Smoking age IS rising

A drinking age of 21 would be nothing less than unfair. I'm 20. There is no way that I'd call it justified for me to be banned from drinking and it would make me so angry, just because there are ****** drinking too much and fighting, why should I have to suffer :rolleyes: Really, that would be pathetic and make me so angry.

{removed this bit, flubbled up the figures and gotta get some work done...}
 
Last edited:
One More Solo said:
Raising the drinking age to 21 is an appalling idea and I mean that in the fullest sense of the word.
Click to expand...
OMS why do you say that, as a personal reason? Just interested in the reasoning behind it.

I was out drinking in pubs when I was *just* 16, that was over twenty years ago and the world was a vastly different place.
 
furnace said:
So over 10 years the government would have lost £56.7 billion in tax?! It seems so much money but I'm sure I've worked that out correctly..?
Click to expand...

£567m is £0.567bn, so almost £6bn over the 10yrs ;)

edit: Also remember that there'll be a bigger gap in the tax - NHS cost difference when the current generation of smokers are still being treated for lung cancer and other such stuff brought upon themselves, but spending less on tobacco (and therefore also less tax) to pay for their treatment.
 
Last edited:
Phil99 said:
£567m is £0.567bn, so almost £6bn over the 10yrs ;)

edit: Also remember that there'll be a bigger gap in the tax - NHS cost difference when the current generation of smokers are still being treated for lung cancer and other such stuff brought upon themselves, but spending less on tobacco (and therefore also less tax) to pay for their treatment.
Click to expand...

I'm sure a billion in the UK is now an "american billion", e.g. 100,000,000 = 1 billion, not 1,000,000,000 = 1 billion... :confused: I think there was a thread about that (a long time ago)?
 
Phil99 said:
A billion is either a thousand millions or a million millions. The most common nowadays is 1'000'000'000 :)
Click to expand...

tsch that makes me a bit of a 'tard then :p i got rid of my figures, can't be bothered to re-figure it out but I'm sure there'd still be a big loss in tax if I did
 
Last edited:
Read this somewhere but didn't think it was real!

They don't need to raise the drinking limit to 21, absolutely pointless. What they need to do is ID everyone who looks under 21 or even higher.
I would rather still get asked for ID when I am 25 than have all the 16 year olds who look 18/19 getting into clubs and buying drink from the off license round the corner.

One reason why I am personally for ID cards.
 
There's really no reason for the age to be 16. Making it 18 brings it into line with most other countries and with alcohol in this country.
 
tsinc80697 said:
Read this somewhere but didn't think it was real!

They don't need to raise the drinking limit to 21, absolutely pointless. What they need to do is ID everyone who looks under 21 or even higher.
I would rather still get asked for ID when I am 25 than have all the 16 year olds who look 18/19 getting into clubs and buying drink from the off license round the corner.

One reason why I am personally for ID cards.
Click to expand...

I agree, although I don't agree with ID cards (big fat waste of money IMHO), there are plenty of valid forms of ID people can get already (like a driving licence, even if it's just a provisional). Being ID'd is fine with me.
 
riddlermarc said:
OMS why do you say that, as a personal reason? Just interested in the reasoning behind it.

I was out drinking in pubs when I was *just* 16, that was over twenty years ago and the world was a vastly different place.
Click to expand...

Having spent 2 months in the States as an under 21 this year I met plenty of people my own age and the impact the drinking age there has is quite incredible really. The 18-21 age group is placed in a really awkward position, since they are getting to a stage where they are looking for proper freedom and independence, but they aren't able to attain it because the "adult world" is still very much out of reach until they become 21. As a result of this, those under 21 are still viewed very much as children and seem to be given the same amount of freedom.

This is not a problem until the reins are loosed; exampl e, I came across a group of college kids I was staying with in New York, all 19 or 20. Their average evening's entertainment would be running round the corridors like 13 year olds chasing each other and being generally manic like they'd been given too many sodding E numbers. Obviously there are exceptions, but by putting things out of reach to people when they are hitting the stage of their lives when they should be taking full responsibility for themselves ends up stunting their emotional growth.Society can't nanny people as it creates as many problems as it solves and people have to realise it's a culture thing rather than a matter of freedoms.

In any case, binge drinking among teenagers and young adults in America is worse than more or less all of Europe apart from the UK (obviously), except it has become a more underground phenomenon and there are plenty of commentators that argue a reduction in the drinking age would help control the rising problem by taking it back into licensed establishments. Thus it seems the drinking age has nothing to do with levels of alcohol consumption as the nations with the lowest drinking ages almost always tally with the lowest levels of binge drinking.

Furthermore, the short-term problems affecting city centres that are so often associated with binge drinking (in particular drunken assaults and general disorder) are almost uniquely attributed to over 21s in my experience and this is suggested by statistics.

Taken from a study on victims of alcohol related facial injuries admitted to A&E (Hutchinson, I.L., Magennis, P., Shepherd, J.P. and Brown, A.E. (1998) ‘BAOMs United Kingdom Survey of Facial Injuries, Pt. 1: Aetiology and the Association with Alcohol Consumption’, British Journal of Maxillofacial Surgery, Vol. 36, pp 3-13.) found that 24% of injuries sustained were attributed to assault and that "the mean age of all patients was 25.3 years, of males 23.2 years, and of females 29.8 years" which seems to suggest that alcohol violence is a more common occurence among over 21s hence raising the drinking age would have little impact in this area also.

Ultimately, my personal believe is that a raise in the drinking age would leave the country worse off and that our alcohol problems stem more from cultural factors than legal ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom