OP couldn't have driven drunk, there wasn't a car at her disposal with which to do so. She got a ride to the party...

In this case, that's very accurate.

Thank you, Red Foreman.

For some reason I read that in a southern accent.

I disagree with you. Underage drinking is illegal. It can not only destroy your body and your mind, but drinking can kill if you consume too much at one time. The laws are in place for a reason. They are trying to protect us because teenagers most likely won't make the best decision. I'm 17 and have never seen the fun in drinking. You act like a fool or get angry, just to wake up with a headache and not remember half of it. Glass of wine with dinner when you're a responsible adult? Whatever. But going to parties isn't responsible. Getting wasted isn't responsible. A teen getting drunk isn't being responsible. OP deserves this for being an immature idiot. There are other ways to have fun.

Your entire argument is that we need to be lenient on OP because YOU also drank underage but didn't get into trouble? Am I understanding you correctly? There's a difference between being judgmental and calling it like we see it. Calling someone a ******* imbecile because he did something really ******* stupid is NOT being judgmental.

Seems like a lot of minors don't realize that drinking alcohol before you're 21 is dangerous to your undeveloped brain. In fact, the age 21 was picked, because at that age the brain is nearly finished with the last stage of development for most people; it is very irresponsible to yourself to drink at an early age. Also, it's "opposed".

I think that in many countries the rules about alcohol are too harsh. Yes, it's bad for your body to drink if you're underage - also if you're an adult, though, but I've read somewhere that alcoholism is a bigger problem in countries (I believed England was mentioned) where you have to be 18 or even a friggin' 21 to drink than in those where you can be a minor. It's sad that people like OP exist, they are the reason that the responsible teens (yes, those exist!) are punished too. I don't like beer and I rarely drink alcohol, but I do believe that some (underage people) enjoy drinking a beer with their friends.

43- A friend of mine moved to America to go to high school a couple years ago. She came from Italy, where she says the drinking age is completely ignored. She hated that. It drove her nuts that her friends were drinking and sleeping around at such a young age. Die hard partiers should not be 13, maybe 14 years old! They are slowly destroying themselves. They aren't just standing around drinking one beer. Maybe alcoholism is high, in America at least, because it's glamourized too much.

Very well said, #37.

I agree with 43 that the drinking age in America doesn't make sense. It's ridiculous that people in the States can be arrested for having a drink when they're twenty ******* years old. Meanwhile in Denmark you can legally drink when you're 16. An everyone's like, "oh it's okay for those 16 year olds to drink because it's legal there." Why does the fact that it's legal make a difference, they're still the same age!

110- I would be interested to know where you live and what the law is there. But all the different laws in different places don't even matter when you think about it. Their brain isn't done developing and all they're doing in harming themselves. A sixteen year old shouldn't even be worrying or thinking about drinking. People should be able to find other ways to entertain themselves. Read a book, go shopping with your friends, spent time playing a game with your family. Not to be rude, but you sound extremely immature to me. A mature person is able to look at the reality of a situation, and that's not what you're doing.

110- I would be interested to know where you live and what the law is there. But all the different laws in different places don't even matter when you think about it. Their brain isn't done developing and all they're doing in harming themselves. A sixteen year old shouldn't even be worrying or thinking about drinking. People should be able to find other ways to entertain themselves. Read a book, go shopping with your friends, spent time playing a game with your family. Not to be rude, but you sound extremely immature to me. A mature person is able to look at the reality of a situation, and that's not what you're doing.

110- I would be interested to know where you live and what the law is there. But all the different laws in different places don't even matter when you think about it. Their brain isn't done developing and all they're doing in harming themselves. A sixteen year old shouldn't even be worrying or thinking about drinking. People should be able to find other ways to entertain themselves. Read a book, go shopping with your friends, spent time playing a game with your family. Not to be rude, but you sound extremely immature to me. A mature person is able to look at the reality of a situation, and that's not what you're doing.

Underage drinking is forbidden because alcohol is extremely harmful to underage and underage are less likely to have enough knowledge to understand that. Until your body stops developing (which is around your twenties), drinking isn't a good idea. As for "judgemental"... OP presented incomplete information and people "fill the gaps" themselves, based on their life experience. Resulting "picture" might be far from reality.

Sorry about it posting three times. I don't know why it did that.

