College Heads Unite to Debate Drinking Age

The pursuit of an 18-year-old drinking age saw new light today, as more than 100 college presidents called on lawmakers to reconsider the current minimum. The movement is called the Amethyst Initiative, which is named after the gem the ancient Greeks credited for warding off drunkenness. It contends that the "21-year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses."

The group has been quietly gaining ground over the past year, recruiting presidents and chancellors to sign on to its mission of provoking debate about the drinking age, and it now plans to take out newspaper ads over the next few weeks.

Critics of the initiative include Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who accuse the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD even goes as far as warning parents to think about the safety at colleges represented on the list, the Associated Press reports.

Prominent universities on the list include Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Morehouse, Ohio State, Spelman, Syracuse, and Maryland.

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