Unless the cop realizes the name on the license and registration are different.

Why should I have to wait to do something enjoyable. I'm a ******* adult. I should be able to enjoy the same things other adults can. I can be drafted to go get shot at, but I can't enjoy a beer after work. There's something dreadfully wrong with this country. This is more a hypothetical, as I'm 24, so I *can*, but this is my sentiment on under-21s not being allowed to drink legally.

There's something "dreadfully wrong" with you thinking you can be drafted. Pretty sure drafting ended around 1973. So yes, 18 year olds are adults and can get shot at...and they also sign up to do so on their own free will.

Two things: 1) OP never said he was 18. In Massachusetts you can obtain your license at 16 years of age. So he may not be an 'adult'. 2) @deja54: I understand what you mean about 18 vs 21, and those years in between are really 'adult-lite'. You can vote and your parents don't have to give you a place to live (nor do you have to stay with them) but there are some limitations that include alcohol. But, the draft was abolished decades ago...

The draft can still be put back in if they really want.....it's just highly unlikely, I had to sign up for the draft otherwise I would get my driver's license taken away and possibly an extremely large fine if I really tried to avoid it. It's highly unlikely it'll ever be used, but there is still a draft.....

Deja54, I think you fail to realize that there's a reason the drinking age is 21. Your brain isn't fully developed until then, and drinking can cause even more damage when your brain is still growing. Also, people that drink before the legal age have a drastically higher chance of becoming an alcoholic, especially in America where it's always "I want, I want, I want." Honestly, if you can't weigh the long-term consequences of your actions and follow the law, you are NOT an adult, no matter what your biological age is. Anyone who says otherwise is immature. Believe me, there's a HUGE difference between BEING an adult and THINKING you are one.

#36 i think you ignore many facts concerning the world. First off your brain development comment is incorrect your brain does not grow anymore in that it has all neurons at time of birth and should have all mass by that point. The impulse control region may not develop until later but neurologically but within a very large range; its important to remember at this point it is only refining regions destroying less useful remnants which is a mostly complete job and strengthening others. Alcohol is not magic damage and at age 16 even is no where near as influential as it is in earlier teens; it still influences much less than as an adult when your used to drinking, but you still can stand a good amount. Either way thats moot. Your point also lacks the context of that you are considered an adult in every other way in that you can finance yourself enter danger in the military and make life altering decisions which are much more devastating than alcohol. Did everybody forget that the United States' drinking age is one of the highest in the world, being only surpassed by India, at age 25, most averaging 18. You are correct in one aspect that there is a reason the drinking age is 21 and that is politics and really bad theory when reviewing the objective evidence. I know this might be hard for you since this may make you feel confused or scared, but just because someone disagrees with you it doesn't make them immature, and they may have a valid point you may not have thought about.

actually everybody's brain develops at a different pace. Some people as early as 17 and then same as late as 28-30. So 21 isn't the legal age because you're brain stops developing. Plus, in most other countries, binge drinking isn't the norm, such as Germany (16 for beer/wine 18 for spirits) I studied aboard there, myself and all the Americans got shitfaced, the Germans were in control. I know I'm going out to the bars tonight and I'm 20. All my friends or 21 and I don't care cause I have a quality id. Civil disobedience is the best way to change the laws (although this one is of no moral importance...) so stop with all this high and mighty bull. People can make decisions for themselves, let them deal with the consequences.

I know how the brain works, I've taken classes on brain development. I know it's at a different rate for every age, and each individual. I know that 21 is the age that the government determined it was safe to drink, based on professional studies and opinion. I know the brain isn't literally growing to a statistically significant degree, but as I'm sure you know, there are connections being established between the neurons, which directly correlates to intelligence. People are responsible in Germany, and a lot of other places for that matter, but much of America doesn't seem ready for that level of responsibility. Unfortunately much of America disagrees with your civil disobedience, and it's not an effective way of reducing the drinking age. On the other hand, research and correspondence with your elected officials would be a more appropriate (and adult) course of action.

Yes, because "research and correspondence with your elected officials" works. Let's try telling that to the many civil rights movements of the last several decades. Drink on, 20-year old!

"Let's try telling that to the many civil rights movements of the last several decades." ...Umm, when underage drinking gets a spokesman as educated, well spoken, and inspirational as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, then *maybe* you can compare it to any of the past civil rights movements. Until then, it's nothing but a bunch of kids crying about how they can't legally get shit faced right out of high school. People seem to think it's some God-given, inalienable right to be able to drink. It's not. Suck it up and wait the extra 3 years.

Hmm... if on average the brain isn't fully developed on 21, why the hell are we letting 18-year-olds vote? Why are we letting them choose to go to war? Why is that the legal age of sexual consent? Etc... See I think we should either raise the "legal adult" thing or lower the drinking age, because that just makes no damned sense. You're not safely smart enough to drink, but you're smart enough to possibly throw your life away or put an idiot in power or decide yeah that's the person you want to lose your virginity with, all of which are kind of a lot more important and consequential than drinking...? (provided you drink responsibly...) That's just my opinion on it.

As far as I'm concerned, I am legally an adult, and with that I have to take responsibility for my actions. I can join the military, buy a house, buy tobacco, buy lottery tickets, vote, buy a rifle, buy ****, but I can't buy alcohol. If I get arrested for something, the responsibility is not passed on to my parents. I don't give a crap about what age my brain stops developing, I can trash the rest of my body legally.