Legal drinking age.

whadabouchasir

With the Junior Cert results coming out son and all of the underage drinking that will follow I was wondering if 18 is a suitable legal age to drink at?
I do drink myself but I didn't drink before I was 18,and I'd agree that 18 is a fairly suitable age.What do ye think?

Chuchoter

Well then you were highly unusual.
I vote 16 years old, however make alcohol prohibitively expensive for teens.

crayolastereo

crayolastereo wrote: »

Well then you were highly unusual.
I vote 16 years old, however make alcohol prohibitively expensive for teens.

They're way ahead of you on that one.

Jamie Starr

Once you're 18, you're an adult, so it is a suitable age law-wise. I'm not into drinking very much but even I drank before I was 18. Under-age drinking is widespread, but I think way too much is made of it. It's not 15 year olds that are drunk drivers, or throwing house-parties that mess up my sleep- they're just people who are growing up, and getting absolutely sloshed on a night out is really the only definition of growing up in Ireland presently.

amacachi

18 is a fine place to have the limit at. Sure everyone does it earlier but that'll happen whatever point the limit is set at barring a massive increase in enforcement which isn't really what's needed.

Piste

I agree with 18, your body hasn't matured sufficiently to handle alcohol when you're younger. Not that it magically becomes able to handle loads of pints on your 18th birthday either. That said, I drank well underage, it's much easier to agree with the legal drinking age in hindsight, now that I can buy drink!

MavisDavis

18 is a good age. 16 is too young (yes, I know people do it anyway!) and 21 is ridiculously old (in relation to this :P).

sock puppet

I think it should be staggered. 16-17 for beers and wines, 19 for spirits.

coffee_cake

I think light drinks should be fine younger at home, and stagger it
Sometimes wonder if trying to let them grow out of it when younger would work

soccymonster

16 :P (but im biased sooo...)

EverybodyLies

Well, people are going to drink anyway, regardless of their age. Maybe it should be legal to drink at like 16 in private and 18 in public.

sock puppet

Actually a better idea would be some kind of learner permit once your 17 like with driving. When you do your test for your full drinking license you're allowed a couple of minor faults such as spilling vodka all over your bed while sneakily pouring it into a coke bottle away from your parents. More serious errors like drinking wkd would lead to an automatic fail.

soccymonster

EverybodyLies wrote: »

Well, people are going to drink anyway, regardless of their age. Maybe it should be legal to drink at like 16 in private and 18 in public.

Isn't it that way anyways?
Like at 16, aren't you able to drink in the household under your parents consent?
I'm open to correction here.

I would consider myself quite mature, but I was definitely not mature enough to be drinking at 16/17, and I doubt many others are.

mahamageehad

Deleted User wrote: »

They're way ahead of you on that one.

I'm in germany and I bought a 700ml bottle of vodka, 1.5lt sprite and 1lt miwadi the other night for ...... less than €8!!! I kid you not!!!

sock puppet wrote: »

I think it should be staggered. 16-17 for beers and wines, 19 for spirits.

i agree that it should be staggered. beers and wines at 17 or 18, spirits at 21. And before people complain that you can't change the system, here in Germany the drinking age used to be 16 and now it's 18.

EverybodyLies wrote: »

Well, people are going to drink anyway, regardless of their age. Maybe it should be legal to drink at like 16 in private and 18 in public.

no this I don't agree with because you have to think of the fall off ratio. It's ok to drink at 18 so most people start drinking at 16. If it was ok to drink at 16, even in private a lot of people would start drinking at 14. That's just life.

ciano1

Theres no actual ''Legal drinking age'' afaik
It's just 18 to buy drink and drink in public places.

Correct me if im wrong though

Wolfe Tone

18 in legal terms is grand. In real terms that means around 16, at least thats when I started.

Lower it and you will have people even younger again drinking.

mahamageehad

soccymonster wrote: »

Isn't it that way anyways?
Like at 16, aren't you able to drink in the household under your parents consent?
I'm open to correction here.

Nope sorry!!

"Unless you are at least 18 years old it is illegal to buy, attempt to buy or consume alcohol in Ireland. It is also illegal to obtain alcohol for anybody below the minimum age."

there is a system like that in France though, you can drink with meals from 16 in public or private under your parents supervision

EverybodyLies

soccymonster wrote: »

Isn't it that way anyways?
Like at 16, aren't you able to drink in the household under your parents consent?
I'm open to correction here.

