| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 5:14:13 AM | | It did nothing for the US, I agree it is up to the PARENTS to teach their kids proper alchol consumption. Why make a law for something that can be taught at home? I witnessed a 16th B'day with parents dropping their kids off with a slab of booze. | |
|
4rum
|
Joined: 5/10/2008
Msg: 27 | |
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 5:27:17 AM | The drinking age is ok. How about a legal age you're allowed to become a parent and sitting a parenting test? Theory and prac!!
I believe I'm a responsible parent and my boys are responsible drinkers. Do I know where they are on a Saturday night? Sure do. The youngest is usually snoring his face off because he's up before the sun to go surfing. The eldest, works in the music industry. I drop him off before a gig and he comes home after it. Ask him what he thinks about drugs, alcohol and young people. He says parents would be surprised if they knew what their kids are doing. Looking at schoolies week, I know a lot of parents already know.
When our kids get into the big world and start doing adult things, it's our job to have them prepared for it. | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 7:07:18 AM | underage drinking will remain a problem no matter the legal drinking age limit.
Its not a problem with the law, just a realy realy relaxed view on alcohol.
Its advertised as a great beverage on TV, theres nice big shiney add posters everywhere on it....
Oh, and raising the price isnt going to do crap either, just makes the binge drinkers choose cask wines instead -_-
The real problem stems from societies ability to make people truly aware of what alcohol is, does and why.
One second you have adds saying drinkings a problem next second you have an add with people doing stupid stuff with beer logos all over em. Although, i enjoy some of these adds >.>
You cant say "booze is bad!" then turn around and crack open a can.
That, and it seems kids think alcohol is the key to having fun or to forget thier problems. Younger generations mimic the older generations and take it a few steps further out. | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 7:42:21 AM | I dont know how true it is but i was told once upon a time the drinking age in australia WAS 21 years of age..
sometime around the veitnam war when some of the blokes who served their country could not enter the Returned & Services League's club.. and it was raised about that time..so that somme of the 18 year old vetrans could enter the club that was created for them.... how true it is i dont know | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 1:41:32 PM | In US drinking age differs from state to state... 18 - 25
No longer. 20 some odd years ago the Feds stepped in and threatened every state with reducing any states federal funds for highway improvments if they didn't comply with a 21 year old drinking age. Literally blackmailing all states to where it stands today at 21 nationwide, the highest in the world. Some exceptions occur in certain states regarding drinking at home with parental supervision, religious or medical reasons. | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/8/2008 2:22:44 PM | Someone mentioned Texas. My mate lives in Lancaster(Dallas/Fortworth area), and his county is alcohol free, which means you can't buy alcohol in the county he lives in regardless of your age.
But you can drive t the next country, buy it and bring it back.
We went to a party held by the mother of his sons girlfriend. It was just like a typical Australian BBQ type party although it was mainly a younger crowd and they were all drinking heavily. So a 21 year old age limit and a no alcohol county didn't change anything. Mind you, the party was contained to the one house and everyone was jjst having a great time, albeit quite drunk.
Houston County in Georgia, as another example can't sell alcohol to anyone regardless of age on a Sunday. You can drive to the next county though and have a beer with your dinner on a Sunday, but if you go for dinner in Houston County you can't.
Bars and Nightclubs have to close at 2AM. They are pretty strict on this too. I was out in Macon GA looking for blues bars on Mad Friday and the cops patrol heavily and will fine you if you're in a bar after 2AM.
Personally, I think our laws are fine, and they're reasonably consistant where ever you go, and parents need to take a bit more responsibility. I do believe if my daughter was allowed to go to these parties at an earlier age(and most of the kids did), she may have been caught up in the binge drinking because of the novelty of it. By the time I allowed her, she was a bit more aware of things, and my assessment was she was ready. The other problem is once they start binging, then that's their perception of how it's done, so will continue. | |
|
| |
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/9/2008 8:22:04 PM | Alcoholism spans just about every age group and facet of society.
There are the 16 year olds bingeing their heads off and younger kids beginning to experiment. The 19 year olds who are of legal age doing the same thing and causing damage to themselves and to other people and property. The ones in their 30s who are having a good go and still 40 year olds finding themselves in the same predicaments as the rest. There are even the tired old winos.
On the flipside is the families, police and health professionals that have to deal with these people and lets not forget the court system and victims when it comes to alcohol related crime and incidence.
I didnt grow up in a household that drank at all. There was alcohol which was for cooking and wine for when visitors came. My father never drank at home nor did my mum. I grew into a hell binger by 15. Alcohol cost me my education, friends and to a lesser extent a good future. Luckily I never caused any damage to anyone or anything whilst on one of my escapades.
Bewitched had a good point about building self esteem and self respect at a young age. There is no fear now of the law and no respect for it. Im not sure what the answer might be but some ideas would be to raise the drinking age to 21, earlier closing times for hotels and pubs, drunks being arrested and spending the nights in the cells not just ferried by the police to another persons house to muck up there, harsher penalties for alcohol related crime, rehab facilities more readily available, penalties for the abuse and assaults on emergency service personnell that are trying to assist these people in the short term, education programs in schools and harsher penalties for parents of young people that are drunk and dissorderly............
Ultimately it comes down to people taking responsibility for themselves but that has just gone right out the window a long time ago. | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/10/2008 1:28:05 AM | As long as our society condones binge drinking, Where the purpose of going out is to get drunk, The legal drinking age is irrelevant.
How do we, as a society, instill personal responsibility back into people?
For so long, people have been told "You have the right to do this, do that."
Why are we not told that we also must be responsibile for what we do?
We used to respect our teachers, our police officers, our bosses at work.
Respect has to start at the top. At work, if you respect the boss, everyone knows where they stand.
We do not respect our political leaders. And once lost, its very hard to earn back that respect.
Raising the legal drinking age, or changing any law , is irrelevant if we do not respect the law makers. | |
|
| Should the drinking age be raised to 21 in Australia?
Posted: 7/10/2008 2:05:58 AM | There needs to be great communication and trust to be able to confide in your parents when you have problems and have a open relationship. It is possible to be too strict as this might push your kids away as the child will not want to tell you due to the ramifications of doing so.
They need to be comfortable enough to tell you things so that you are able to help them with things such as self esteem and not resort to self medication like alcohol or drugs or any other problem that they may have.
It is not enough to simply educate or give kids boundaries and set them a good example through our ways, there needs to be open communication lines too to tackle alcohol related problems. | |
|
Home
login 
