Alaska proposal to say military <21 can drink

[JohnStOnge]

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Me, I support lowering the drinking age to 18 for everybody. Actually I support getting government out of the business of such things as establishing drinking ages entirely and have parents make decisions about whether or not to allow their kids to drink at particular ages. But this is at least some progress and hopefully most rational people can agree that, as the cliche goes, someone old enough to be in combat should be considered old enough to drink alcohol if they want.

I heard a representative of Students Against Destructive Behavior (SADD) say that the decision to set the drinking age at 21 is based on statistics and not arbitrary. Well, yes, it WAS arbitrary. Why 21? I have no doubt that if somebody looked at the risk curves they used they could've picked different points on the curve. They could've moved it to 30 and "more lives would be saved."

And "it will save lives" and/or "it will cut down on health problems," etc. are not the slam dunk arguments some people seem to think they are. There are all sorts of things we could do to "save lives." As I've written in other threads, outlawing driving for non - essential purposes would "save lives." Having government determine exactly what and how much we eat would "save lives." Outlawing recreational swimming would "save lives." So on and so forth.

[Skjellyfetti]

I already thought the military under 21 could drink. Maybe that's just in some states or something?

Yeah, I support lowering the drinking age to 18 as well.

[Col Hogan]

I already thought the military under 21 could drink. Maybe that's just in some states or something?

Yeah, I support lowering the drinking age to 18 as well.

Military bases follow the law of the state they are in when it comes to drinking on base/post...

As someone who turned 18 when that was the drinking age...I have to support this...

18 - 21 year olds do stupid things...the drinking age has proven to be no barrier to that...

So for the responsible ones, let's stop criminalizing them...

[youngterrier]

Stop making Drinking the forbidden fruit and you'll solve a lot of problems

[SuperHornet]

I already thought the military under 21 could drink. Maybe that's just in some states or something?

Yeah, I support lowering the drinking age to 18 as well.

For decades, that was the case, Jelly. At least, they could drink BEER (no hard stuff) ON BASE. Even then, the rules were the same off base. The idea was that one could drink at the E-Club and walk back to the barracks across the street and sleep it off. The problem was that anyone 18-20 who drank at the E-Club and then got the wild idea to leave was a DWI as soon as they passed the gate. Too many people were getting popped that way, so the "easy" thing for commanders to do was remove that temptation. This happened on an ad hoc basis throughout the mid- to late-'90s until DoD passed an umbrella rule establishing 21 as the legal drinking age EVERYWHERE.

While I choose not to drink, I tend to agree with the older mindset that if one is old enough to get blown away in defense of their country, they should be old enough to indulge a little.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

I am pretty sure it was Keith Stone that once said, "Let them drink beer".





That guy is smooth.................always.

[COBBLESTONE]

I already thought the military under 21 could drink. Maybe that's just in some states or something?

Yeah, I support lowering the drinking age to 18 as well.

Military bases follow the law of the state they are in when it comes to drinking on base/post...
...

Nowadays they probably do.

I can remember being at Fort Mclellan, AL in the late 90's and trying to get a beer off post in Anniston, AL on a Sunday. The county that Anniston, AL is in did not serve beer on a Sunday in eating establishments and the drinking establishments were closed. Even the gas stations in the area would not sell beer on a Sunday. So...I went back to the post and managed to drink all the beer I could buy at the 19th hole of the post golf course.