The drinking age is 18 here, yet lots of people I know go to parties and get drunk pretty regulary. And yeah, they're thinking about raising the drinking age to 21 (New Zealand), I don't know if its all a good move, 18 years old are going to be more affected by alchohol then a 21 year old, sure. But a 19 year old whos been drinking since they were 18 is probaly going to be more aware of the dangers and the effects of alchohol due to their experiences. I'm not really that sure if thats true, but it made sense to me, anyway :P The statistics may show 18-25 year olds (mostly males) involved in alot of lots of drink-driving accidents, but if the drinking age was raised to 21, would it really do that much? Would 21-25 year old males really change the statistics that much? I do think 18 is a mature enough age to make decisions for themselves, especially as now people are maturing earlier (or so I'm told)... Eh and if that didn't make sense, I was also doing this for ideas for an essay, considering we gotta write an essay argueing if it should be raised or kept the same.....AGAIN! (for like the 3rd year in a row....Get some more orginal topics, jeez :P) (oh yeah, I'm basing this on what I've been told, I don't trust my memory very much, so if I'm wrong, I'm good with that :P)