You can send an 18 year old off to war, but they can't drink

• Chockeh wrote on 2013-05-11 04:40

  Quote from Space Pirate Nithiel;1085560:

  I didn't do that in college.. Neither did any of my friends. None of us drink at all actually. Maybe we're just weird for being able to have fun sober. ;-;

  
  
  We gotta de-stress every end of the month.
  
  

  Quote from Chiyuri;1085539:

  18 here in quebec for alchool

  
  
  :cheer:
• otto wrote on 2013-05-11 04:59
  I've had champagne or wine for major holidays and my mom's bday every year since i was about 14. Being introduced to alcohol isnt a bad idea if your guardian is responsible -shrugs-
  
  I think the reason it works that the age for drinking is higher is because while alcohol isnt addictive on its own or as harmful as cigs, it impairs your judgment within a small timeframe if you dont know your limits. And more often than not leads to drunk driving etc. Both are dangerous of course, but you know what you're getting into with smoking-- its a longterm thing. With drinking you don't always know for certain what could happen by the end of the night
  
  if that makes sense.
• Aubog007 wrote on 2013-05-13 09:49
  Age for alcohol is 21 because of drunk driving concerns (and secretly (well not so secretly) highway funds.)
  
  Federal limit for alcohol is 18. The states set it to 21.
• Gaby5011 wrote on 2013-05-16 02:22

  Quote from Chiyuri;1085539:

  18 here in quebec for alchool

  
  
  Yay for us.
  
  ~2.5 more months for me and I can legally hbuy cider *-*
• Hanna wrote on 2013-05-16 05:05

  Quote from Aubog007;1087546:

  Age for alcohol is 21 because of drunk driving concerns (and secretly (well not so secretly) highway funds.)
  
  Federal limit for alcohol is 18. The states set it to 21.

  
  Pretty sure 18 year olds wouldn't drink and drive any more than 21 year olds
• Aubog007 wrote on 2013-05-16 05:13

  Quote from Hanna;1089687:

  Pretty sure 18 year olds wouldn't drink and drive any more than 21 year olds

  
  
  You would be surprised.
• Hanna wrote on 2013-05-16 05:26

  Quote from Aubog007;1089691:

  You would be surprised.

  
  A good chunk of minors already have access to alcohol frequently and can drive but there isn't a huge amount of duis for the underage
• Aubog007 wrote on 2013-05-16 06:18

  Quote from Hanna;1089705:

  A good chunk of minors already have access to alcohol frequently and can drive but there isn't a huge amount of duis for the underage

  
  
  All depends where you live, some states have more problems with underage drinking than others.
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-05-17 14:00
  Which actually implies the age when you are allowed to drink has an appreciably minor impact on whether minors actually do it or not.
• Valkyrio wrote on 2013-05-17 16:23

  Quote from Hanna;1085538:

  I was borderline alcoholic, but now I drink every once in a while
  
  this is just my opinion but I would say alcoholism is much easier to overcome than a smoking addiction

  
  
  Just because you abused alcohol doesn't mean you were necessarily alcoholic. If you think that alcoholism is easier to get over than smoking, then you don't know the full extent of alcholism's effects. You never see people losing their jobs because of their smoking addiction - people actually end up homeless because of alcohol.
  
  

  Quote from Milk;1085571:

  18 year olds can drink with Adult supervision can't they?

  
  
  There are 29 states which allow underage drinking under parental consent:
  http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591
  
  

  Quote from Cynic;1085599:

  Actually, cigarettes are addictive because of what people put into them, while alcohol itself is not at all addictive without alcoholism/an addictive personality also being present in the equation.

  
  
  Tobacco is addictive because of nicotine - and nicotine occurs naturally in the tobacco plant.
  
  I'm extremely tempted to respond to this with sarcasm, but I won't. Alcohol causes a physical dependency, just like nicotine. "not at all addictive"? It will cause addiction, and if you are addicted to it hard enough, you will die if you try to go cold turkey. Have you never heard of Delirium Tremens? Educated yourself a little bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens
  
  
  

  Quote from Kingofrunes;1085724:

  Frankly Cigarettes are far more deadlier than alcohol in the long run. The human body if the person has any level of restraint can handle one or two drinks just fine. Cigarettes on the other hand are far more addictive and do a lot of harm to the human body.

