| August 19, 2008 Unlikely group pushes to lower drinking age
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(NECN: Josh McElveen, Boston, Mass.) - A group of college presidents think the current drinking age is too high. They are calling on lawmakers to lower the drinking age to 18.
It has been 24 years since Congress passed legislation basically requiring states to raise the legal drinking age to 21. Those that failed to comply were threatened with the loss of federal highway dollars.
In 1988, Wyoming became the last state to raise the minimum to age 21.
Now, two decades later, there is a push to bring it back to 18 and leading the charge -- a surprising spearhead -- as no less than 100 presidents of universities and colleges say the reduction may ease the problem of binge drinking on campus.
They are calling it the "Amethyst Initiative."
From Duke to Dartmouth, university heads are calling for a national forum on the topic. On Tuesday, Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow released a statement, calling "student drinking a grave concern" and that he "supports such objective discussion and the efforts of many groups that are seeking effective solutions to a serious problem."
Dave Deulis, the spokesman for the Boston chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, says "we think that lowering the drinking age is bad public policy."
The thinking on the part of many advocates of lowering the drinking age is that by doing so, it removes the mystique of doing it, thus making it less appealing. But, many who went to school when ti was legal
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