I have no idea. I wouldn't drinking with my parents though. Bit strange.

mahamageehad

mahamageehad wrote: »

I'm in germany and I bought a 700ml bottle of vodka, 1.5lt sprite and 1lt miwadi the other night for ...... less than €8!!! I kid you not!!!

Ho ho sounds like a good night. Hmm, Germany, you say... :pac:

EuropeanSon

I think 17 would be perfect. :P

soccymonster

mahamageehad wrote: »

Nope sorry!!

"Unless you are at least 18 years old it is illegal to buy, attempt to buy or consume alcohol in Ireland. It is also illegal to obtain alcohol for anybody below the minimum age."

there is a system like that in France though, you can drink with meals from 16 in public or private under your parents supervision

Aaahh, that's probably it.
I'm sure it was in place in Ireland though... Maybe not.

illiop

mahamageehad wrote: »

Nope sorry!!

"Unless you are at least 18 years old it is illegal to buy, attempt to buy or consume alcohol in Ireland. It is also illegal to obtain alcohol for anybody below the minimum age."

there is a system like that in France though, you can drink with meals from 16 in public or private under your parents supervision

No it's only illegal to buy alcohol when you're under 18 (or to buy/sell it for someone under 18) you can drink it all you like at home as long as your parent consent.
From Citizensinformation.ie

It is an offence to buy alcohol for people under the age of 18. It is also an offence to give alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 unless in a domestic home and they have parental consent. If found guilty of any of these offences, you could be liable on summary conviction in a District Court to a fine of €3,000 for a first offence and €5,000 for a second or any subsequent offence.

As for my opinion, I think it should be staggered, Beer/Cider/Alcopops 16 or 17 and Spirits 18...not sure where I'd put wine though! I think the most important thing is to make it a normal thing though. I never really got the whole "lets get shítfaced" thing...I do it now but at 14/15 when my friends were starting it didn't make any sense. I could have a glass of wine with dinner at home from about 10...even younger if we were on holidays (a small,, possibly watered one) but I didn't really think it even tasted nice and I couldn't see the fascination.

21 is way to old. Even if it wasn't adding an extra element of "oh my god I'm a fúcking rebel" to it, as long as it's not an illegal subtance any adult should have the right to decide what goes in their body. Otherwise it's just plain ageism.

Pygmalion

Intoxicating Liquor Act (2003).

There's some amendments made and stuff in a new 2008 one but said amendments aren't easily readable by mere mortals (read: me) :P, and it's apparently 99% the same tbh.

EDIT: Oh sections 13 to 15 are the relevant parts, in case anyone was skipping the index and just reading through it for some weird reason

Ginja Ninja

to be fair it's more of a guideline than a law, I've been drinking [realistically] since I was 13/14 by the end of first year /start of second year.Alchomahol has always been a bit of a thing with me though,now I don't drink damn all[6 cans of kopparberg only because it's nom] is about my max on a night.Saying that we ended up being hard drinkers by 15/16 [screw vodka we had poteen] and it was because of the local culture,if you weren't a p*sshead ther was nothing

Legally it should be higher in Ireland as we have an unsafe relationship with drink, but in practice it really doesn't matter

P.s:yes,I was a serious scumbag back in the day

Sentineil

As it is 18 is too young to be drinking. Everyone likes to think they're fully matured at 16 and once they hit 18 they're a bona fide adult, when realistically you're still far from.

As you get older you realise just how immature and clueless you really were.

Even just examining the drinkers culture should tell you that at 18 you're too young.

Most people above 35 drink a few pints and call it a night.

Most below 25 would struggle to find their way home after a "good" night. Does that sound mature and responsible to you?
I'm getting sick of facebook status's like "My knees are cut, I lost my phone and ripped my jeans, awesome night!".

Alcohol is a drug and a poison that would be outright banned were it to be introduced in todays age, yet because it's so ingrained on our culture it's let flow.

My opinion seems to be coming off a bit stronger here than I really feel, bit it gets the point across.

whadabouchasir

Sentineil wrote: »

Even just examining the drinkers culture should tell you that at 18 you're too young.

But you can do pretty much everything else at 18 so why shouldn't you be allowed to drink?I don't think that there's much of a maturity difference between a 21 year old and an 18 year old as there is between an 18 and 16 year old.

Sentineil wrote: »

Most people above 35 drink a few pints and call it a night.

I was on the bus wednesday and there was a man sitting across from me that was in his 60's who took out a baby Whiskey and downed it.This was at about 6 in the evening.when I got off the bus there was a Man,mid 40's I'd say,drinking a can of Devils Bit as he walked past the bus.Does this sound mature and responsible to you?

