How old were you when you first tried alcohol?

[Ianspeed]

The more experience you have (with driving ?nd alcohol), the better you can cope with the effects. It's not that I'd recommend it, but there is a difference. Drunk experienced drivers can rely on built-in reflexes, where an unexperienced driver can't.

CyberMonkey FTW! :? Please tell me I'm missing the sarcasm.

 

[Devon]

It's simple - If you Drink and Drive, you're a bloody idiot!

 

[chvvkumar]

I STILL don't drink and im 24

 

[TC]

You can get a DUI for driving after shot of NyQuil, but that doesn't mean you're drunk and impaired. I actually feel sorry for people who get DUI's... well, some of them anyway. A friend of mine was driving home one night and stopped at a traffic light. Some moron in an SUV rear ended him at 60mph. When the cops showed up and wrote the report, they smelled beer on his breath and gave him a DUI. The person who caused the accident and could have killed someone walked away with a petty citation, while my buddy had to go through hell for the next couple of years.

 

[targa_997]

The more experience you have (with driving ?nd alcohol), the better you can cope with the effects. It's not that I'd recommend it, but there is a difference. Drunk experienced drivers can rely on built-in reflexes, where an unexperienced driver can't.

The craziest thing is that he's right. In comparison, someone who drive for the first times while being just a little merry by 3 glasses will have a tendency to drive quick, especially if he isn't alone he'll try to impress his friends, then exceed the limits as he won't be able to realize that (because of alcohol), and crash. When I look on the local newspapers in France, most of the 18-25 who crashed driving too fast on weekend's nights are just above the limit (within 0.8 and 1.05 g/L).

I do not recommend it as well, your reflexes are still strongly diminished by alcohol, so even if you don't make a mistake while driving, you probably won't be able to avoid another driver's mistake.

 

[KaJuN]

But a 40-yo knows when he is too drunk too drive, whereas an 18-yo doesn't. that is why you need to put that high penalties on drunk driving for younger people to really scare them off.

The better solution would be to toughen the penalties all around to scare everyone off from drunk driving. Our country is especially bad for repeat offenders. I saw on the news once that a drunk driver in his 40's killed 2 college students. It was his 12th offence.

As far as getting better at driving as you get older, I disagree with that too. Whenever I get cut off or am on the receiving end of idiot driving, it's never someone young. It's usually the middle-age guy going to/from work. That or the typical soccer mom. Younger drivers are sharper for having just gone through the testing process. I think road safety would improve dramatically if everyone had to retake their driving test every 5 years or so. Too many people have forgotten how to drive safely. I admit that I do kinda stupid things now that I never would have done when I first got my license.

 

[CyberMonkey]

CyberMonkey FTW! :? Please tell me I'm missing the sarcasm.

Read the reply of targa_997, he understands what I mean. Again, I'm not recommanding at all to drive under influence... But more experienced people know the roads better, know their car better, and most of all know themselves better.
I'm mainly talking about the fact that it are ALWAYS young drivers who crash their car at ridiculous speed against some tree in the weekends. And though the lack of experience isn't the only reason, it's a damn important one.

Oh, and I know insurance companies are evil?, but they are not stupid. And that's the reason why insurances for new drivers are hugely expensive. Is that because statistics tell those companies that new drivers are as accident-free as more experienced drivers? I didn't think so.

But off course you have to take some other things in consideration, like the time of the day, and the roads you have to take. Driving home drunk on the highway for a couple of hours is just plain stupid, and terribly dangerous since you have to drive at a minimal speed. Driving home drunk on some small roads at two o'clock at night isn't really risky if you know the roads and drive slowly.

Maybe my opinion is a bit too specific since I have only experience with those small roads and seldom have to take highways or crowded cities to get somewhere I want.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

being that i trained heavily for swimming i didnt have a proper serious drink until i was about 17 - roughly the same time as i put swimming on the back burner.

with swimming and school takin up most of my time, i didnt have time to go out and i didnt have time to make money to buy beer! though at 17 with learning to drive i also landed a few jobs so i could afford teh beers in the pub.

since then though its never really caught on with me. my mates will saturate themselves with lots of alcohol fairly regularly, they see alcohol as the only way to go out and have fun, and to an extent its true...daft shit happens when drunk!

i dont go out as freqyuently as them and when i do i settle for a few pints, and couple of cokes because i know that in the morning i shall have to get up and be attentive in my lectures. though at the end of exam time i will go out with them and get hammered...its just gotta be done. tequila slammers FTW

 

[Bundesautobahn]

I actually hardly ever drink alcohol, but first time was around 12 or something. It was only a sip but it does count.

