And just when you think things couldn't get worse for Isiah Thomas...

I'd be curious to see if a comparison of DUI accidents involving 18-20 year olds when it was legal for 18+ to drink in comparison to the currently laws. I'm really not basing it on anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if the difference was minimal.

 

What we should do is make up our minds on a policy and stick to it.
I was there in Wisconsin in 1972 when the state went 18 -- on St. Patrick's Day, I might add. Nice planning, guys -- and it looked like that was going to be the case forever. Then we had one of our usual WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? spasms and it went back to 21, and now everybody's arguing about it again.

 

Shit, a lot of people drink underage. No denying that.

Most people are smart enough not to get punched out in a bar when they are doing it, though.

 

It used to be the reverse.

When I was in hs, drinking age was 19 in NY, 21 in Ontario.

We used to go "over the river" to Buffalo/Niagara Falls/Lewiston regularly.

It's 19 everywhere up here.

 

In my state, at first they raised it to 19 to supposedly keep alcohol out of the high schools because some seniors were 18 and could drink. Then they raised it to 21 because they were being blackmailed MADD and the feds. If they didn't they would lose a ton of federal highway dollars.

 

The drinking age was raised back to 21 because a bunch of old-fart legislators basically got pissed because "these young whippersnappers can drink when they're 18, and I COULDN'T."

That's basically the reason. Of course a lot of baloney about traffic safety was thrown in (which of course subsequently proved by complete coincidence to be true), but the whole reason the drinking age was raised was old farts pissed at young people having fun. That's it.

 

Oh I love this country.

Let's see -- We have no problem handing an 18-year old an M-16 and sending him/her in to some foreign land to run around the jungle or the desert, hope they don't get their heads blown off and charge them with shooting people who may or may not be the enemy...........but we don't think they are responsible enough to had a few budweisers.

That makes sense to me......

 

Hate to say it, but I disagree with the idea of reducing the drinking age. High schoolers (and not just the 18-year-olds) see drinking as rebellion -- as defying authority. As long as it has that romanticized notion, lowering the drinking age to 18 will be a fool's errand.

People can cite Europe all they want. Thing is, the culture is vastly different there from what it's like in the U.S. Over there, drinking doesn't carry the cachet that it does here. That's why I'm opposed to changing the laws here.

 

Didn't you know? Mitch can predict the future...

 

Back when the drinking age was 18, I had a buddy who became legal Dec. 17. Trouble was, on New Year's Day it went back up to 21. He said he was in a bar drinking on New Year's eve and when the clock struck midnight, they went around and threw out anyone who wasn't 21. He was legal for two weeks.

 

In all the cases I'm aware of if you were legal you were grandfathered in. It definitely was that way in my state.

 

Not in Michigan.