under/over/drinking laws

[Brian J. Parker]

Dee,

Thanks for the perspective.

> Kids that are brought up tasting beer in liquor and
> getting drunk a few times with their family would put an end to that
> "omg I'm finally allowed to drink, let's drink as much as I can!"
> thing that ends up with a call to 911.

That's part of why I called the higher drinking age
"counterproductive."  Anecdotally, kids also find that they have
greater access to drugs than alcohol, and end up putting worse things
in their body.  (I'm not talking about pot, which I consider
relatively benign-- stolen prescription drugs seem to be the rage
now.)


> Another disaster is the last call.

This is a HUGE problem in England, where last call is usually at
midnight.  It becomes a mess of pounding drinks and pouring out into
fighting.


> This country seriously needs to overhaul it's drinking laws, all the
> public health data is there to support the above ideas, but no
> politician wants to touch it, because we are still a puritan country.

An FYI for the politically inclined who are considering calling or
writing a letter to politicans (so easy to do in our internet age):

Drinking age is set at the STATE level.  However, it is under FEDERAL
law that a lot of grant money (earmarked for highways, I think, but
money's money) gets cut off if your state sets a drinking age lower
than 21.  So I would contact your FEDERAL congressman (probably
liberal Democrat Mike Doyle) and FEDERAL Senator (moderate Republican
Arlen Spector, ultraconservative Rick Santorum is a waste of time)
with your concerns foremost, as well as looking up your STATE
representative online.

B