Drinking while young.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS

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The argument goes like this: Our current drinking age forces young people to drink in private, so binge drinking of serious alcohol is on the rise and can be deadly. Lower the drinking age, and kids will choose to drink low-alcohol beer openly--and safely.

Teenagers want to drink because it's a "forbidden fruit." If drinking alcohol were legal at 18, proponents of lowering the drinking age argue, it wouldn't be such a big deal, and those under 21 would be less likely to drink. Lawmakers in Minnesota and Vermont have considered this reasoning recently. And citizens in Missouri and South Dakota may be looking at initiatives on the issue.

"We hold our young men and women up as adults when it comes to paying taxes or entering into contracts. We expect them to take up arms at home and abroad in defense of themselves and their nation," says lawyer N. Bob Pesall, author of the South Dakota initiative. "We put their lives in harm's way overseas, but at home we do not trust them to enjoy a cold beer. This is simply wrong."

But opponents don't buy these arguments. Since Congress passed the Uniform Drinking Age Act in 1984, traffic fatalities involving drivers aged 18 to 20 have been cut by 13 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "We welcome the attention to the drinking age," says...