Poll - What should be done about the drinking age?

[Sentient]

This is my first poll, hope it worked okay.

 

I think staggering the age is the best idea. Then cats can go to gigs and support their scenes, but there would also be much less ruckus and violence from over-indulgence in the local park or Uncle Mike's garage.

 

What choo fulla's and fulla-esses think?

[robyn]

I like the idea of the drinking age having an effect on the drinking habits of teenagers but when I was a young'un (my shameful Kristov phase was in full effect at age 13-14) and the drinking age was 20 it was never a problem at all to get alcohol. I do think it would be a little harsh to up the age for venues to 20 now and cut down the entertainment options for the 18-20 year olds.

 

The whole binge-drinking culture in NZ is so ingrained, and I'm not sure how to go about changing that. I guess it is something that needs to be worked at over a few decades, or possibly generations, before it will change. Maybe then we could be one of those countries where we don't even need a drinking age because people can enjoy a few drinks without having to drink until they puke (and cause extensive liver and stomach damage) every weekend to prove their worth.

 

[mike]

18 makes sense. at that age you can do everything except gamble at sky city.

 

You can vote, join the army, and do EVERYTHING else a normal adult can do... EXCEPT go to the pub for some drinks." Binge drinking is here to stay people - its the fact that while your pissed you do so many stupid illegal things.

 

The real solution is to take all the fuckwits that drive drunk and cause shit while drunk and 'discourage' them from drinking all togeather, Im talking major fuckups here. (anyone for removal of tounges? =)

[perceptualChaos]

Yeah Soldier Girl and Mike have pretty much said what I wanted to say. In Latin American countries they don't have a drinking age because binge drinking is seen as shameful (to the family) in their culture. I don't believe in trying to modify people's behaviour through laws, for one because it doesn't work, secondly and more importantly, it removes people's freedom to chose which is removing the essence of being a human for me.

 

In saying that, binge drinking is indisputably a problem in NZ - and I don't think its about to go away overnight. Maybe the first step is to start by setting a poper role model?! I enjoyed my phase of binge-drinking anyway when I was like 14, and I would have done it no matter what the drinking age was. Yeah so I don't know what to do about it, but I don't believe in raising the drinking age. Even for bottlestores.

 

I'd probably be happier if it were just spirits that had the higher age limit.

[bugsy]

it should be raised back to 20,

I used to work in bars before the age was dropped, and we still used to get 18 year olds in bars but they acted alot more maturely as they felt priveledged to be in a bar. Letting 18 year olds in fresh out of high school is a means for trouble, with no life experience as such. The difference between an 18 year old and a 20 year old is incredible.

Now alot of 18 year olds will disagree with this comment and hell i used to when i was that age, but its true.

 

when the age dropped the clubs etc degraded, now it wasnt just the drinking age that did this but it made up for a lot of it.

 

20 was a responsible age to have it at, I hope it goes back.

 

heh and the funniest thing i remember the night it dropped, was this guy at a bar trying to impress a girl by saying:

"hey you should get a steinlager, but whats really cool is get a shot of baileys in the top, makes it sooooo good"

which i heard, said "Really? let me get that for you"

Made it for him and made him drink it infront of the girl, Im pretty sure he threw up after that

 

kids...

[Merge]

I used to say in response to the age being raised, 'its not the age thats important its the person's maturity towards drinking.. they're always gonna be able to get alcohol if they want it...' and all the other cliche'd one liners. It wasnt til my little sister and all of her mates got into drinking that I realised how much its deteriorated even since I began drinking (I'm nearly 20 now and probably started drinking, in the true sense of the word, at about 16).

I think the fact is, If the age is 20, then 17-18yr olds will be getting drunk. If the age is 18 then the chances of that reaching into the 14-17yr old area is considerably inscreased. The way i figure is quite simply, usually within a group of mates there's at least someone one or two years older to supply the others with booze. Hey, I turned out ok but imo the problematic area is the 14-17yr olds. they're the lil runts igniting so much aggression in the streets at the moment and i think it has a snowball effect, with older kids doing the same simply adjusting to the times. I say knock the liquorstore age up to 20 or even 21 and keep the clubs at 18. that way, If the boozies are still keen to get crunk then at least they get taken to the cleaners wit their money in bars .. MIGHT disuade them from makin it a regular occurence. (doesnt work for me)

[Grind]

Raise it to 20 full stop

 

Get those little fuckers out of my bars

[Christie]

I think NZ's as a whole needs to be taught how to drink

While in Italy I saw so many young people drinking but it wasn't to go out and get plastered, it was to go and have a quiet drink with their friends and they were drinking because they liked the taste of the alcohol

 

Amazing the difference if you are taught to drink

 

When the age changed is when I turned 18 I think there was a cross over of a few months, I got in to bars with my friends (who were much older like late 20's) and there is a huge difference yes still people were drunk etc but there was a bit more maturity and experience behind these people.

 

In saying that I know people who are 18 and younger who are more mature then lot's of 20 year olds

 

What I find scary is how young people are trying to sneak in to clubs I went to town once and a girl asked if I could vouch for her to get in to a club I asked how old she really was and she was 14, No I didn't vouch for her I told her to go home. (Yes I am a grumpy old fart, But I was ten years older then her!!!!)

 

I do think that 18+ should be allowed to get in to bars and clubs, maybe they should have a restriction on how many drinks they can buy (but how do you manage that)

 

But not be able to buy in alcohol shops.

It's really hard to say because as I said before I know plenty of 18 and below that are really mature and don't give the rest a bad name they just want to go out and have a dance and a good time.

