New York - The debate is raging hot across America everywhere between the local office water cooler to national forums like major 24 hour news networks.

The United States legal drinking age of 21 has been in place in all 50 states since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, but recently a group called the Amethyst Initiative has brought fresh debate and challenge to the law.

The group had by this most recent Friday gathered 129 highly placed college officials who signed a petition calling for national law makers to "revist" the drinking age of 21.

The United States has the highest drinking age in the world just above Japan and Iceland, and yet we have some of the highest incidents of accidents and deaths associated with binge drinking and other underage drinking incidents.

The Amethyst Initative and their supporters point to social experiments like the Prohibition period to show that morality based legislation such as the minimum drinking age is ineffective for practical purposes. They say that drinking laws only force young adults to private parties and homes where they drink unsupervised, and that due to an inexperience or appropiate examples of restraint, such parties often go all too far.

Those who support lowering the drinking age to 18 often cite the other very adult responsibilities that young people of that age have. A common argument is that an 18 year old is mature enough to serve in the military, vote in national elections, and sign your own binding contracts, so why should they not also be allowed to drink?

Opponents of the plan say that it sends the wrong message to young people, and is further evidence of the degeneration of core conservative values that many see as the foundation of a family friendly society.

There has been no current legislation introduced that would lower the legal drinking age, and groups like the Amethyst Initative meet with strong opposition from right-wing conservative groups and many family values establishments.

The debate, it seems, rages on.