Some very good points made here, thank you for this great article. I completely agree that the notion to lower the drinking age is selfish and neglects the important purpose of the age 21 law's role of protecting lives.
Drink and drive is quite easy to educate, but it would require severe punishment: death penalty. It is quite simple: if you kill a person will drunk and driving, you will get the death penalty. That would probably make a lot of people think twice before being drunk and then behind the wheel.
The drinking age should remain at 21 and not be lowered. And I disagree with a comment above regarding the death penatly if someone is killed due to a drunk driver, I believe a life sentence would be appropriate. I also believe that if you are arrested for drunk driving it should be a felony and on the first offence you should get 2 years in state prison. I also believe California should follow Israel's example and have a one strike law regarding drinking and driving. If you are caught drinking and driving your drivers license you be revoked permenantly for life, no exceptions.
Though drinking and driving can lead to serious consequences, the death penalty is a bit harsh, and a life sentence would only put additional strain on the already pressured jail/prison system!
One strike law doesn't sound unreasonable - considering, that once is all it takes to ruin someone's life/family. I am not sure if it is 'that easy' to educate - since every high school in the nation already has some program to educate students on the issue. Apparently, educating them by showing the consequences of death to someone else is not enough.
Drug Detox
posted 2/18/09 @ 2:45 AM PST