There is substantial evidence that the uniform minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has resulted in reduced traffic fatalities and numerous other favorable public health outcomes.1–7 Nonetheless, recent discussion in the popular media has focused on whether reconsideration of the uniform MLDA is in order, and at least two state legislatures have studied or considered relaxation of their drinking age laws. 8–11 The credibility of such a proposition is bolstered by the “Amethyst Initiative” in which over 100 presidents of United States colleges and universities have signed onto a statement proposing that the “twenty-one (MLDA) is not working” and that a “culture of dangerous, clandestine ‘binge-drinking’…has developed” at U.S. colleges and universities.12