  
  
  Extended use of alcohol can increase chances of cancer, causes liver disease (cirrhosis, cancer, hepatitis), and on top of that if you drink enough in one night you can die. Sure, if you drink one or two drinks you'll be fine (for the most part, there have been studies both showing negative and positive effects for light alcohol use) - but if you similarly limit your consumption of cigarettes to low levels, then you wouldn't have any ill effects from those either - not unless you've got genetic predispositions, and in that case it wouldn't matter if you drink or smoke.
  
  

  Quote from Kingofrunes;1085724:

  What?! How is that even fair? Culture or not, I feel that EVERYBODY should abide by the same set as laws as everyone else. One thing that drives me nuts is when one ethnic group gets more favorable treatment than the other. We're all Americans and should be abiding by the same set of laws as every other ethnic group does in this country.

  
  
  Everyone does have to abide by the same laws. It's a joke that hispanics don't have to follow those laws - if they were caught, they'd be in just as much trouble as anyone else who got caught underage drinking.
  
  The joke stems from the fact that a) you can drink if you're 18 in Mexico, b) South American cultures have more relaxed views of alcohol. But like I mentioned, more than half the states in the U.S. allow underage drinking with certain exceptions. However, there are certain exemptions for drugs based on religious use - peyote for example, is illegal in most cases except for religious use or use by native americans.
  
  
  
  
  I really suggest you guys actually read about what you try to talk about. Even just reading the wikipedia page about alcoholism and nicotine would counter 90% of the posts that've been posted in this thread.
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-05-17 17:01
  Now that you're talking about alcoholism-related syndroms, Korsakoff-syndrome springs to my mind.
  
  It fucks up your brain so hard that you get admitted into a group for old dementia-patients when you're barely past 50. We had one like this. He didn't even realise he lived there now most of the time. When he had one of those moments where he wanted to go home to his wife after a nice time at our "inn", he was quite shocked to realise that this is where he lives now when we told him. It persisted for at least as long as I worked there, which means months of his admittance. He would also sometimes ask the "waiter" (i.e. me) if we had beer in our establishment.
  
  And anyone who doesn't know cirrhosis please tell me, just so I can see the average level of education about the long-term effects of alcohol around here. I knew about that stuff since I was a little child.
  
  My aunt and her husband even started drinking AGAIN after his liver recovered from a state where it was so bad he would have died if he persisted. Can you imagine that? Alcohol is also what destroyed their relation with their younger son at a point and what keeps their older son from getting a decent life to begin with.
  
  Alcohol is as fine as anything in small doses, but it's not to be trifled with, ever.
• Hanna wrote on 2013-05-17 18:03

  Quote from Valkyrio;1090614:

  Just because you abused alcohol doesn't mean you were necessarily alcoholic. If you think that alcoholism is easier to get over than smoking, then you don't know the full extent of alcholism's effects. You never see people losing their jobs because of their smoking addiction - people actually end up homeless because of alcohol.
  
  
  
  There are 29 states which allow underage drinking under parental consent:
  http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591
  
  
  

  
  
  people don't lose their jobs from smoking because employers allow smoke breaks
  people lose their jobs from alcoholism because they either comes to work drunk or have a bad hangover to the point where they don't get out of bed or give horrible customer service
  
  if employers didn't give smoke breaks, they would sneak out to smoke and get fired
  
  also, yes, I was struggling with early alcoholism, but with the right therapy and a supportive family, I was able to kick it within a few months
  cravings like to sneak up on you, though
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-05-17 18:14

  Quote from Hanna;1090656:

  people don't lose their jobs from smoking because employers allow smoke breaks
  people lose their jobs from alcoholism because they either comes to work drunk or have a bad hangover to the point where they don't get out of bed or give horrible customer service
  [...]
  I was able to kick it within a few months

  
  Basically you're saying that smoking is tolerable for the boss because it doesn't severely deteriorate your job performance, unlike alcohol. That is one point for Valkyrio.
  
  I wouldn't call that easy to get out of if it took you several months with help to get out of even a light alcoholism, as you put it. And the craving still persists regardless!
• Kyishi wrote on 2013-05-19 05:54
  and thank god for that.
  you think i want more retarded 18 y/os driving around drunk? lolnty.
• Hanna wrote on 2013-05-21 17:31

  Quote from Kyishi;1091706:

  and thank god for that.
  you think i want more retarded 18 y/os driving around drunk? lolnty.

  
  
  what is reading, i dont even