The legal age in my province is 18, most people drink for the first time at around 15. I honestly don't see what the big deal is if people are being responsible. I know lots of people in the 16-18 range who will have 4-5 drinks and then just sleep over at that persons house or walk home. I know people in their 20's and 30's who will drink 15 beers and then get behind the wheel of a car. A person's age is not a good indication of how mature and responsible they are. I guess I have kind of a personal beef with the American drinking laws, since I went on vacation there this summer and was not allowed to drink even though I was perfectly legal in my own country.

144- I agree that age doesn't indicate maturity, but it does determine development. Like I said above more then once, alcohol will destroy the body. If a teen is actually being responsible, then they can see that the responsible and smart thing to do is wait until they can do it legally. Braking the law is not mature. I'm sorry if I am coming off as rude, but I am very passionate about this because we had a girl at my school kill herself last year because of underage drinking.

You won't get brain damage if you have a couple drinks before you turn 21. If you're binge drinking or something I could see it, but that's also harmful to adults. You seem to think that any amount of alcohol before you're 21 will hurt you, but that's not the case. I drank 3 times before I turned 18, and I've been drunk many times since then. I aced all my first year university courses (my GPA was 4.3) and I'm currently studying pharmacy. I think my brain is developing just fine thank you.

I'm not saying you're stupid, but the effects of alcohol ARE worse for teens. Brain damage, liver damage, ect. Have you ever seen the brain scan of a drinker and non drinker compaired side by side? It's obvoius how much damage it does. Lets not mention that the younger you are, the more likely you'll get addicted. A person can be smart and lack any sense of responsibility. It's not America's fault that you didn't research our drinking laws before coming here. We have them for a reason. I, personally, think that drinking underage is irresponsible, immature, damaging, and all around a bad idea. We have a big drinking problem in my area and it makes no sense that none of of my classmates can find other things to do. You can believe what you want, but I have seen pleanty of people fall because of drinking, been hurt by more then one death. Is it cool now?

"Die hard partiers should not be 13, maybe 14 years old!" And I completely agree. But it's not because the people she knew were slutty alcoholics, that every minor is incapable to drink a beer once in a while. I'm also merely focussing on the 16/18-year olds, but hey, I drank my first beer when I was fourteen (and we're talking about real Belgian beer, not some American piss), it tasted horrible, like water mixed with oat, and I've never dronk beer again.

Seriously you guys? You're saying it's okay to break the law. You're saying that having a couple hours of 'fun', where you most likely make yourself look stupid, end up with a killer headache, and don't remember it later, is more important then your health. Is a buzz worth slowly dying for? Possible ruined relationships? Possible death? I, at least, don't think so.

maimengming have you ever actually been drunk before or are you basing all your information on what you learned in health class? If you pace yourself and don't drink more than you can handle you won't do anything stupid, you won't black out, and you sure as hell won't kill yourself. Also, have you EVER done anything illegal before? Drove over the speed limit? Jay walked? Anything? Because if you have, you're being very hypocritical right now.

A girl my age killed herself last year. My cousin was killed by a young drunk driver. My sister and her fiances relationship was almost destroyed because he started getting addicted. Luckily he got help. I don't drink because I know the repercussions. I'm sorry that you guys couldn't wait a couple years. All that does is show a lack or responsibilty, maturity, and the ability to entertain yourself. Just because you two did it does NOT in ANY WAY mean it's the right or moral thing to do. To be honest, I am ashamed of you. And for the record, I don't break the law. I do the best I can to be a model citizen.

That girl didn't kill herself just because she was drunk, she obviously had some other underlying issues. Correlation does not equal causation. The same goes for the drunk driver that killed your cousin. It was the driver's fault for getting behind the wheel when they knew they were intoxicated. You can't blame alcohol as a whole for one person's stupid mistake. You keep saying I'm immature, but you seem to be pretty immature yourself. You don't seem to realize that the cause of all these alcohol-related problems isn't the alcohol itself, but the person who is abusing it. It is entirely possible to drink alcohol and not experience any of the problems you listed. Alcohol isn't the problem; people are the problem.

