Over 1,000 readers responded: Here’s what they think about the legal drinking age
“Make it equal to the age to vote, serve, and smoke nicotine and marijuana."
When it comes to the national legal drinking age, about 40 percent of Massachusetts residents believe it should be lowered from 21.A recent survey cast a spotlight on the issue, showing that even among surrounding states, Massachusetts parents more so than elsewhere in New England want to see the age lowered. Across the country, it’s about 20 percent.Considering this, we asked Boston.com readers to weigh in and, according to the more than the 1,000 responses we received, readers align with what the national survey found. Our poll found that just over 38 percent want the drinking age lowered to 18. The second-highest amount of votes went to keeping it at 21, which made up 31 percent. Another 15.6 percent of respondents want it set to 19. The rest of the responses were far less popular – setting the legal age at 20 received 6.4 percent of the vote, “no drinking age, leave it up to the parents” garnered 3.9 percent, and 4.9 percent of respondents voted “other.”The “other” category received a variety of responses. A handful of people said they want the age set at 23, another group favored 25. Others justified an earlier drinking age due to the age of military service being 18 – some respondents voted for the age to be lowered due to this, while others said to lower it to 18 just for those serving.“If you can die for your country at 18 years old, you should be allowed to consume alcohol!” one respondent wrote.Another wanted to “go for consistency.”“Make it equal to the age to vote, serve, and smoke nicotine and marijuana,” one response read.Another respondent, perhaps, wants to hop back 100 years to Prohibition as far as drinking is concerned.“Ban alcohol,” the response simply read.
Here’s a sampling of responses:
From those in favor of lowering the drinking age:Citing military service:“If you can vote and more importantly, serve the country, you should be able to at least drink a beer legally.” –Maria from Boston“If you’re old enough to give your life in the military you should be able to sit at [a] bar and purchase a beer.”Putting the responsibility on parents:
“It’s pointless regulating people’s behavior without the ability to enforce something that is common. Up to parents to ‘regulate’ their teens.”
“I believe children being raised in an environment where it is normal to consume small amounts at dinner and social occasions will be less likely to end up binge drinking with peers any chance they get (especially college students). I would let parents decide how they want to handle it for their children under 18 including out at restaurants, and have 18 be the official drinking age for everyone.” –Karen, Norfolk
Citing other countries where the legal drinking age is lower:
“It should be 18 like it is in the EU but we’d have to change the age at which we issue driving permits to teenagers as well.”
“I answered the way that I did because of the amount of time I’ve spent all over Europe. People are more responsible with drinking because they’ve had a longer time to figure it out and there’s not such a culture around getting loaded. People can just have a few drinks and enjoy themselves.” –Brian, Medford
In favor of keeping the drinking age at 21:
“21 seems to work just fine, no need to change it.”
“I was 18 once—and was not mature enough to handle. Some kids need that extra 3 years to mature.”
“This has been tried before and was a failure on many levels. There’s a reason we went back to 21. Do we always need to repeat history looking for a different result ?” –Joe, Stow
“Kids are not real smart.”
“21 is a responsible age to allow drinking alcohol.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com