h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Actually, I was thinking that everyone could get their kiddies psycologically dependent on the NyQuil. That way, they go right for it as soon as they're done with their homework. What's a bad taste when the alternative is getting the jitters and nausea?

Best part about this: the junkie kids will sleep through anything. And everyone will say that the little tykes are soooo well behaved.



-jb

Personally, I think the most scary drug administered to children is... ah... I can't remember it. It's the one they use to treat Attention Deficit Disorder... kills the imagination of the children.
Makes them nice and stable and 'normal' and dull and sleepy. So they have to take stimulants. So they have to take sleeping pills...

My brother was on something similar for a while. Tegratol Ratard it was called. Also given to people who suffer from Epilepsy.

Perhaps you are thinking of Ritalin, The Cow. It is the most commonly prescribed drug for ADD. There is a new class action lawsuit in the US that claims that the drug's manufacturer and the American Psychiatrists Association colluded to increase the percentage of children diagnosed with ADD for profit-making reasons.

That's the one. I realised that most of my friends could easily be on Ritalin, when I saw a documentary on it. Most of them got 3 a's or b's at alevel...

I have three friends whose children are on Ritalin. Two of the children have ADD and autism and the third has ADD and learning difficulties. My son has autism, but fortunately, doesn't require Ritalin.

Admittedly Ritalin does seem to be helping the children who are being closely monitored.

That scandal about the doctors and drug company co-operating to make a profit on use of Ritalin is scary though...

Right, well here is a slgtly different perspective on the issue. I am under 21, im English and i ave been drinking at home since i was very little. Anyway to me it is not a problem, i am not dependant on the stuff, not by a long way, but alcoholic drinks are some of my favorites - for taste not high % content. I have spent enough time in France as well to realise that there is not as much alcohol abuse there as England and far less than in the US. I have also notied that the draconian laws in the US that forbid anybody under 21 to drink; anywhere mean that there is a certain WOW! factor at people who do drink under age, which cannot be good. If you just let people drink if they want to, and teach children the values of drinking for pleasure rather than to get drunk (as an aside it is always much harder to get drunk if you intend to - any comments?) then you would remove the mysticism. At the end of the day drinking is sociable, pleasurable and a part of modern society. On the other hand, chasing, alcohol induced gastric pyrotechnics and a late night stomach pump down in intetive care are not.

Too true. I've been allowed to drink since I was young, my family never put any mysticism on it. And although I'm kinda known for drinking too much, I don't drink anywhere near as much as people think. Also I don't suffer from hangovers anymore.
People really ought to be allowed to make up their own minds as to whether they can drink or not. You'll always get people who will abuse any form of drug but preventing others from experiencing the ones that aren't majorly harmful isn't the way to go about controlling it.

Anyway what magic thing happens to children in England when they are 18 that only happens to children in the US when they are 21 that makes it alrite for them to drink?

I used to manage in the bar trade, and I've knowingly served people who were under 18, simply because I knew them to be responsible drinkers, and I've also knowing refused people over 18 simple because I knew them to be idiots with regards to alcohol.
Unfortunatly we don't all grow up, as it were, at the same age. But when the laws were made 18 was an average. Unfortunatly again, theyhaven't reviewed to laws recently.

I would argue though that age matters far less than the kind of person you are. The only justifiable reason could be on body mass, but then my 12yr old bro is about twice the size of one of the Lauras i know, who is 18. Anyway even on that it would be around 14 or 15 because by that point youve basically finished growing vertically. Your character, however, will stay with you and some1 who will abuse drink under 18 wil abuse it over 18 anyway, so I do not see the distinction.

Balls - If you have a 16yr old, 12yr old, 23yr old, 43yr old going out for a drink - more than one they're going to get tipsey are as likely to behave badly, drink drive, vandal, be noisy/ nuicance as each other. The age of drinking lawfully is 18, this isn't to stop young kids from having a good time - it's to stop kids wasting there time sitting in a bar drinking toxic liquids that at best leads to unusal behaviour and worst leads to vomiting and abuse by others/violence. Come on guys drinking is the biggest waste of money, health and time. I'm a drinker and i've led a nice pleasant life sober but when I get a drink into me i'm turned into one of societies dreges - and so are all the other weekend drinkers I meet/know!

B******s, Wandawoman! Maybe all the 'weekend drinkers' that *you* know turn into societies dregs after a few drinks, but to infer from that that *all* weekend drinkers are the same is complete rubbish. It's down to the individual. Some (most, *I* think) will only drink the amount they can cope with, and will still behave reasonably at the end of the night. It's down to the level of 'maturity' of each person. When I was in my late teens (16 onwards), a lot of the boys I knew thought it was a big thing to go out and get drunk. The girls, too, would get drunk at parties - again, because that was 'the thing to do'. As they matured, they grew out of it (mostly).

The legal drinking age was set at 18 because, in the eyes of the Government, children are not old enough to cope with alcohol, or moderate their use of it. It is *not* to stop kids wasting their time in bars. I agree that reaching that age is no guarantee that a person will be able to cope, or moderate their consumption. However, I *do* feel that parents can take a lot of the 'mystique' away from alcohol by gradually introducing children to it *before* they hit the 'legal' drinking age. This is what my parents did. I had sips of cider when I was 4 or 5 (to help me get back to sleep if I woke up during the night and went down to see mum and dad). I had watered wine at Christmas from the age of 9 or 10, beer (at home only) and wine (unwatered) from 14, and spirits from about 16. By the time I was *legally* allowed to drink, I didn't think
anything of it. My medical notes at my doctor list me as an 'occasional drinker'. I am what you call a 'weekend drinker' - usually at home and no more than a couple of glasses of wine. If I go out and drink beer, it's no more than a couple of half-pints - well within what I can cope with. So don't tar all weekend drinkers with the same brush.

