How old is old enough?

How old is old enough to drink? That's the topic of a big ol' story the Chicago Tribune published Sunday. It looks at movements in several states to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to as low as 18.

The proposals vary from state to state - in South Dakota, petitioners want to allow 19- and 20-year-olds to buy beer with no more than 3.2 percent alcohol, while those in Missouri want simply to open alcohol sales to anyone 18 and older. Some folks in Vermont would like the age lowered to 18 for young people who take alcohol-education classes. In South Carolina and Wisconsin, lawmakers have proposed allowing anyone in the military under age 21 to buy alcohol, reasoning that if they're old enough to die for their country they're old enough to have a beer.

Obviously, there are plenty of people opposed to these efforts. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the American Medical Association, National Transportation Safety Board and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety all point to reduced traffic fatalities in the decades after Congress coaxed states into raising their drinking ages to 21 by tying the issue to highway construction money.

There's an interesting graphic with the Tribune story that shows each state's legal drinking age in 1984 when Congress began pushing states to go to 21. In Alabama, you could drink at age 19.

I'm a little surprised by all this. I wasn't aware there were so many people agitating to lower the drinking age. I'm sorta sympathetic to the logic of the cause. (If you're an adult, you're an adult, right?) But the impact on traffic deaths is hard to ignore. What do you think?