Maybe i still have to grow in it, but i don't really like alcohol if you take my meaning. Ofcourse mixing it with non-alcoholic things make it quite tasty.

 

[Paddy]

You are a disgrace! You have some of the best beer in the world, you get it CHEAP, and you don't drink it?!

It is in my hole cheap ! lol!

i do not believe you for a second. But if you are irish than you don't consider anything less than kerozine as alcohol. In that case i believe you.
Irish mothers have beer come out of their tities. And beer is considered alcohol in most countries you know.

As a strange sidenote, my great gran drank two bottles of Powers Whiskey a week and lived until 104. Suppose I should start now to catch up with her ... 8)

Ok, so we need to find about five more Irish guys like him so we can all double our intake.

I can assure you, I know loads of folk who have never drank before, I personally find there to be an embarassing drinking cultre here, people dont know when to stop. I've always found it amusing that the Irish are glad to play up to their stereotypes, imagine if Americans all became obese and stupid overnight, I doubt they'd be proud of it and I would be shocked if they bragged about it !

 

[Donington]

It's simple - If you Drink and Drive, you're a bloody idiot!

 

[LP]

I was 16 when i had my first swig of beer in New Zealand (on a visit).
After that I never had it again until ~3 years ago (when i was 18 ) when I had 2 shots of tequila and whiskey.
And then ever since then I've been drinking everything

 

[Davetouch]

I'm a bit of a latecomer if you want to think of it in some ways. First alcohol must have been about 5-6yrs old, which would have been beer or wine, both of which I mostly hate.

Currently I haven't ever been properly drunk, just quite happy/tippsy...:?

I also like Cider (esp. Blackthorn) and the usual alco-pops which my parents seem to think will get me drunk.

 

[Red_Bull]

Whats with Russians and vodka?It's like every Russian has to drink it,and it doesn't even taste that good..:?

Vodka is the most vile stuff you can drink. I'll make this quick because it's bringing back memories of last night and I'm starting to feel sick again thinking about it. The first time I tried alcohol would've been in primary school when a friend brought some Bundy rum along in a coke bottle. We got caught, but no punishment! Well, we all got sentenced to two hours school service, which I never completed. The embarrassment of having to 'fess up to my dad was pretty bad though, and punishment enough.

 

[geeman]

I was 16. Never was a heavy drinker and the most amount of my drinking happened after I turned 18 (legal to buy). Now I don't drink much at all. Just some occasional fine whisky or beer now and then without an intention to get drunk.

 

[Tweeke]

I was probably 14 or 15 when I had my first beer. I liked the taste of it from the start. Later, I began to appreciate the taste of wine too. I'm not really into stronger stuff, although I do like Ouzo (and Raki, but that's basically the same).

 

[Austere]

I'd had sips of other peoples drinks when I was little but I didn't have my own drink until I was 17... almost 18. I can't remember the very fisrt sip I had. I think I must have been about 6 or 7... or 8...

My favourite drink is Listerine.

 

[Top Geek]

Never. It smells absolutely revolting, I can't see how it could taste any better.

 

[Vette Boss]

^ Stop smelling American beer.

 

[IceBone]

We were moving house and my mum bought a bunch of beers for the movers, i found a freshly opened bottle, drank it and woke up at the new place.

I was 5.

XD


Started properly drinking in high school, cause a bunch of my classmates' parents own vineyards and produce and sell their own wine, so we'd get some just about every day. Was especially fun during German class. Brought a 10 litre tankard with a long pipe that could go all around the classroom into a class of 15 people. By the end of the period it was empty. You try drinking white (or red) wine through a straw. Will fucking waste you after three tugs.

Good times...