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media type="custom" key="3651915"media type="custom" key="3662661"4 state representatives are supporting the fact fobr restaurants in Minnesota to lower the drinking age to 18 and even allow 16 and 17 year olds to drink in their establishments if they are accompanied with an adult. The state wide smoking ban is affecting the business in the restaurants so allowing younger people to drink could let restaurant owners make more money.

RESPONSIBLE, NOT RECKLESS DRINKING:

[|Seven states] in the United Sates allow people under the age 21 to drink in a bar or restaurant if they are with their parents. Research has shown that teenagers who tend to drink with their parents do not abuse alcohol with their friends, or when they get older. Drinking alcohol with parents “may help teach them responsible drinking habits or extinguish some of the ‘novelty’ or ‘excitement’ of drinking” according to senior researcher Dr. Kristie Long Foley of the School of Medicine at Wake Forest University

A STIMULUS PLAN FOR RESTAURANT OWNERS:  This information is from []. Tom Hackbarth, a Republican from District 48A in Minnesota said, “I think that bars and restaurants are having a difficult time right now with the smoking ban that went into place. I think with economic times the way they are, I’ve never opposed the drinking age being 18.” I’ve heard a lot of arguments against the prohibition on under-21 adults, but never an //economic// one. Is this Minnesota’s own stimulus plan? In fact, the economics of the argument are usually considered a wash, since one of the points made against the ban is that teens buy alcohol on their own anyway. REASONS WHY THE DRINKING AGE SHOULD BE LOWERED:

> When drinking is made legal for anyone under the age of 21 and over 18, drinking takes place in public. It can then be supervised by police, security guards and health workers as well.  Congress and the Reagan administration agreed in 1984 to withhold 10 percent of highway funds for states that refused to raise their drinking age from 18 to 21. No state has since dared to sacrifice money for roads by making its legal age for drinking the same as that for marrying, voting and joining the military.
 * This has always been a tough question for me. On the one hand, it’s hard to argue that someone should get tried as an adult for illegally purchasing or consuming alcohol for being a //minor//. If full citizenship and responsibility come at 18, then the government should not impose limitations on those between that age and 21 for behavior that would be perfectly legal for all other citizens. I’m also opposed to the federal government dictating state policy on this issue, as it has ever since //Ronald Reagan// rejected the states-rights argument and signed the Uniform Drinking Age Act in 1984.
 * An 18 year old in US has the right to vote, and serve in the military. If an 18 year old can make up their mind as to who the potential leader of the country should be and take a bullet for their country, they should have every right to purchase and drink alcohol.
 * It is usually said that an 18 year old has less tolerance as compared to a 21 year old. Although this might be true, in most cases you don’t really know how much you can handle as long as you try it out. Tolerance doesn’t come with age, tolerance come with realization of responsibility and there are people that are more responsible at 15 than some are at 50.
 * Anyone under 21 sees alcohol as a “forbidden fruit.” The curiosity leads to more people under the age of 21 drinking anyway. If drinking is made legal for the 18 and older, it will serve much better as the curiosity isn’t as high and the fruit isn’t forbidden anymore.
 * When in college most students under the age of 21 can get hold of drink through their seniors. They are not allowed to drink at events where others might be able to drink. This once again makes them want to be a rebel and try out what it is they are being kept away from. They will give it a shot. The fact that they don’t know when they will be able to drink again is the reason most college students tend to get overly drunk when they get a chance. As a result there are problems as serious as deaths.
 * Countries such as Italy, China, Greece are some of the countries where the legal drinking age is lower and they seem to have fewer alcohol related problems. Current law in terms of legal drinking age has caused more alcohol related deaths than there has ever been.
 * People under the age of 21 tend to drink more when they get hold of alcohol because of the uncertainty as to when they might be able to drink again.
 * If you are legal to get married at the age of 18 and end up getting married, you are not allowed to drink in your own wedding? That doesn’t sound right.

Choose Responsibility wants the Vermont legislature to call on Congress to grant exemptions from the highway-funding penalty for states that lower their drinking age on a conditional, temporary basis. The resolution to be pushed by Kimbell Sherman Ellis contains provisions requiring 18-, 19- and 20-year-old Vermonters to attend anti-alcohol abuse classes and obtain a license before being able to drink legally. The initiative would also be framed as an experiment to be conducted over a projected 6-year period.

Chittenden County Democrat Hinda Miller, sponsor of the study-group measure, says the new resolution could find some support in the Vermont Senate. But because “we’re so wrapped up in the marriage equality debate,” it’s impossible at this stage to gauge the number of potential votes for the drinking-age resolution, Miller adds.

