It’s too simplistic to dismiss out of hand a call by about 100 college presidents to examine the practicality of the 21-year-old drinking age. It’s also too simplistic to embrace dropping the age to 18, and that’s not what the so-called Amethyst Initiative is about.
Young adults of 18 through 20 have been considered underage drinkers for about 25 years, ever since the federal government threatened to withhold 10 percent of transportation funds to states that did not set the legal drinking age at 21.