Is a drinking age of 21 causing more harm than it is preventing?

Source?

What age would you propose we change the drinking age to?

It seems to me that the ones who binge are in a minority still.

I would flip it. Drink at 16, drive at 18. Lets the kids get used to drinking before they get behind the wheel.

@Johnpowell GA. Makes total sense.

@johnpowell Thats actually a pretty good idea, never thought of it like that.

College freshman and sophomores are going to drink. It is a reality.
It’s sort of like abortion. It’s going to happen, so we need to make it as safe as possible. We realized this about abortion in the 70s and moved it from the backalleys to the hospitals. The same thing needs to happen with drinking. I’m in favor of lowering the age to 18 — let the 18, 19, and 20 year olds buy some beer and drink safely in their rooms or bars (with bus access) instead of illegally obtaining alcohol and trying to covertly drink it (which ends in drinking in places such as cars and parks — obviously dangerous).

I agree that it’s causing problems. I have friends who grew up abroad, and they’re far less likely to drink themselves into a stupor every weekend. American kids don’t know how to handle it when they get to college and then they give themselves alcohol poisoning. I have way too many friends who’ve gone to the hospital for accidentally overdoing it in college. By my senior year I felt like I was in a minority of people who hadn’t. My friend who attended college (uni) in the UK says that she’s almost never heard of that happening. Makes you think.

Don’t quote me on this, but I think in Germany the drinking age is 14, and the driving age is 18. Or something like that. But I would agree with @johnpowell, it does make more sense to get used to the responsibility of drinking THEN driving.

Yes.

In Europe, we grow up with alcohol and develop a much more mature relationship to it. Beer is about unwinding and enjoying the company of others, not getting as piss drunk as possible and destroy the most furniture like american teens think.

Who decided 21 was the perfect age to start drinking? is there any reasoning for it or is it just arbitrary?

Definitely.
My father told me tales that back in his day at college, there were specific buildings on the campus run by the college which served alcohol (to any age) and gave the students a safe place to drink.

In Australia, driving age with a supervisor is 16 and by yourself is 17, drinking age is 18. Binge drinking still happens. It will always happen, unless you lower the drinking age to about 13, it is gonna happen. I like how it is here. But then again, a good thing about 21 is that the younger kids say 13–18 don’t have as many friends that are 21 that can buy the alcohol for them, but when the drinking age is 18 it is easier to find someone, through school or friends who will buy it for you, having less of an age gap.