I am actually always considered many times more mature then a typical teenager. People that only hear me talk believe that I am way into my twenties, sometimes thirties, so don't give me that. Of course I know other things happened, I'm not an idiot. But had they not been drunk, it never would have happened. She had no other problems when she killed herself. She was drunk. If that driver hadn't been drinking, I'd still have my cousin. There's actually a lot of people in my town who would have a lot more people. Drinking underage is NOT okay, no matter what you say. You only believe that it is because you did it. I am telling you from both a medical and emotional point of view, it's not a good idea. Please, tell me, why do you find it worth it do drink underage? What did it accomplish in your life?

Alright, since you seem to be so hell bent on telling my why alcohol is bad I'll tell you why I think it's GOOD. I met my current boyfriend while drunk. I'm a shy person and I never would've been able to go up to him and talk to him if I'd been sober. Now we've been together almost two years and he is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He makes me happier than anything else in the world. If I hadn't been drinking that night we never would've ended up together. I'd probably still be single and a lot less happy than I am now.

See, that doesn't work on me. I'm the kind of person that believes that if its meant to be, it would have happened anyway. I'm horribly shy, but I have a boyfriend and I didn't need alcohol.

Well that's great for you, but not every shy girl is lucky enough that the guy they like makes the first move. Sometimes you have to go up to them yourself. And in my case the only reason I was able to do that was because I'd had a few drinks to calm my nerves.

I have more then some nerves. I have horrible anxiety, OCD, and major self esteem issues cause by health issues and abusive past experiences. There's people I've had classes with for four years straight that I can't bring myself to talk to. And guess what? He didn't make the first move. Alcohol is not a driving factor in life. Society is able to function without it, people just aren't willing.

I still don't understand why you hate alcohol so much though. I just gave you one example of how it can be used for good and you completely ignored it. I'm done arguing with you, you've obviously been brainwashed since you're making all these assumptions about alcohol when you've never even tried it.

It's not assumptions when there's studies to prove what I've said. I just proved you wrong.

Lol, you didn't 'prove' anything. All you did is regurgitate a bunch of information you heard. That's not how a debate works. In order to prove something you need to provide references (preferably to peer-reviewed medical journals). I've done a quick google search to see if I could find anything about alcohol's effect on the brain and every article I've found explicitly says BINGE drinking, which is not what I'm talking about. If you can find an article that says "Having 4-5 drinks in one night will harm your brain" then feel free to share.

So #37, I agree with some of what you have said, but I have to call you out on something: I am 23 and a responsible adult, and I cannot stand wine. I prefer rum, whiskey, bourbon, or margaritas on occasion. I also do not drink only during dinnertime. Sometimes I meet with friends to drink and watch TV or play games, and sometimes I have a drink for lunch on my days off. Now, according to your post, anything other than a glass of wine at dinner would make me an irresponsible adult, and this is not the case. Frankly, if I am not driving, working, or causing any problems for anyone else, I'll drink what I please, when I please, and I'll thank you not to tell me I am irresponsible for it.

179- I wasn't saying every drink is wrong. It was an example of a responsible situation. Anyway, in this debate, I am the affirmatgive, you the negative. The only two arguments that you've used is that you've done it, and your boyfriend. The first one doesn't mean anything in a debate, and I destroyed the second. I'm not just repeating random information. I'm telling you what I've learned from many places over the years. And the brain scans? We looked at them and talked about the in my psychology and sociology classes. It's not just binge drinking. ANY drinking harms the brain, especially a younger age. Maybe you should look harder

"You're saying it's okay to break the law." Well... laws are not the truth. They can change, you know. I care more about the psychic and physical damage alcohol (when drinking too much of it!) makes on a minor's body than about breaking the law. By which I want to say that you've made some very good arguments, but 'Oh noez, don't break the law!' isn't one of them. "You're saying that having a couple hours of 'fun', where you most likely make yourself look stupid, end up with a killer headache, and don't remember it later, is more important then your health." But why do you immediately assume that everyone who drinks a beer will end up completely wasted? I've never been wasted in my life, eventhough I drank my first beer at a very young age. To be honest, I think you have seen too many negative effects of alcohol in your surroundings that you can't see the difference between having a jolly good time with a beer and being an addicted moron who decides it's a jolly good idea to drive drunk.

No. If her mother can ground her, chances are she's underage.

Why would you think that she has to be 21 to get drunk? She's most likely a teenager. Have you never heard of underage drinking before?

I think 40 was trying to make a joke, but lived up to his name instead.

The drinking age in Saskatchewan is actually 19

40 must be a saint!