Author Topic: A lower legal drinking age saves lives  (Read 2905 times)

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Offline Oscar

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A lower legal drinking age saves lives
« on: April 20, 2010, 04:11:42 AM »
Today we saw this headline in our newspapers: Young Danes die from drink, by Julian Isherwood, Politiken, April 20 2010

Quote
Some 25 young Danes have died from excessive drinking in the past seven years.

A new report from the Danish Board of Health shows that some 25 young people between the ages of 15 – 29 have died from excessive drinking in the past seven years and on one year alone – 2008 – 3,000 young people went to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

“These are worrying figures,” says Board of Health Department Head Mia Fischermann, adding that the figures once again show that Danish youth has the unfortunate European drinking record.

“Young people in Northern Europe do not drink as often as young people in Southern Europe – but they drink more when they do drink,” she says.

“Danish youth differs from other northern European youth in that they drink more often – and when they do drink, they drink the most,” Fischermann adds.

Northern Jutland
The Board’s figures also show that teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 are admitted to emergency wards as a result of alcohol twice as often as the 20-29 age group, and much more than older groups.

Another table in the report shows that northern Jutlanders generally drink less than other Danes – but that the youngest from this area break the trend and are admitted as much as in other parts of the country.

“It seems that young people across the country have the same sort of drinking culture,” Fischermann says.

Drink most in Europe
Figures from a European report have previously shown that half of Danish 15 and 16 year olds said they had been drunk in the 30 days previous to being canvassed, a far higher proportion than young people in other European countries.

Legal age
Although alcohol consumption among young people appears to have fallen slightly, the government is preparing to raise the legal age at which young people can buy alcoholic beverages stronger than beer from 16 to 18 years of age.

But Liberal Party Prevention Spokeswoman Sophie Løhde says bans are not the way forward.

“We cannot ban ourselves out of every problem and we have to do something about this. I often hear people say that it’s the neighbour’s boy who drinks. But it can’t always be him,” she says.

“We have to do more to get young people and teachers to reflect more on what is acceptable at their High School parties,” she adds.

The Board of Health’s figures do show major differences between local council areas, with Oddsherred Council the area with most admissions.

“They call us the country bumpkin council, we have low employment and social problems. Many young people are apparently unable to get together and believe that they are good enough without drinking themselves silly. It seems that social competences have broken down,” says Oddsherred Council Abuse Consultant Jan Herforth.

So the conclusion is that every year 3-4 people die from binge drinking when the agelimit is 16. It is one person out of 1,250,000.

But the Boston University’s School of Public Health published a report that 1,400 died per year in the United States due to alcohol-intake. Considering that the population is about 309,000,000 it means that one person out of 221,000 will die if the agelimit is 21.

The conclusion the Danish Institute for finer Cuisine came to is that a lower agelimit on alcohol saves lives.

What is your opinion in that matter?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Whooter

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Re: A lower legal drinking age saves lives
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2010, 08:46:29 AM »
Quote from: "Oscar"

So the conclusion is that every year 3-4 people die from binge drinking when the agelimit is 16. It is one person out of 1,250,000.

But the Boston University’s School of Public Health published a report that 1,400 died per year in the United States due to alcohol-intake. Considering that the population is about 309,000,000 it means that one person out of 221,000 will die if the agelimit is 21.

The conclusion the Danish Institute for finer Cuisine came to is that a lower agelimit on alcohol saves lives.

What is your opinion in that matter?

Oscar, at one point your sources base their argument on data collected from a single  month in 2004.  The is equivalent to me saying programs are safer because I compared the number of deaths during the month of April, 1999 when 12 kids died in a single public school versus none in programs.

You linked to an article which talked about drinking among 15 – 19 year olds and then compared it to deaths which occurred across the spectrum in the United States arguing that the death rate from alcohol would increase among young people if they were denied alcohol.

Much of the energy from this thinking comes from a blog you linked to which refers to MADD as an “American Christian movement which has imprisoned our youth”.  MADD was started by an Arab woman and has nothing to do with religion or Christianity.  It’s a bunch of mothers trying to put laws in place to protect our young people.

From what I have read:  "The Board’s figures also show that teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 are admitted to emergency wards as a result of alcohol twice as often as the 20-29 age group, and much more than older groups.”  

Oscar, I am not arguing that raising or lowering the drinking age in your country would be effective but based on the studies done in your country this portion of the population seems to be particularly at risk and the people of your country should sit up and take notice of this information and not ignore it.



...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anne Bonney

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Re: A lower legal drinking age saves lives
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2010, 10:15:50 AM »
Quote from: "Whooter"

Much of the energy from this thinking comes from a blog you linked to which refers to MADD as an “American Christian movement which has imprisoned our youth”.  MADD was started by an Arab woman and has nothing to do with religion or Christianity.  It’s a bunch of mothers trying to put laws in place to protect our young people.

Candy Lightner is part Lebonese, but that really has nothing to do with anything.  She left MADD because it became more about prohibition and she's right.  To quote her, "has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving".  MADD has a long history of controversial influence over the courts.  http://news.lawreader.com/?p=1611.  It actually pays individuals $40k/year to "monitor" not only the court, but the judges and lawyers themselves http://www.friscodwilawyer.com/2007/07/ ... -monitors/ .  They've shifted a lot of their focus onto raising the drinking age, instead of what it's original purpose was....to deal with drunk driving. http://www.alcoholfacts.org/ReputationOfMADD.html

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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