Nearly 100 college presidents have signed the Amethyst Initiative, asking government to consider lowering the legal drinking age to 18 from 21. The United States is probably the only developed country with a minimum drinking age higher than 18, set in 1984 by the Congress through the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which denies ten percent of highway funds to states allowing drinking under 21.

The initiative was apparently kicked off by former Middlebury College President John McCardell. However, it is hard to imagine that the proposal has any chance with lawmakers, given that in October, during a debate of Democratic presidential hopefuls, only two lawmakers, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, support the lowering of drinking age. Obama does not.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving alleges that lowering the minimum drinking age from 21 to 18 will lead to more drunken crashes, but the Amethyst Initiative supporters claim that, instead, will encourage students to become responsible, underlining that, in fact, the law does not stop college students from drinking. Amethyst is the gemstone that ancient Greeks believed warded off drunkenness.

It is hard to say whether lowering the drinking age will have benefits or not. It would be interesting to obtain data from Europe, where the legal drinking age and driving age is most often 18.