penguin15:

"As I said before, college students and anyone else over the age 18 drink. They don't have problems getting alcohol."

Just because they have access to it doesn't mean it should be legalized. People can obtain access to illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine...it doesn't mean we should legalize those things either. Stricter enforcement and higher penalties are the weapon...if a cop breaks up a party but no one is arrested, nobody learns anything...the same thing happens week in and week out at colleges. Give those students harsher penalties, and actual consequences for their actions, and they'll be less likely to drink.

Kids drink underage. It is not going to go away by lowering the drinking age...you just shift the kids that are drinking underage from 18-, 19-, and 20-year olds to 15-, 16-, and 17-year olds. Now do you really want college-type keg parties popping up everywhere in America with kids THAT YOUNG drinking alcohol??? At least in college it's contained to university areas...lower the drinking age and you have no containment. Underage drinking is going to happen, but to lower the drinking age just to accept the inevitable is not the answer...you just shift the problem from only college campuses to every town with a high school in America, with kids FAR YOUNGER than the 18-year old frosh.

Unfortunately kids THAT YOUNG are already drinking-plenty. Many kids wait until college because in high school they've got parents waiting at home and would have to answer to them upon returning home drunk. Vast majorities of high school kids also know not to drink and drive- and it's easy to get back and forth to the party on foot in college than it is in high school. These are the kids that abstain in high school, and for each of them there are probably 2 that drink. Now, lowering the drinking age isn't going to change the reasons why kids don't drink in high school- they've still got the parents home, they're still in the suburbs with cars. And it's not going to change the reasons why kids do drink in high school either. I remember at my high school, all four years, there was standing friday night party in the woods including everyone from freshmen to seniors, and probably some junior high kids as well! How they got the beer? Who knows. I also knew a lot of kids at very wealthy private prep schools-they were drank more and earlier because parents often went away or had huge houses for the kids to remain undetected or even had multiple homes. Basically what I'm saying is, 14 and 15 year olds who are going to drink all already drinking. 14 and 15 year olds who don't drink- either because it's illegal or because they'll get caught-are still going to have those reasons not to drink if the age were 18 or 19.