Drinking Age Presentation

[Sapper]

To legally prepare you for the college experience.

[MadHatter]

 

For the average person, the "relative risk" barely changes until you hit .12. This means the average person is no more dangerous on the road until he goes above .12.

 

The exception as you can see in the graph above is 16-20 year old male which starts rising materially at .04. Basically the rest of the population is being punished.

 

This is an example of a law addressing the lowest common denominator.

 

Good info.

[YourManInAmsterdam]

Id also say that public transit and infrastructure there is leaps and bounds ahead of the us. That s like comparing NYCs duis per capita

 

Point taken. However, aside from drunk driving issues, there's still issues of binge drinking hospitalization or youth alcoholism that could be found in WHO stats that would be a valid comparison.

[Katweiser]

   I always wondered there's a maturity level that goes with the alcohol buzz itself and not so much the age. The first couple of years a person drinks, its all new to them, they over do it and its pretty chaotic.  After a few years, most people get used to the buzz, know whats good and bad about it, and control it better than what they did from the start.  Basically, they become a little more wiser with the alcohol experience. If you wise up earlier in life with drinking, you may make better decisions with when how much to drink.  If thats true, then maybe things will be better lowering the age to 16, and raising the age to 18 to be able to drive a car....

[Hawk]

I won't argue dropping the drinking age to 18 across the board.  It's still 18 where I live and I buy into the arguments of all the other things you can do as soon as you hit 18, drinking legally should be one of them.

 

As for the impaired driving, the legal limit doesn't matter to me too much, I'd just like to see much harsher penalties.  Whether you agree or not, that's your right, but there's still way too many people killed every year because of drunk driving.

[Panthro]

Point taken. However, aside from drunk driving issues, there's still issues of binge drinking hospitalization or youth alcoholism that could be found in WHO stats that would be a valid comparison.

 

I wasn't arguing with your point though. I look at Europe and their approach to eating, drinking, sex, and overall quality of life and still think there's tons of room for improvement here in the US.

[SOJA]

   I always wondered there's a maturity level that goes with the alcohol buzz itself and not so much the age. The first couple of years a person drinks, its all new to them, they over do it and its pretty chaotic.  After a few years, most people get used to the buzz, know whats good and bad about it, and control it better than what they did from the start.  Basically, they become a little more wiser with the alcohol experience. If you wise up earlier in life with drinking, you may make better decisions with when how much to drink.  If thats true, then maybe things will be better lowering the age to 16, and raising the age to 18 to be able to drive a car....

the problem with that is the brain doesn't full mature until the early twenties. Allowing kids to binge (which in America they will) at the age of 16 could cause brain damage 

 

In regions of frontal cortex, we observed reduction in gray matter between adolescence and adulthood, probably reflecting increased myelination in peripheral regions of the cortex that may improve cognitive processing in adulthood.

 

Striatal structures are involved in cognitive functions such as learning, which is linked to frontal system function and improves throughout adolescence.

 

 

 

source: http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~esowell/nn1099_859.pdf

[The Huddler]

Hey fallas. Thank you all or contributing in giving me some abstract ideas. Got a 99! A great way to finish a brutal five week course! On my way to becomming an RN.

Ill give everyone their due in pie when i get to my computer.