Would Lowering the Drinking Age Curb Bingeing on Campus?

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Twenty-four years ago the feds put the hammer to states to raise their legal drinking age to 21 from 18 as a way to cut drunk-driving deaths. But now more than 100 college presidents and chancellors have signed a statement calling for politicians to consider lowering the drinking age in the face of widespread flouting of the law and a wave of dangerous binge drinking on campuses around the country. “Who in the world is going to stand up against Mothers Against Drunk Driving? It would be like standing up against motherhood and apple pie,” James F. Jones Jr., president of Trinity College, told the Hartford Courant. But the current drinking age “is counterproductive because it simply fosters this counterculture of binge drinking, which is epidemic at colleges.” Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer. Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18?