Should the drinking age in Scotland be raised to 21?

Poll to be attached


There's been talk here for a while about the drinking age being raised to 21. I don't exactly see what it will solve because if you try hard enough, you can always get alcohol.

Thoughts?

 

No.

All that will do is cause 18 to 21 year olds to be back on the streets drinking, instead of them being in pubs/clubs.

It will cause far more problems and solve no problems at all.

 

dont think it would make a diffrence tbh,if youngsters want to get a drink they will. where theres a will theres a way and all that..........

 

pointless and im definetely against it i cant wait till im 18 to be able to go to a pub and get a few pints with my mates. if it gets put up to 21 then it means ill have alot longer to wait and therefore be more tempted to either go to an empty house or out in the street drinkin bottles ae wine or MD, more trouble there rather than having the simple pub choice or dancin if you ask me

 

Ridiculous idea. So you can go out to Afghanistan and get your * legs blown off but when you come home you can't have a pint?

 

I'll say no. As Andy says it would create a whole new group of underage drinkers who are out on the streets. I can understand though that it would maybe make it a bit more difficult for 15/16 year olds to buy booze for themselves.

Overall though I think in Britain we have a national sickness in the way we consume alcohol and something needs to be done about it.

 

i think there is an alcohol problem in britain but this is not the way to fix it, it would be ridiculous that would mean you could

smoke
have *
get married
have children
drive
vote
join the armed forces

but couldnt have a drink?

 

True. They could start by enforcing the exising legislation properly before bringing in all new laws.

But like most stuff like this that would require money spent on extra policing, so they'd rather go for the cheaper option of headline grabbing stunts.

 

My thoughts exactly. But like people have said, I don't think that raising the legal drinking age would solve anything.

I don't know anything that could solve our nationwide problem however, apart from making alcohol considerably more expensive.

 

It's a very complex question, and I don't honestly expect to see us solving the problem.

The simplest way I can put it is to say that we need to work out why we have to get out of our heads so often. What is so bad 'in' our heads that we need to get out of it so often?

There are issues about self-esteem, addiction, substance abuse, social class etc etc

 

No. People will drink anyway. Why make more criminals?

 

Me being in auto pilot i voted yes before reading the thread, as i definitely think something has to be done about the scourge of our society that is binge drinking. But it took me till the second post, Andy's, to change my mind. Never thought of it that way that 18-21 year old's would be still on the streets. * disaster waiting to happen.

I do hate the way society dictates that young people should be out every weekend getting blotto if they want to have fun. Your right Martin it is a sickness, and the scary thing is people, Glaswegians especially, are proud of the image they have. You just have to look at the ned culture that it's spawned to see that it's no * laughing matter.

 

I blame the weather.

 

Perhaps teaching about the dangers of alcohol more thoroughly and earlier in schools would be a start? I don't mean scaremongering, just a blunt view of what can happen when you drink too much.

 

I think there is something in that. In the countries further North, where there is a shortage of day light, they do abuse the booze and there is a higher rate of suicide.

So I think it is a facet of the problem.

 

No

took long enough to turn 18 never mind waiting till 21 now lol.

 

Another thing that I should mention is that laws are being passed so that supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda will no longer be able to do ridiculously cheap deals on alcohol by October this year. The minimum price for a unit of alcohol will be raised to stop this happening.

 

* that, Im 19 and the pub is the place to be, I hated street drinking as it was cold and full of neds.

 

Does anyone think the mainland Europe system (I know Holland and Germany do this) of allowing 16 & 17 year olds to buy alcohol that is 5% and under (beer for example) would help at all? Some people argue that it teaches responsible drinking.