 

Okay so my final word I think would be 20 for buying from alcohol stores your friends can still get under agers drinks but it might make it harder for them to get so boozed before hand

18+ in clubs

And more under age clubs for the much younger ones

phew

[Dold]

yep, I think they should be focusing more on the advertising and marketing of the drink rather than putting the age back up. Its the whole image of drinking which we in NZ have been bought up on which needs to be changed. But hey, I'm 19 so of course i don't want it going up.

 

And actually, whats the deal if it does go up? Are people who were already 18 and drinking allowed to continue? Like is there a cutt off for them? Because thatl eat shit being able to be out all this time and then being told i can't...

 

:umb:

[loulou88]

I reckon the drinking age should stay the same, as i'm 19 as well it would be wrong for it to go back up to 20 and for me to not be allowed to go to clubs anymore. But in saying this back when i was 15 it was easy enough to get into clubs anyway using my older sisters id even though i look nothing at all look her we don't even have the same colour hair and alot of people i know got away with this too. I dont think raising the age back up will make much of a difference there will just be a hell of alot more underages trying to sneak in or using fake ids for clubs and alcohol stores.

[Known One]

Sorry to Hijack the thread...

 

But on a related matter I think we should consider gradually incrementing the smoking age each year.... so increase the smoking age to 19... then next year to 20 then 21 etc until it's ridiculously high.

 

decriminalize buds too, maybe less people will be binge drinking as a side effect.

 

And I think that people should download Firefox 2... it does spell checking and my posts just became more legible.

[Pakage]

i rekkon they should make clubs r20 for guys, but keep it r18 for the girlys

:skullslay:

[Guest]

making it 20 again will do nothing to the problem. its not as if any of the kids will just give up on the idea of drinking just cause its gone up to 20. and plenty of over 20 yr olds abuse themselfs by drinking fuck loads. dont blame everything on the kids.its nz as a whole. i cant stand the idea that i wont be able to enjoy a nice cool beer and go to dnb gigs!! fuck that shit!!

[Guest]

Raise it to 20 full stop

 

Get those little fuckers out of my bars

 

so what magical thing happens when you turn 20?

 

no law is gonna change anything! weed is illegal, we still smoke it.

[Guest]

we live in a binge society. binge-ing=profit. its not just the alcohol.

they dont want anything to change..

and whatever the problem is, its nothing compared to the problems of our world. fiddling with the laws is useless.

[Pakage]

Aprha on the rampage

 

all i know is that they should KEEP IT R18 FOR TEH GIRLIES!

 

they can make it R21 for the dudes for all i care.. haha

[Dold]

Good luck with that pakage :hsboink:

[Pakage]

yeah.. im not too hopefull.. but i think it would still be worth mentioning.. you know, like, because girls mature ealier than guys and stuff. thats why i think they should do it

[Dold]

oh, yeah, for sure man, what other reason would there be??

[Christie]

thats why i think they should do it

ha ha funny

 

It's true though

 

but the only way the will solve this problem is if you look at each person and say yes you are responsible you can drink

 

hell I have days where I shouldn't be able to drink I go out of control and I am much older then the drinking age!

 

I know people my parents age that go out of control

 

we all need to be taught to drink

[Nato]

thats why i think they should do it

ha ha funny

 

It's true though

No its not, because of all the media attention this is getting I've heard over and over again that they are suprised by the fact that one of the biggest problems about NZ drinking is female binge drinking!!! Classic, and so true.

[Known One]

so whats the problem again?

 

People getting too drunk? or ppl like grind don't like young'ns around? People getting violent? 18yo girleys drink too much and turning into sluts? (alllllllriiiiiiight.... giggidy) ppl drink driving?

 

The solution is as obvious in the thread as it seems to be in parliament, we all have a mass-debait *snicker* about it, coming up to a consensus that something needs to change... perhaps all begrudgingly agree on something to do perhaps... that doesn't work apparently and in a few years do it again?

 

Perhaps some of you that want to reduce the age limit forgot (too much binging perhaps?) what it's like to be that age and how much fun you had getting fucked up with your mates and behaving like an idiot... would you go back and hope that it was different and the law prohibited you more?

 

Perhaps we'd spend less money on stop signs, policing, medical care and funerals.... but ffs getting drunk can be fun and what better time to abuse it then when you don't have the responcibilities that would otherwise hinder your efforts

[Grind]

Yeah there's no doubt NZ society has a binge-drinking culture ingrained into it which goes back to times way before any of us were born. The 6 o'clock swill, they used to call it. To change this mindset would take not only a couple of decades of hard-core advertising and PR (read: propaganda) but ALSO immediate regulatory control (read: making it harder for young people to acquire liquor, asap)

 

NZ seems to have this retarded underbelly that lurks beneath all the good folk such as ourselves- which is also why we can't even handle having fireworks (in Europe, both booze and fireworks are available at a young age yet they don't seem to have big problems with either)

 

There are strong arguements for making retail booze R20, and bar entry to remain R18 (more controlled environment, although that's debatable imo)

 

The bar / club scene in NZ has suffered majorly over the past 10 years

 

Bring back the house parties I say

 

[Christie]

thats why i think they should do it

ha ha funny

 

It's true though

No its not, because of all the media attention this is getting I've heard over and over again that they are suprised by the fact that one of the biggest problems about NZ drinking is female binge drinking!!! Classic, and so true.

 

I haven't heard that but I wouldn't be surprised I have seen lots of very young drunk girls out

 

But then again I have seen just as many guys

so it's a problem over all

 

how about this..... we ban all drinking for all of new Zealand?

That will stop all this bitching all there would be no problem at all!

 

ha ha can't believe I said that ( and I am sure those of you that knwo me think that as well)

there isn't going to be an easy way to fix this problem

[perceptualChaos]

I don't even agree that girls in the 17-21 bracket mature faster.

Edited November 7, 2006 by Guest