was the same, got a half-doz and away out to the stockyards, riverbank or where-ever, well away from the public and cops and kept a wary eye out in case we got busted.

Crikey, if Sgt Jack got you? - the beer was gone, your arse was kicked and woe and doom when you got home and the old man found out - sounds like some sort of fantasy world compared to today.

[adiddy]

mmmm gotta be 18, at that age we r going to university or have full time jobs!
meh im 18 and if it went up it wouldnnt harm me to much..
if 18's cant buy alcohol i think we would et alot ore using marijuana etc...
Its aint hard to get hold of a fake i.d. aswell i know smeone who was 17 and was using a 22year olds

[Biohazard]

I like graphs too! (see attached)

And as for raising the "drunkung age", isn't the genie too far out of the bottle (as it were) to try and put it back?

so your saying (quote graph) that the number of pirates is reducing due to global warming then ?????

[Motu]

. The difference there is that they are raised in a society where alcohol is part of a social culture.

And alcohol is not part of the New Zealand culture? How young do they start drinking in New Zealand? A house up the road from me puts out a 200 litre drum of bottles,and lines up boxes 4 wide and 3 high - that in a shit load of beer for one household in anyones country.

[Ixion]

Is not all this angst about the "drinking age" (it's not even actually the procurement age, it's the "legal to sell to" age) missing the point.

The point is not someone selling alcohol. Or a person of any age buying alcohol. or even a person of any age drinking alcohol. the actual PROBLEM is people drinking alcohol beyond what they can handle, and doing stupid shit as a result.

And it is perceived that a disproportionate number of young people are thus affected (except by jim Anderton , who thinks the problem is all about old age pensioners hitting the sherry)

So if thats's the PROBLEM why not address the PROBLEM. Restrictions on selling the stuff may make it a little more difficult for youffs to obtain- but that just adds to the challenge and proves that you're grown up when you do get hold of the stuff.

Restore the old law making it an offence to be intoxicated in a public place. And the one about "children in need of care and protection". And other such similar enactments. And make it an offence for parents to knowingly allow their children to be under the influence of liquor. Address the actual problem. And allow sensible young people (and old age pensioners) to have a drink in moderation. As most of them do.

Why should anyone except wowsers care if someone of any age has a drink, provided it's not causing problems to anyone. As Mr Giradin says, civilised countries 10 and 12 years olds have a glass of watered wine with their meal.

Are we seriously proposing that a 19 year old should not be able to have a glass of wine with HIS meal , in a restaurant?

[Bend-it]

What's the betthat all the ones who voted for, are above 21 and the ones who voted against are below 21?

[James Deuce]

Yeah, thanks Bend-It remind me to automatically oppose anything that entrusts teenagers with a modicum of personal responsibility in future.

Raise the drinking age to 40. THat's about when you can't hack the effects of a decent hangover well enough to cope with a day at work.