News article today suggests young Australians might be better off if the drinking age was raised to 21 (like in the U.S.).

Normally, I oppose the Americanization of Australia, but on this point, I agree.

I have never understood why young people are handed keys to cars and the right to make adult decisions around about the same time as they are granted permission to drink alcohol and, potentially, screw up... and while their brains are still developing.

What do other BE's think about this? Would young Australians be better off if the legal drinking age was raised to 21?

I don't know about drinking, but I would like to see the driving age increased.

I don't think it would make any difference. there's a huge binge drinking problem among teenagers, agreed, but an awful lot of them are under 18 anyway!
Legislating, within Australian culture, will do no more except make more youngsters drink in secret, behind the backs of their parents etc. Far better to educate them and teach them to view alcohol responsibly.

I also fail to see really why they should be able to get married, vote, smoke etc yet not be able to drink.

I'm staying out of the driving discussion cos I don't drive!

no

I agree. It always amazed me that kids in America can drive, get married, vote, smoke and join the military at 18 but they can't have a drink for another 3 years.

In Canada the drinking age is 19, but really North America doesn't have near the drinking culture I've seen here or what I'm told is in UK. I think especially in Canada teens are much more into marijuana than drinking. Maybe it's because the sale of alcohol is much more regulated? I don't know. What I do know is that drinking in Australia is much more accepted than in North America.

People should 100% be able to drink alocohol before they can get married or join the army.

That's currently not the case and to try and widen the difference is just quite frankly ridiculous.

Drinking age should be reduced to 16 and more strictly enforced.

should raise to 31

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Since when has a drinking age ever stopped someone drinking? You'll be telling me next that the anti-drug laws have stopped hash use.

Rather than raising the drinking age, Australian needs to raise the smarts and maturity of it's teenagers. Get them past the child>adult stage of being young, dumb and peer-obsessed as quickly as possible.

I actually think that explicit support and rights of passage help in this - don't just expect it to be a stage they eventually get over - help them past it.

For one, make the minimum driving age dependent on the maturity of the individual - the more moronic they are, the later they are allowed to learn to drive. Anything easily checkable and desired. Give a range 15-23 - when you are considered an adult is determined by your maturity, and those who aren't don't get certain privileges (you aren't a man/woman, you are still a child).

Leave the drinking age as is, but tighten up on drinking/drunken behaviour in public, and find some way to deglamourise it. Young people need to be able to hve the mentality to go out to have a good time, rather than go out to get drunk. Shots should be banned, as should alcopops.

I believe it's 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec?

Judging by what happened when they banned public drinking and the subsiquennt rioting that took place in sydney… I doubt they'd try.

No.

That's an interesting point. But then I think it's sad that people would get married or end up in a war at 18.

Wouldn't make any difference all. Any drinking problems are cultural not because of the legal age.

I think you misunderstand the point of laws in a "free" democratic society. They are designed to control the populous not be enforced with total absolution.

I would highly doubt that lawmakers or law enforcers would that obtuse to not know that there will always be an element of society that will deliberately disregard the law… But with adequate laws in place it allows the enforcers to keep things on a "civilised" level. Trying to restrict and or control the level of drug use in a society could hardly be argued to be a ridiculous endeavour.

Under the same premiss of what you're saying here do you thing laws designed to combat homicide should be repealed because they haven't succeeded in stopping the killings? Or how about gun laws… especially when you consider the homicide rate in Australia has stayed relatively level from before and after gun control laws were introduced.

Many people think anti-suicide laws are a complete waste of time and just plain stupid simply because you can't prosecute a dead person after the fact… But they misunderstand the point of them… They're there for a civilised society to make a statement that they are against suicide, and rightly so. Same as age of consent laws - I don't think you'd have the guts to argue that the age of consent should be reduced to 12 simply because there is an element of society that is having sex at that age...