Legislative initiatives of this sort do not need the approval of the governor in order to be adopted. Gov. James Douglas could, in any event, prove less hostile to lowering Vermont’s drinking age than to permitting same-sex marriage. Douglas said through his spokesman in 2005 that he “can see the logic” of returning Vermont to the age-18 standard if it the state doesn’t face the loss of highway funds as a result of such a move.

These higher education leaders aren't relying on the traditional argument that the current age limit blatantly discriminates against adults who are trusted to vote, to sign contracts and to join the military. In fact, a certain irresponsibility among 18- to 20-year-olds has prompted this call to action as underage binge drinking has become a deadly epidemic on college campuses.

There are thoughtful objections to lowering the age limit, such as one raised by Gov. Janet Napolitano last week that such a change would expose more younger teenagers to alcohol as well. Anti-drunken driving advocates are concerned that opening bars and liquor stores to more, younger people would lead to more DUI-related accidents. But only the incredibly na? are unaware that high school students still are frequently using and abusing alcohol, despite enforcement of the higher age limit for more than two decades.

Most servers can distinguish real IDs from fakes. However, poor lighting, lack of experience, tiredness and busyness can all contribute to slipups. Minors who try to buy alcohol with fake IDs should remember that many servers wait tables to feed their families and pay the bills. Getting fired for serving booze to a minor could mean getting kicked out of one's apartment.

Just look at some of the photos students unwisely post on Facebook.

Regardless of how they get the alcohol, it's clear that the law doesn't work. And even if it did work, what's the point?

The problem here is not the availability of alcohol, but American drinking culture. While the French carefully pair wines with different foods, and the Chinese enjoy raucous drinking games at banquets and dinner parties as a show of camaraderie, Americans drink to get drunk.

After Americans take hits off their beer bongs or do keg stands and fill their stomachs with alcoholic club soda such as Bud Light, they throw up, black out and wake up the next morning with hangovers. They then call their friends and brag to them, "Dude, I got, like, so plastered last night," blaming their bad behavior on the alcohol, much like the anti-Semitic frat boys in the "Borat" movie.

The fact that underage drinking occurs underground makes it difficult to regulate. The desire to get drunk as quickly as possible without any authority figures finding out creates an incentive to binge drink. If you're 21, however, you can simply go to a bar, knock a couple back and then go home.Lowering the drinking age to 18 would be great for business, as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol would get more customers. Also, 20-year-olds often live away from home and their parents' authority, while 17-year-olds are still legally children under parental guardianship. For that reason, stopping a 17-year-old from drinking is easier than stopping a 20-year-old

CITATIONS:

[] [[http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/youthissues/1125425726.html

RE: lowering the drinking age TO: restaurant owners FROM: current events Hello, I am writing this letter because we as restaurant owners want to pass the bill to lower the drinking age to eighteen. We believe that lowering the drinking age will not cause as much underage drinking, and let eighteen to twenty-one year olds drink in bars around other adults, and be able to be cut off from alcohol if they are drinking too much. Our argument with bill 345 is about lowering the drinking age to eighteen from twenty-one. In recent years, the drinking age was at eighteen in the 1980`s. we have been letting eighteen year olds do many things as adults. They are allowed to vote if they want to, they are allowed to smoke cigarettes, and they are allowed to take someone else’s life in a war. If eighteen year olds are allowed to drink out in public with other adults, they are going to drink responsibly by other adults teaching them how to behave and how much they can take in with alcohol. Tom Hackbarth, a Republican from District 48A in Minnesota said, “I think that bars and restaurants are having a difficult time right now with the smoking ban that went into place. I think with economic times the way they are, I’ve never opposed the drinking age being 18.” With this said, Seven states in the United Sates allow people under the age 21 to drink in a bar or restaurant if they are with their parents. Research has shown that teenagers who tend to drink with their parents do not abuse alcohol with their friends, or when they get older. Drinking alcohol with parents “may help teach them responsible drinking habits or extinguish some of the ‘novelty’ or ‘excitement’ of drinking” according to senior researcher Dr. Kristie Long Foley of the School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. If seven states already allow eighteen year olds to drink with their parents in a restaurant, why is it a problem to lower the drinking age to eighteen? As restaurant owners, we propose that you pass this bill to lower the drinking age to eighteen. Studies showed that when the drinking age was eighteen, drunk driving started to decrease just before they changed the drinking age twenty-one. If eighteen year olds can handle taking life’s in Iraq, smoking cigarettes and being able to vote; we believe that they are old enough and mature enough to drink alcohol.