Sentineil wrote: »

Most below 25 would struggle to find their way home after a "good" night. Does that sound mature and responsible to you?
I'm getting sick of facebook status's like "My knees are cut, I lost my phone and ripped my jeans, awesome night!".

I went out that wednesday night,can remeber the whole night and had absolutely no hangover.One of my friends that was out got up for a lecture at 9 the next morning and another got up for a lecture at 10.Does this sound mature and responsible to you?

The moral of the story from last Wednesday,If you're not mature and responsible at 18 you probably never will be.

Sentineil

But you can do pretty much everything else at 18 so why shouldn't you be allowed to drink?I don't think that there's much of a maturity difference between a 21 year old and an 18 year old as there is between an 18 and 16 year old.

There is a huge difference between a 21 year old and an 18 year old, at least from my experience anyway.
Even just looking at my own group of friends, we're all pretty far from where we were at 18.

At 18 I was care free and made a lot of poor decisions. At the time, I wasn't mature enough to understand the true consequences of what I was doing. Now, I'm a planner and relatively responsible.

I was on the bus wednesday and there was a man sitting across from me that was in his 60's who took out a baby Whiskey and downed it.This was at about 6 in the evening.when I got off the bus there was a Man,mid 40's I'd say,drinking a can of Devils Bit as he walked past the bus.Does this sound mature and responsible to you?

Right, and I walked to the shop today and didn't see anyone drunk. Is your anecdote meant to prove a point? There are alcoholics and irresponsible adults, but that doesn't discount the fact that the majority are not.

I went out that wednesday night,can remeber the whole night and had absolutely no hangover.One of my friends that was out got up for a lecture at 9 the next morning and another got up for a lecture at 10.Does this sound mature and responsible to you?

The moral of the story from last Wednesday,If you're not mature and responsible at 18 you probably never will be.

Simply pointing out that there are those who don't drink themselves into comas doesn't derogate from the fact that most do.

If it's acceptable to ask, are you under or over 18?

illiop

Sentineil wrote: »

There is a huge difference between a 21 year old and an 18 year old, at least from my experience anyway.
Even just looking at my own group of friends, we're all pretty far from where we were at 18.

At 18 I was care free and made a lot of poor decisions. At the time, I wasn't mature enough to understand the true consequences of what I was doing. Now, I'm a planner and relatively responsible.

Yes but there isn't enough of a difference. You have to draw the line somewhere. If you ask a 60 year old about what they were like aged 25 or 30, I'm sure they'll tell you they've learnt something since then. There has to be an age when people are deemed responsible enough to do what they feel is best.

If 18 isn't old enough to drink how is 17 old enough (I know nobody said it was, just an example) to drive a car? Is an 18 year old old enough to be trusted with a box of panadol or an aerosol can if they can't even be trusted with a bottle of wine??

While I definatley agree that the Irish have a messed up (but still kinda fun ) relationship with alcohol I can't see how raising the age would help.

Sentineil

illiop wrote: »

Yes but there isn't enough of a difference. You have to draw the line somewhere. If you ask a 60 year old about what they were like aged 25 or 30, I'm sure they'll tell you they've learnt something since then. There has to be an age when people are deemed responsible enough to do what they feel is best.

If 18 isn't old enough to drink how is 17 old enough (I know nobody said it was, just an example) to drive a car? Is an 18 year old old enough to be trusted with a box of panadol or an aerosol can if they can't even be trusted with a bottle of wine??

While I definatley agree that the Irish have a messed up (but still kinda fun ) relationship with alcohol I can't see how raising the age would help.

At 60 your reasoning and logical abilities are no different to when you were 40, whereas when you're 18 you're still going dealing with a shìt tone of hormones, and you're still developing your image. This all has a pretty big impact on your judgement. As you mature, it has less of an effect.

Driving a car and taking panadol are unrelated with alcohol. They don't effect your judgement. Driving a car won't inhibit you in any way. When you take two panadol, do you get the urge to down the packet? Does it make you feel good? No.

NoQuarter

whadabouchasir wrote: »

With the Junior Cert results coming out son and all of the underage drinking that will follow I was wondering if 18 is a suitable legal age to drink at?
I do drink myself but I didn't drink before I was 18,and I'd agree that 18 is a fairly suitable age.What do ye think?

This is completely off topic but the cat in you sig is a mirror image of my cat!!