I'm just wondering what everyone thinks of drinking. I was always against drinking, but last night I had a bit of alcohol at a party. I guess I think it's okay to drink (underage) if you're mature about it and don't drink for the sake of getting completely wasted.

PLEASE don't turn this into a flame war. We all have opinions, they are not all the same.

Im a social drinker!
Every time a person says "i'll have a drink" I say
"So shall I!"

:p


a cookie to anyone who knows where thats from.

Is this about underage drinking or just in general? I voted based on in general. Underage drinking...I've heard some good arguments to lower the drinking age to 18. I really dont see the need for high school kids to be getting drunk. Do people really think you have to get piss drunk all the time to be "cool"?

I drink fairly regularly, but not to get hammered. Most of the time, it's a couple of beers on the weekend. I do get wasted every now and then though.

"It's not for me, but it's fine for other people to do it."

I don't really like how the stuff tastes, and if I'm going to run the chance of getting brutally murdered by my parents, it should at least be for something I love. like chocolate. besides, I have a good time without it, the way my freinds and I talk sometimes, you could never tell we were all sober :). that and the whole twice-the-risk-because-I'm-diabetic thing.

but those are just my personal reasons why not (suming it all up: I don't feel like it), I have lots of close friends who are into that scene. whatever floats your boat, as long as they aren't drinking themselves to death, I don't have a problem with it.

Drinking is necessary for survival. I endorse it wholeheartedly.

I get intoxicated in various forms quite often.

I don't do it, and I plan not to ever do it.

However, I don't believe I am in a position to prevent others from doing it either. If they want to fill their bodies with poison, then by all means let them fill their bodies with poison.

It's not for me, but it's fine for other people to do it. I used to cut high school to go get drunk, but eventually grew out of it. I don't like feeling like I'm not in control of my body, and am quite capable of having a fine time without drinking. My father was an aloholic throughout most of my childhood and I refuse to do that to my children.

Beer me.

I don't have a drinking problem. I drink, I get drunk, I fall down. No problem.

Where's the "I'm underaged, and not about to risk getting caught" option?

Same here.

/cookie

Close enough.

I only drink with buds and I like to drink only a few so I guess I'm a social drinker. But not to excess.

Where's the option of "I used to drink, but am now waiting until I'm 21, and am not against other people drinking as long as they do so reponsibly"?

I drink socially from time to time.

I'm 21, btw...so it's legal. I never drank underage, and I wouldn't provide alcohol for underage consumption.

where is the 'i don't know' option? i never drank before...no reason to, even tho...i just turned the legal age on friday.

Depends on the alcohol involved, but generally I don't drink. The taste of beer makes me sick, but I like fruit-flavoured vodkas and getting slightly tipsy from time to time.

I started drinking about two years ago, at the age of 16.
I started drinking in the summer. I drank almost every day. It got to the point where I was almost borderline alcoholic.. It was bad. I continued drinking up to the start of school this year. I'm not 18, so that was 2 years of hardcore drinking.

I still love it, there is nothing better than it. I'm always "That guy" at the party, I always drink way to much. But I can handle it, so I just don't pass out and that's it. I'll be up running around, playing games, telling stories, etc. But I'm trying to limit myself in the drinking department. It's really depressing, I think I got addicted to it. . I want to so badly but I somehow manage not to.

It's great, but it can easily turn into a bad habit.

You get problems of drinking, you suck.

I drink. A lot.

I drink a lot, but stop when I notice that the world's starting to spin a bit.

i'm a brit, break out the beer in vast quantities

I didn't drink on a party for a change last week, it was not the end of the world strangely

I'm a social drinker, I only get drunk with friends.

Same here! Last year I was drunk, walked into a pole, fell down and vowed at that moment to not drink again until I was 21.

I'm of legal age, and I do drink semi-regularly when at a party or something.

I'd say that the most important thing is to:
1) Do NOT drink alone.
2) Know your limit. (You'll know once you've crossed it, and you won't ever want to cross it again.)
3) Know what effect it has on you.
4) It's not a contest. Everyone has their own pace. Don't let people force you to drink if you don't feel like one.

As long as they don't get rowdy or turn into weepy sob-stories, I don't having a few rounds with friends. Seeing as the Uni is in the middle of downtown Helsinki, there's a nice Irish pub close to the campus. It was nice to have a few therapeutic pints there with class-mates after we'd finished all the Christmas exams.

I don't drink. I did get drunk once just after I turned 21, and I never had any alcohol before I turned 21. My main problem with it is that people abuse the stuff directly and indirectly. Countless women are taken advantage of because they drink too much (and if that's not a good reason for a young woman to not drink much at a party, I don't know what is). People drink and drive. People drink and abuse their wives. If people could control themselves, I would have less of a problem with it. Most of these issues aren't a direct result of alcohol, although they are obviously related. I don't think the government should get involved to the point of banning alcohol like some people, but I do strongly believe they should increase the penalties for drinking and driving tenfold.

No, it's reason enough for women to either not go to parties where they they don't know most of the people and don't have any "sober buddies," or to simply stick to parties where they do know and trust most of the people.

I drink quite rarely and never to get wasted. Some drinks just taste really good, and that's a reason enough, in addition to the social value of drinking when the people around you are also drinking.

/cookie

perfect.

I totally agree with Wolfy here, and I don't get intoxicated unless I'm surrounded by people I know and trust. But there was a time when I thought that I was somehow invincible and didn't realise how badly my judgement is affected when I'm drunk.


I have to say, whenever anyone brings up these arguments about alcohol, it just makes me want to ask why other drugs are illegal when alcohol isn't. I'm not necessarily saying let's legalise everything now, but from my experience, alcohol is by far and away the most harmful (in terms of people who die from ODing - though that may just be because so many more people are using it - and also the way people behave on it - drunk driving, fights, loss of bodily control etc). There just doesn't seem to be any logical explanation for alcohol to be considered ok when other drugs aren't.

Personally, I'm somewhere between the last two. I rarely drink during the week, but generally once I've sat down in a pub I won't be leaving until I'm atleast a bit drunk.

Logically, there are reasons, you just have to look for them outside of medical or statistical facts. Purely scientific: It's so easy to make anywhere. Logistic: It's very easy to smuggle or misuse, since it's much needed as a chemical. And last but not least historical facts that apply as well to tobacco.

All are strong logical points of view.

I drink on the weekends usually on Friday or Saturday, sometimes both, sometimes neither. And when I drink I drink to get drunk, which usually means about a mickey of gin/whisky or a six pack of beer.

So yeah i think its fine.

ahh but we once tried prohibition in the US and it didn't work too well

Yes, because once you are legally allowed to drink, all those bad things like walking into poles and puking just magically don't happen...

And the war on (other) drugs IS working well?