Well it depends, if u call me a weekend drinker then surely i cant hold drink? doesnt follow, on the other hand i know more regular drinkers that i can outmatch.

What this all boils down to is self discipline, knowing your limits, and what better place 2 learn than in the safety of your own home?

Come on - your parents gave you booze to calm yourself down as a child, no doubt a glass of wine calms you down after a stressful day now. I bet a good bottle of Red helps when you split up with someone, and when your boss speaks badly to you and work p****es you of, a few bottles sorts you out a treat. Mind you when you're out on the town and you see someone you fancy, a couple of beers helps with the courage, however when they say they're married a few more beers takes the sting. So you got a bit mouthy with that guy that bumped into you, and the woman that spilt the drink on you deserved to be screamed at. But hey the taxi home gave you the bad stomach that made you throw up. And when you woke in the morning that headach and furry mouth means you're coming down with the flu. Yeah I agree with you Dragon, if a kid is feeling scared a few swigs of something 30% proof helps a treat.

You can see my point. I was brought up in a household where smoking and drinking were permitted - but as a woman in my late 20s I look back and see that drinking never helped me - One Bit. It's a waste of money and time, it spoils work relationships and destroys chances of good relationships - ie what lady would sleep with a guy so quickly if she was sober?

I've never resorted to alcohol of any kind after a bad day. Believe me, I've had some - at one time I worked for someone who became the first person I seriously wished dead. But I never drank when I got home. Alcohol is strictly for Friday and Saturday nights, as I have to drive to work and refuse to drive with the slightest trace of alcohol in my system.

Cider is *not* 30% proof, and it was not to 'calm me down'. Besides what effect is a sip (and I *mean* a sip) going to have, even on a 4 year-old. And between the ages of about 5 and 9, I never tasted alcohol, and when I was 9 it was watered wine with Christmas dinner, (i.e., once a year!) I was about 14 before I had alcohol more often than that, and rhen it was always under 'parental supervision' at home.

Smoking and drinking were permitted in my family, too. I never felt the slightest inclination to smoke, and I drink to relax and because I enjoy it. Drinking to excess will spoil any relationship, work or personal. And if a woman sleeps with a man when she's drunk, she's not going to enjoy it, so why bother. As far as I'm concerned, drinking in moderation is fine, and anything that gives pleasure is not a waste of money. As most of my drinking is done at home, and as I'm often doing something else at the same time (reading, watching TV, whatever), it's not a waste of time. And there are people who do have a drink after a bad day and don't end up drunk.

As I said before, not everybody that drinks is a drunkard. Not everybody that has more than two or three drinks looses control and becomes a menace to society. Don't think in terms of 'alcohol never helped me' - that's not what it's there for. Don't drink, if you don't enjoy it or don't enjoy the after-effects. As for those of us that do enjoy a drink, know our limits and can cope - cut us a little slack, lighten up, get a life, whatever!

You make your point well, and as a responsible adult I agree, but the subject being 'Allowing kids to drink' and having liberal ideas - agreeing to this point is something I won't do.

14yr olds generally have the minimum of lifes strains and stresses yet are overwhelmed! Why? Puberty, innocence! I think if we made the general rule that kiddies could drink, you wouldn't help society, you'd harm it. It's bad enough with Alcoholism, Smoking and bad living in adults - why shove it on kids?

Yeas I agree that when I was that age I got frustrated that I suddenly had all this stress thrust on me with prper exams, serious work and everything while i still wasnt allowed any of societies releases, but I learned later that it gets much worse so ur better to save them up.

The 'releases' also have side effects, which, on ppl of a young age, are not worth it.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating widespread under-age drinking. I do *not* advocate telling kids that alcohol is a great way to cope with stressful situations, 'cos it isn't. What I am advocating is introducing children to alcohol in small quantities in a controlled way. This is what my parents did, with the result that alcohol was never a big thing for me, and I never felt the need to show I was an adult by going out and getting drunk, the way a lot of teenagers I knew did. We always had alcoholic drinks in the house, mostly beer, but I never went near it except at weekends, and only if my parents invited me to have a drink with them, which didn't happen that often. I didn't drink beer in pubs 'til I was 16.

I appreciate that, in some households, keeping alcohol in the house is asking for trouble as the children, for whatever reason, have come to regard drinking as a means of coping with stress. (I'm not a sociologist, so I'm not able to comment on how or why this happens - except for the good old 'blame the parents' or 'blame society'.) I appreciate that there is growing concern over under-age drinking, but where are the kids getting the drink from? Surely some of the blame should be placed on the money-grubbing sods who are prepared to sell booze to youngsters who (mostly) are obviously under-age.

If you read back over some of the previous postings in this thread you will find that I'm not alone in suggesting that youngsters should be introduced to alcohol in a *controlled* way, i.e., at home. I don't think anybody who posted to this thread seriously thinks that lowering the legal age for drinking is a good idea, though.